A Bee In My Bonnet

The weather has calmed down a bit, but it is still sunny most of the day. Just ask the Wooden Frog that guards the entrance to my daily hangout.

I have been weeding a garden that has been long neglected. Poison oak and ivy run through it. I finally decided to just tackle it and deal with the fall-out. Or break-out, I should say. I wash myself thoroughly in Ivy Wash after every session of weeding. But I still have spots on my ankles and oddly enough on my neck, up to my chin line. I have been keeping the itching at bay with various products. 

I was mowing last week. I mow all the areas that are hard to get to with the big mower. I go under low limbs and will stop frequently to move things and answer the ever-ringing phone. I was mowing around and under the apple tree when I felt something crawling in my hair.

The dermatologist recommended wearing a hat to keep the sun from my healing wound left on my forehead. I patted the hat wear I felt movement and the movement stopped. After about 5 minutes I felt something again. A tick, I thought. I finished the plot of grass I was mowing and pulled the hat off and sent my fingers through my hair in search of a tick. No tick. Seems I had a bee in my bonnet!! I felt quite lucky not to have been stung. I must have disabled his stinger when I squished him by patting my hat.

As the day went on I had a customer come in and ask a thousand questions and buy nothing. I was watering my potted plants and was anxious to continue and left the store right behind him. A wasp literally collided with my neck and stung me. So much for escaping the bee in my bonnet! I grabbed a tube of arthritis relief that has a numbing agent and went on watering.

After I finished that task I was pulling all the spent dead leaves from a tiger lily and just look what I uncovered! There were two of them in a shallow, deep under the leaves of the lily. One hopped over to the tarp I was putting all the weeds on. This one did not object when I picked him up.

 Unfortunately, Martha, the boy cat was at my heels, as he always is when I am working in the gardens and spied the one that got away. I just imagine he was a delicacy for Martha.

A better picture of his face. He was so cute and soft. I gave him to a teen girl here in the park. I don't think my animals would allow him to live in here. I did let the canines sniff him and Cujo nipped at him. I later learned that he got loose and hopped away on his own. Good luck little guy, I hope you went far, far away.... out of the reaches of Martha, the boy cat.