I've had a lot of little surprises lately and so far they have been good ones. I have some great (at least I think they are) pictures to help show some of the ones I happened to be able to get the camera out for.
The 1st one happened while working on my bees. I was taking off the extra hive boxes that are basically empty for the winter. What's interesting about bees is that they will work ever harded to fill up any space that you give them. In my case I was a little slow and didn't get the boxes on in time for them to really get working on them. Earlier in the day I pulled them off and let them sit next to the hives. There were a few bees in each box and I thought since they didn't have any food in these boxes that they would make their way back to the hives when it started to cool off. After it was dark I picked up the boxes and brought them to the house and put them inside.
I was just about to move them to the basement and I noticed the cat playing with a bee on the floor and thought to myself, "there must have been one clinging onto the box and it just fell off". I let this one outside and looked in the box and found that there was more than one bee left in it. My heart almost stopped. There were hundreds of bees left! They were moving very slow because of the cool outside air and their lack of food. Had I not seen the single bee scooting across the floor and looked in the box - would I have had a surpise in the morning when the sun hit the box and it really started to heat up.
I then took the frames with the bees back out to the hive and shook them off the best I could right in front of the entrance. A lot of them were still there in the morning dead. It made me sort of sad for the little guys, but many of them were young which explained why they didn't fly back to their home earlier.
The next surprise happened a few weeks ago. I woke up one morning and noticed some red on the walnut tree next to the house. I wear glasses so it looked like a red peice of cloth was hanging from the tree. After I found my glasses I saw that there were dozens of monarch butterflies hanging from the same branch. I ran and grabbed the camera and unfortunately by the time I was able to open the window and start snapping only about 1/3 of them were left. It was another suroprise that I just happened to catch.
The last picture is from a stormy fall day out here. I was snapping pictures of the sunset which I didn't think were anything that wonderful since the sun was sort of blocked, but when I was walking back in I was surpised to find the last picture. I didn't think it was going to turn out when the flash went off, but it is probably one of my most favorite pictures now.
I just get the feeling of what the 1st settlers saw when they moved out the prairie in Southern MN. That big open sky, grass as far as you could see - a sight that would make any agoraphobic person cringe.
To me the little surprises like these are what makes life so great. It's too bad it's taken me thirty years to realize that the best times in life are the quiet little surprises that only you and maybe one other person share. The 1st two are moments that I and only one other person was present for and will probably be things we talk about for years - just because they are so unique. The last is something I alone can say - I alone stood out on that odd September evening and witnessed natures beauty and felt time spin backwards.
A big Aloha from Farmer Dan - see you when I get back!
