HRH

In the spring, Queen bumble bees come out of their underground nests.  She already carries the eggs of this year's bumble bee colony and she immediately starts loading up on nectar to shore up her energy reserves.  Eventually, she will find a suitable place to grow her colony.  She will secrete a small mound of pollen and wax where she will lay her eggs.  She keeps them warm by sitting on the mound and quivering her body, using some of the nectar in the mound to nourish herself as she tends her young.  Her first brood of young will all be female "workers" whose job it is to guard and clean the nest, bring in pollen, etc.  The Queen remains in the nest cavity, producing more offspring.  

And so goes the fascinating life of bumble bees.

And on the subject of royalty, I watched part of a the service for Prince Philip today.  I can't imagine how the Queen must feel, losing her partner of 70-something years.  Seeing her sitting there alone just made my heart hurt. He led quite a life; something to be proud of.  May he rest in peace.

Keeping busy today.  Hubs has cut all the wood for the owl houses and tomorrow I will help him put them together and (hopefully) hang them.  I think I 've found two suitable trees on which to mount them.  Photos will follow, of course.

Going to have dinner with some friends tonight - they were our first post-vaccine guests for dinner at our house several weeks ago.  It will be great fun spending the evening with them at their farm.

Safe, kind, chocolate.

xo
Debbi