The Birds and the Bees, Uh, Butterflies and Bees!

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

There are some days when it's hard to come up with one photo that captures the day to post on Tookapic for the 365 Project. Today was full of photos! There were the cool honeycombs formed by the one of my hives, the beautiful butterflies in the garden--the queen of whom was the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail feeding from the salvia, and the stick bug and its reflection. It was a great life-affirming day outside--and I didn't melt!

I did my first bee inspection since the great debacle of a week ago, and it went just fine. I was in full suit and knee-high boots, but I think it would have been fine even had I not been as bees were just fine except for one hive at one moment--and the smoker took care of them. Looking back on the incident last week, I think the biggest mistake was not having the smoker lit.

Stickbug

Today was also the first day Gallifrey had his invisible fence collar back on, and when he went out this morning his first actions were to go outside of the yard, pee on the neighbor's 911 Porsche (caught on their security camera) and then come back in the yard. Clearly he got a good zap going in and out as he wouldn't cross the line later. Whew!

The demand letter from the lawyer went off to the contractor today, now we wait and see. In the meantime I am working with the new carpenter/handyman to get through the open items, and I am okay.

I also had my last lab work done for my doctor today. She thinks she might be able to fix my hot flashes in a plant-based, non-hormone-supplement way. It's weird that I have gotten to a place in life where it not only doesn't hurt when they take blood from my arm, but I actually can't feel it.

Today's hive inspection

Gallifrey had his own little medical procedure today. I took him in to a visiting doggie dentist at Tomlinson's (pet supplies) and he had his teeth cleaned while he was awake (without anesthesia). I had to hold him along with the dentist, and it was an awful sounding procedure (scraping the tartar off the teeth), but Gallifrey's teeth are pearly white again. I asked the dentist what to do to keep them that way as this has been an issue for me (Gallifrey already had his teeth cleaned under anesthetic a year and a half ago and they were dark brown with tartar then and almost that dark again now). Clearly I'm not doing what I should. The dentist said to give him raw bones. I thought bones were bad for the teeth and would crack them (according to my last vet) but I was told today that they needed the raw bones to keep their teeth clean. After the dental appointment I went to HEB to get bones and they don't didn't have any! The butcher said they have them occasionally, but they don't stock them. Not even soup bones. Tomorrow I search out a butcher shop to treat my sweet boy after today's ordeal.

Now we've had a great dinner (Dave rotisseried a chicken on the grill he got last year for Father's Day), watched the first few episodes of The Tick on Amazon (we love our superheroes), and are relaxing after a long day. Tomorrow pottery starts up again (for me), and I am meeting with the carpenter about replacing the bedroom and bathroom carpet with hardwood and tile. I just can't stand it any more.

For our friends in Atlanta and Florida--stay safe! I guess California, Oregon, and Montana too. A lot of the country is subject to natural disasters right now. Time for everyone to dig deep and help out wherever you can.