ordinary things that make me smile

Posted by marne on May 26, 2009 in other things | 9 comments

• A lone sunflower growing at the side of the freeway, in a little crack at the edge of the road. I am watching it's progress each day as I pass by on my way to work.

• The guy at the bus stop dancing his heart out, with no sense of embarrassment, as I pulled into the grocery store parking lot.

• Two little grey and yellow birds, doing their mating dance over our woodpile one sunny day. I need to find out what kind of birds they are.

• Little chickens now living outside in a makeshift pen made out of an old dog house and rusty cage, thanks to Mr. HeyLucy's ingenuity and sweat. They had to be sent out of the studio after I went in Saturday morning to give them fresh food and water and found three of the little cheeky buggers out of their box and running around the room.

• Realizing beeswax foundation looks like a tumbling blocks quilt pattern when you hold it up to the light. Also, it smell delicious.

• Seeing bats swooping and flying above the driveway at dusk. Eat all the mosquitoes you like, little bats!

• Spring vegetables and fruits, like this roasted asparagus I made for breakfast this weekend. I decided to try making hollandaise sauce (using a goose egg yolk!), and it was delicious and silky and decadent. Let me know if you would like the recipe (using regular eggs, of course!) Tonight I have some fresh fava beans. I'm going to try grilling them in their pods.

• A tiny fat toad, caught while helping Mr. HeyLucy dig through the scrap wood for the chicken pen project. I brought him inside long enough to snap a picture, but then let him go again, right where we found him. He is about the size of a kumquat. I used to love catching tadpoles and watching them grow legs when I was a kid.

I have more bee stories, but I'll save all that for a post later this week. As I've been reading other beekeeping sites and blogs I've noticed that some beekeepers name their hives. As I only have the one, I don't suppose it's really necessary, but I started thinking about what name I could give my hive. I was looking around for names of famous beekeepers, and learned that the Von Trapp family kept bees on their Vermont farm, cool, right? I love The Sound of Music. As I was thinking about it, I came up with the brilliant idea to name my queen Maria, and then call my hive the Von Trapp Family Stingers. And then I cracked myself up.