Bumblebee Ride

Avalus had a little run-in with a bumblebee and was so kind to take pictures.

I was walking from the bus stop to work and saw this bumblebee, just sitting on a vetch leaf. I got my cam out and began photographing. The bee was stumbling around and looked kinda lost.

And then she leaped at the camera and started crawling on my hand, eagerly searching. (These pics were taken with my phone).

She was not extending and waving with a middle leg, which is usually a sign for „please mind your distance, thank you or I’ll sting you“, so I carefully juggled her onto my left hand and took her to the nearest batch of flowers. These were of some crownvetch (Securigera varia) and regular bees were bustling around. My passenger-bee was at first not interested, only noticing the flowers as I moved her head directly in front of it.

She then tried drinking nectar but she was too clumsy and just pierced through the flower with her tongue. Irritated, she crawled a bit over the flower, but always kept a leg on my finger.

You can see the tip of her tongue, sticking out of the back of the flower.

Then she lost interest, crawled back, and just sat at my hand.

My original plan then was to take her to my office and get her a drop or two of freshly made sugar water to nurse her to strength and then put her back in the field I found her in. But underway I found a thistle with many freshly opened flowers that were at ground level (It looked like the plant was crushed by a car in the past but went on to grow anyway, but the flowers were all within 2 cm of the ground). This looked like a suitable spot for my shaky passenger, so I offered her a place in a thistle flower which she took up immediately, thrusting her tongue deep in. I stayed for a few minutes and observed her, as she drank, she stopped the shaking so I think she got all right.

So good luck, big bumblebee!

I like bumblebees, they are co-cute.

Tiny Spider Eating Tiny Prey

This tiny little jumping spider was munching on a fly on my house’s wall, nearly in the same spot where I took a picture of a wasp spider a few days ago. Unfortunately, these little buggers are at the very limit of what I can photograph free hand and I did not dare to go for a tripod/monopod because it would probably bugger off.

Pictures below the fold. [Read more…]

Fungi Friday

Some beautiful fungi from Avalus.

Glittering Damselflies

I’ve got 2 gorgeous photos from Nightjar to share today.

Argiope bruennichi (Wasp Spider)

This species is not native where I live, it migrated all the way here from the Mediterranean late in the 20th century. I have never expected to see it in my garden since it still requires a generally warmer climate than what used to be normal here. I guess we can chalk that up to global warming – and this year’s summer was uncharacteristically humid and cold, almost like it used to be when I was a kid.

Pictures below the fold, beware of an intimidating and beautiful spider. This specimen is not particularly big – the abdomen is just about 7-8 mm in length. Maybe she is not fully grown yet. [Read more…]

Sunflower Residence – More Flies

I have no clue what species of fly this is, but it looks sleek and dynamic.

Sunflower Residence – Various Flies

Flies are often unhygienic, pestilence spreading, and in many ways annoying buggers. But I do admit that I like how they look.

T’was Tool Making Day

I did not feel like working on knives today, so I have decided to make the measuring pin from brass. It took me rather longer than I expected because I had to work out several things on the fly and there were therefore several failed attempts and repairs. But I managed it in the end and the result looks kinda cool. And it works just as well as the wooden one, in addition to being ever so slightly more precise.

The bent brass pin on the right is screwed and glued into the lower half of the pin and goes through a hole in the upper half where it has slight (several tenths of a mm) clearance.

Here you can see the upper jaw, where a ground wood-screw holds the spring tightly in place. In combination with the bent brass pin, this holds both jaws fixed against each other so the tips do not misalign (too much) when used.

On the underside is no screw. Originally I thought that two bent brass pins in the back portion will do the trick. But it did not work at all, it turns out that make something like that precise enough by hand is impossible (for me at least). When you look closely at the pictures, you will see that there are plugged holes where that second pin was. If I were making another one, I would try to ditch the guiding pin altogether and fix both jaws to the spring with a screw. Whether it would work better or not I do not know, since I stopped tinkering as soon as I got a working product.

And the second tool that I have made today is a center scribe.

It is a piece of black locust wood onto which are fixed two small ball bearings. The axes are just press-fitted both into the wood and into the ball bearings. Black locust is strong enough to hold and if it splits, I will make the body from aluminium, this was just a proof of concept.

Here you can see the other side. The wood-screw goes all the way through and just the tip pokes out between the ball bearings. Should it turn out necessary, I will eventually replace the screw with a re-ground drill bit, but for testing, a screw was a readily accessible and easily applicable piece of hardened steel.

To scribe the center on a flat bar (in the future on an outlined blade) it is simply inserted between the ball bearings so it rests firmly on both of them and on the screw tip. When dragged through (for example downwards on the photo, assuming the tip of the tang is down), the screw tip inscribes a line that is very close to the center. Not perfectly, but I can also scribe a second line by dragging the piece of steel through the assembly in the other direction (putting the tang up in the photo and dragging that way). These two lines very close to each other are sufficient enough for me to grind the blades symmetrically, after all, it is better than what I have used so far.

Borb: Plush of the Month

The August pattern for the plush of the month was a borb, a combination of bird+orb. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on fabric, but wanted to use up some of my stash and found grey and orange, so I decided to go for a cockatiel, which meant I only needed to order a bit of yellow plush. Also, cockatiels are cute and we used to have them when I was a kid.

I terms of sewing, this was much easier than the dearest deer. The only downside is that I looked like I’d blown up a chinchilla.

Welcome Fluffy!

Full image of said plush. It is about 60 cm tall

The eyes are actually made from epoxy resin. When the resin was nicely sticky I put two old buttons into it so I could sew them on. By the way, fluffy is filled with what used to be three 40×40 cm Ikea cushions (Cheaper than buying filling, because everything marked as “craft supplies” gets at least a 200% price hike)

Backside of the cockatiel (grey) with the tail (yellow)

In these pics, Fluffy is sitting where Fluffy is supposed to be: on my couch so I can lay my head against her. But you are only allowed to guess once: She got borbnapped by a smart kid who knows exactly how to make eyes at her mum.

At least she found a friend…

Sunflower Residence – Earwig

Earwigs are not normally associated with flowers, but they can occasionally hide in the flower buds if they provide enough dark end enclosed space to hide in. This one did not manage to completely hide because this bud is healthy and still well enclosed with leaves. Some other flower buds were badly damaged by slugs – hollowed out in the middle – and those were positively filled with earwigs to the brim.

I do not know why many people fear earwigs, they are completely harmless and very shy animals. When disturbed, their only worry is to scamper off somewhere secluded and dark as soon as possible. They do not climb into ears to eat our brains, but they do eat mites and aphids, so they are an asset in the garden.

Look Who Was Hiding in my Fireclay Bricks

Today was a blade quenching day because according to the weather forecast, it might have been the only sunny day in a while. Luckily, I have managed to finish a batch of 8 blades to a sufficient state for hardening so I set out to do it first thing in the morning. And when I was taking fireclay bricks – not for fireplace, just to hold the quenching oil receptacle upright and steady – this fellow was hiding from yesterdays deluge in a crack. It got lucky I did not squish it flat when taking the bricks.

When I put it in the sun, it has spread its wings, soaked in some warmth, and buggered off pronto so I only managed to snap one picture with my phone. But it came out quite well, I think.

It is small tortoiseshell Aglais urticae. These beauties justify the existence of stinging nettles.

Another Fancy Bat

I’m pleased to present another fancy bat drawing by Joseph Zowghi. I love the way this artist makes bats look so gentle and appealing, as well as the meditative element the artist creates through repetition.

It’s based on Pteropus conspicillatus, the spectacled flying fox of Australia.

©Joseph Zowghi, all rights reserved

Sunflower Residence – Grasshopper

There is plenty of grasshoppers around, and technically they are a pest. However, unlike slugs, I have never noticed them do any noticeable damage on crops, local species seem to prefer grass over anything else.

This individual is the only one that I have seen sitting – just sitting, not munching – on one of the sunflower plants. And it stayed long enough in one place to get shots from different angles.

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Bumblebee Ride

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Tiny Spider Eating Tiny Prey

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Fungi Friday

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Glittering Damselflies

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Argiope bruennichi (Wasp Spider)

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Sunflower Residence – More Flies

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Sunflower Residence – Various Flies

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T’was Tool Making Day

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Borb: Plush of the Month

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Sunflower Residence – Earwig

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Look Who Was Hiding in my Fireclay Bricks

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Another Fancy Bat

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Sunflower Residence – Grasshopper

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