tension

[OT from cottage renovations]

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today is the Grove's annual flower show.  the element of tension comes from the fact that gardening is taken pretty seriously here, it's more or less a contact sport.  and the judging is fair but severe, bordering upon harsh. 

I don't always submit anything to that judging (many years I don't have anything in bloom the day of the show) but this year I did manage to come up with five submissions, one of which was so fragile that it was destroyed by light breezes in the short walk over to the Woman's clubhouse where the event is held.  of the ones that made it two were specimens and two were titled entries. 

this year's show has a Shakespearian theme, and the references were:

"Alas ‘tis true, I have gone here and there, And made my selfe a motley to the view."

and

"And I serve the fairy Queen, To dew her orbs upon the green. The cowslips tall her pensioners be: In their gold coats spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours."

return of not the right carpenter

no, not the Excellent Trim Carpenter.  he would be welcome, most welcome indeed. 

the worker in question is the Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica), whose effect on this place is one of destruction rather than construction (yes, I know, that's a species-centric point of view, but one I can't easily forsake). 

the traces are obvious: the accretion of little piles of sawdust under the site of their excavations into pieces of dead wood.  old tree limbs are OK but when they choose the cottage's structural or decorative elements I tend to lose enthusiasm.  when they go after antique porch furniture, no matter how rustic, it's even less desirable. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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nuisance though they are around (and threat to) the house, they are important pollinators.  coexistence would be a lot easier if they would just choose expendable targets (such as the T-111 siding on the N wall and the doomed addition: as far as I'm concerned those are an all-you-can-eat buffet for their species).