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| The dog ambles ahead while I look a the Mistletoe. |
On Saturday morning the dog and I walked up to the west end of the dirt road. The weather was near perfection with the temperature in the low 50's and very low humidity. The sky was azure blue peeking out from behind the tunnel of trees at the end of the dirt road. As we walked I noticed that a large piece of Mistletoe had been blown from the top of a tree it had been growing in.
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| Mistletoe blown from the tree above |
Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that grows high in the tops of the water oaks that are common to this area. I believe I have read that the Mistletoe infiltrates and compromises the trees outer bark layers causing the tree to die from a lack of nutrients.
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| Mistletoe is unusually green. |
At any rate when we see Mistletoe growing way up high in the top of a water oak we know that the tree will slowly begin to die and rot until it becomes a hazard and must be cut down. Mistletoe has a most unusual green color which is very bright. Our version does not usually get the white berries seen on other varieties at least I have never seen it on our Mistletoe.
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| Southern wood fern makes a showing. |
At the very end of the road I saw a very nice specimen of the Southern wood fern growing out of the pine straw. This fern is very common to our area along with many other varieties that prefer humid climates. The color of the fern in the red pine straw is very striking even on cloudy days. We headed back to the house as I had to do some work at my office.
On my way to my office, I stopped by my neighbors home to talk to him about his satsuma crop. He gave me a ride in his golf cart out into the orchard so we could pick some of his satsumas. They are becoming ripe very quickly and we were able to pick a bag full in short order.
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The entrance is small but the colony is
apparently quite large. |
When we finished picking the satsumas he took me by an old house on his property and showed me a hive of honey bees that have been in the exterior wall and attic of the home for over 40 years. Numerous attempts have been made to remove the queen but all have been futile. Killing them is not considered an option.
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40 years of bee landings is removing
the paint from the siding. |
For the last four decades the owner has only used the house for storage so the bees have been left alone to thrive. A question comes into my mind each time I see this colony of bees. Why have these bees not been affected by the colony collapse disease that has killed so many bee hives in the U.S. over the last ten years or so? It seems to me to be a question that bears investigation. Thanks for reading my blog today. Bye
