First, Happy Fourth to those who celebrate it! (This calls for jam!!) Allow me to explain.

Last year wasn’t a good berry year, but this year, well, I’ve never seen anything like this. The king and I have been picking black raspberries from the hedge I installed to keep trespassers away from the honey bees. We’ve been mashing them into jam and canning said jam. It would appear that we have enough to keep ourselves in jam for the next 10 years

By extension, everyone we know will be receiving jam, no matter the occasion. It’s your birthday? Jam. Your anniversary? Congratulations! Here is some delicious jam. New baby? Jam is the perfect gift for an infant boy or girl, no? . . .

Sure. As long as they aren’t too spooked by the labels we made for the jam jars, that is. What began as a play on words came to life as a disturbing nod to the bubonic plague. Good times!

I just finished the manuscript for my next book, which is slated to come out in the spring of next year. It’s all about the mercurial world of honey bees and beekeeping, and, as such, I’ve really had bees on the brain lately!

But, before I get too far into that,  I wanted to let you know that I should be here a lot now, and I could use your help with something. Namely, I really miss having the old Lost Soul Companion forum, and I think it would be a shame not to reinstate it. So, weigh in, if you don’t mind, with a comment — or send me an email behind the scenes to let me know what you think. . .

So, back to bees. Besides my honey bees, I have become quite interested in all of the wild pollinators out there — feral bees of many stripes, bumble bees, solitary wasps, and so on. As such, I’ve joined the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and I grabbed a copy of Kenn Kaufman’s Field Guide to Insects of North America. I’ve been snapping some good photos around the place and trying to identify the beneficial bugs when I am able. Here is someone I caught in the act:

I initially thought she was some kind of tiny bee,  but Father Knows Best. This is more likely what’s known as a Toxomerus hover fly. Here is an especially lovely one.

–S.

It’s been pretty quiet in here because I am finishing up a new, non-fiction book on bees and beekeeping. And when I’m not working on that, I’ve been messing in the garden. I’ve also been thinking quite a bit about The Lost Soul Companion Project forums. I miss having them, and I wonder if others don’t miss them, too. If I could find some iron-clad software, I would happily launch them again. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for me on that front? Let me know. . .

The pond is really well-established now. It even has frogs, and I catch them sunning themselves on the rocks from time to time. Well, never really at the same time, so maybe I only have one frog that gets out a whole lot. I’m not sure. Anyway, look here if you don’t believe me…

Does anyone out there know just what kind of frog he is? I’d really like to know what to call him.

–S.

Being something of a tinkerer, Ol’ Petie brought a homemade periscope over the other day — to better see all of the fish, tadpoles, crawdads, and frogs holding down my pond’s murky bottom during these hot, summer days.

Pretty cool, but it leaks a bit and the mirror is set at sort of a weird angle, so it doesn’t work quite as well as he would’ve liked. He’s now busy guzzling another carton of milk so that he can go back to the drawing board. I’ll keep you posted…

–S.

Having a backyard pond to call my own is certainly a luxury, I think. I explained why a little bit for Plenty Magazine. But it is a luxury in other ways, too. It is a great spot for staring and thinking. It is just as good for staring and not thinking. And, like most everything else in SusanLand, it is a work in progress. Here is the water garden up close, before we set in stones and so much sedum. (Check out the succulent porn!)

And here are a couple of the pond’s inhabitants.*

*Yes, eventually, I let them out of this bag…