Thursday, April 15, 2010

Of The Outside and Paint With Me: Mood

Thing have been CRAZY around here lately. Between the weather getting nicer and spending more time outdoors and my babysitting an extra kid most days during the week, it has been enough just to keep up with the laundry and the cooking. So here is my mood submission for Paint with Me Thursday. Questionably artistic and done as hastily as most of my stuff around here right now, but my mood nonetheless.


Now that we're feeling uncomfortably busy, let's add in the extra of outside projects. Ties taken from around the outside of our two big maples and rebuilt into what will be a garden in the back. And we are AGAIN attempting to get grass to grow in our ridiculously sandy soil.....at least in the front this year.



Since we are now dirty and tired, let's throw in some bees. Yup I said bees. See all those little mounds of dirt? Apparently my deliciously sandy soil is also host to a heck of a lot of ground bees. Half of the back yard and part of the front... all the parts where the grass is crummy... is host to lots and lots of little solitary bees.


Here's a close-up of one of the holes they have their nests in (dark spot right at the base of the dandelions) I tried to get pics of the bees, but they are so fast and I was using the wrong camera and I didn't have time to be patient. Man, I hate looking at these pictures. Someday, we are going to have some nice grass. We look like we live in the desert!!


I was seriously wigging out about the bees before. There are SO many of them. But the more I am reading and seeing, the more inclined I am to just leave them alone. I am actually convinced now that we had them last year, and I just didn't pay any attention to them. Now that I know they are there, I feel like we can just be respectful of their habitat for the few weeks a year they are a bother. I can't justify all the chemicals on my lawn, the money gone and the destruction of mostly peaceable bees just to be rid of them. I'll just make my kids wear shoes in April.

Next week is spring break around here. And this year that means me and 5 kids (babysitting two that week) toting off to the local YMCA every morning for free swim lessons (gotta love splash week) and me feeding them and praying they don't destroy my house in the afternoons. I might not be around much. But hopefully I won't go crazy.

12 comments:

Nicola said...

wow. that is a lot of kids and you are busy.(how do some people do it? really?)
i agree about leaving the bees alone.
and your mood? you can really draw! i like the brain.
Nicola

Sarah Haslem said...

I love your art.. and that is exactly what that is...
I didn't even know there was such a thing as ground bees. You are much kinder than I think I would be! I hope those bees are grateful...

feather said...

oh, man. i can't stay long. just looking at these pictures is giving me serious anxiety! for reals, liss. i dispise bees and all their buzziness. hate might be a word to use here, although i never use it. i keep feeling those bees buzzing in my hair!
but your art looks so representative of what your spring break might just turn out to be. try to clear up that head, k?

Jen said...

Oh, that drawing is PERFECT to describe my mood right now! The exclamation points and dollar signs are especially appropriate.

Okay, now, not to scare you, but the girl I watch stepped on a bees nest in the ground last summer and was stung 5 times. She is traumatized still. We can't play outside at her house, because she wigs out if she even sees a fly.

nikkiloohoo said...

Your drawing is how I sorta felt this week too.

Scented Sweetpeas said...

We have a few bumble bees on our allotment trying to make a home in the dusty mud - they are quite amazing when you watch them and luckily baby sweetpea likes them now.

5 kiddies, and I thought 3 was fun this week. I will be thinking of you doing a headless chicken impression - well that is how I feel on manic days. Hope you get some peace and get to have at least 1 pee without someone trying to get into the loo for a conversation (how to hell do kiddies know when you are just about to go for a wee!) and at least 1 drink that is hot all the way through.

Lindsay said...

I can so identify with you on SO many levels! First, I thought I was looking at the grass below my trees in the back yard. I don't have bees, just 2 dogs and 3 thirsty trees. Ugh!
Good luck with Spring break...I love your art!

Patty T said...

Oh gosh! I should post some of our "project" areas so you'll feel better. Not that it would, but maybe it would make you feel more at ease! You are better about the bees than me! I'd be sticking stuff down those holes!

blue china studio happy said...

Your art piece is exactly how I feel more often than I would like! Nicely done!

And ground bees??? I didn't know they even existed. Yikes.

{cindy} said...

I think we have all felt like that from time to time and you captured it very well on paper!!
Ground bees....Yikes!
We are dealing with wasps here!
I guess that means it's spring??
Enjoy the day!

beemahoney said...

I love your sandy bees. after I was barefoot, with all of my children amidst them, I think they are family to you, just buzzing around tending to business, leaving us to ours

beka said...

lovely!