GREEN SPRING GARDENS - 9/18/25 - PART 3

I cropped a photo Gregg took of this bee. The eyes fascinated me.

The bee is enjoying the Autumn Sage.  I checked with Google and it tells me that this is a male Eastern Carpenter Bee. Females of this species have entirely black eyes. Males also have a white patch on their face, in contrast to the female's solid black face. Male Eastern Carpenter Bees are not aggressive. They are defending their territory by hovering but cannot sting.  Another interesting fact is that Carpenter Bees do pollinate. 15% of our agriculture products are pollinated by native bees and this includes the Carpenter Bees.

We had a carpenter bee bore holes in our letterbox post, and also a few bore holes on our old wooden deck. We treated the post and now we have a piece of modern art/sculpture, until we can replace it. When we had the new non-wood deck built (made out of Trex), we saw one hovering for a couple of weeks before it gave up. It was interesting behavior. Also, the female is capable of chewing an inch of depth per day. As nests are reused each season, the best site becomes larger and larger, giving room for more of their offspring.  

This is a website of all the different kinds of bees. It has advertisements but gives a lot of information.

In today's post I share the last of the photographs from the garden. Part 1 and Part 2 was the more exciting part of the day but as well as getting our exercise, taking photos of flowers (and bees and butterflies, moths and other insects) is what I love to do when visiting. They are our constants and were taken in between our other events. The birds were scarce because of the time of day perhaps. We arrived mid-morning. I didn't even hear them.

Not so long ago they opened the Moon Gate area. It is slowly taking shape and has a new brick walkway and new plantings. I look forward to seeing how it progresses next Spring.

I found these very interesting. They are called Leopard Plant and are non-toxic to humans and pets, and wildlife I'm assuming. When it blooms it produces yellow daisy-like flowers. Its leaves become spotted and its thought that this is how it got its name by botanists back in the day, likening them to leopards. A very hardy plant!

Red Spider Lily. All parts are toxic to humans and pets. It is native to China, Korea, Japan and Nepal. I have provided links on all the flowers, and you can click on their names to see more info.

In the next photo is a cluster of Jerusalem Artichokes flowers. I remember my mother buying the roots from the greengrocer, another childhood memory, and I always thought they were very tasty. I haven't seen them around here. According to the information at the link, they are similar in texture to water chestnuts with a nutty flavor. They can be boiled, mashed, roasted like potatoes or eaten raw.  I seem to remember mother roasting them like a potato. I never knew they had such a beautiful flower until I took this photo and identified them.

The purple flowers are Mealy Cup Sage and the yellow are Tall Tickseed.

Both very much enjoyed by the bees.

How do wild bees carry pollen? Click here to find out if you would like to know more. The bees hind legs have what they call pollen baskets or corbiculae. They are a specialized feature on female worker bees used to carry pollen back to the hive for food. Lots more information at the previous link but also an amazing amount online. What you are seeing below is a Bumble bee. It is fuzzy all over whereas the Carpenter Bee has a shiny black abdomen with not quite as much fuzz. This website tells of other differences.

I'm not sure when we will go back to the garden before everything goes to sleep for the winter, but I was happy for the chance to see these while visiting today.

Lamb's Ear 

(you can click on all the flower names as I have linked to other websites that have more information)

Tennessee Coneflower

I have mentioned the other flowers in the next photo, except for the New England Asters. I neglected to get any close-ups of those.

Autumn Sage (violet)

Swamp Rose Mallow

Ivy-leaved Cyclamen

Mexican Honeysuckle

Red Hot Poker

(All the website links have better photos.)

That's all for this visit.

Thanks for looking and 

I hope you all have a great 

day.

GREEN SPRING GARDENS - 9/18/25 - PART 2

 

Continuing from our sit-down on the bench under the shade of the tree, we took our selfie. I was wearing 'my old scruffy' as I like to call it, i.e. a very old dress that I generally only wear at home when I am not going anywhere. It's like my comfy blanky, faded from many washes and I said to Gregg, "Do you think I look okay enough to go out in this old thing?" Gregg laughs and I add, "Well, it's not like we're going to meet anyone we know!" Gregg, wearing his old 't' shirt and jeans, says something like, "You're dressed up more than me."  So off we set, scruffy and scruffy, heading to the garden.

After we had our nice little chit-chat with the couple who so kindly took our photo, and said our goodbyes to those lovely Boston Terriers, both in this post, we sat for a while longer. We had noticed a group of ladies walking across the green in a different country’s traditional clothing, which I always enjoy as you may have heard me say before, an interest since childhood. I was taking it all in. The sun was sparkling off their gowns. It looked like they were with a photographer. I said at the time it looked like a wedding party. 

 While admiring them from a distance something else happened. A young man walked along the path, stopped not so far away but still in the shade, and talked into his cell phone. He was looking in the direction of the group of ladies. He had a lovely smile and he was dressed as you see in the next photo. Gregg struck up a conversation after the young man put his phone away. After a while my dear other half asked if he could take a photo. It’s a real nice photo but it’s hard to capture the elegance of such a style of clothing, especially as we were still in the shade. (I have blurred out his face for privacy).

I surprised myself - just put it down to the fact that I am in my comfortable stage with such outspokenness in my mid-70s - at least that’s what I told Gregg later. I said to the young man I thought he looked very handsome and he accepted my compliment with another smile and a thank you. Gregg enjoys chatting to people we meet by chance, as do I, and this day had already turned into a special kind of day for that. The three of us had a very pleasant conversation, but then he had to leave as the wedding ceremony was about to start. We continued on as I was eager to take photos of the flowers.

By this time I was starting to get tired, though still taking photos along the path (always more energy for taking photos of flowers). I saw movement. Our nice young man was heading back towards us with a big smile on his face. It had been about ten minutes since we spoke to him. He said, with another big smile on his face, I have talked to my family, and we would like to invite you to the wedding! Okay, knock me down with a feather and I was in a bit of a shock but how could we turn down such a gracious invitation? Heart was full I can tell you. This had turned into a most amazing day. We followed him into the gazebo area and was guided to where we could sit. Anywhere he said. We chose the third row thinking that perhaps family were going to sit in the first two rows.

The little girl on the left had the most darling dress and wearing cowboy boots, pink and glittery and sparkling brightly in the sun. She was adorable! 

I'm afraid no photos of the bride as I didn't want to be too intrusive but we were allowed to take a few photos. The ceremony was spoken in both their native language and English. There were English-speaking friends invited also. The ceremony itself was called a Nikah. We listened to the words of the Imam and the sentiments reminded us of our own wedding by my village vicar all those years ago.

We watched as the new husband and wife walked down the steps of the gazebo and joined their family for official photos. Things were winding down.

We thought it was time to go and Gregg found the young man and we both thanked him for this wonderful invitation. We were kind of in a daze that we had been invited but absolutely thrilled to have had this experience. As we were leaving a lady tapped me on the shoulder and gave me two favor boxes to take home with us. Another gift for these strangers - 'scruffy and scruffy' I will call them and yes, I am smiling. We were a tad underdressed but this didn't seem to matter at all. What mattered was that we accepted their invitation and we made the young man very happy when we said yes. 

We were on our way to dinner at a favorite eatery, so we kept the boxes for our evening meal. Each one had the above items in it; a beef empanada, a chicken empanada, a chicken salad tea sandwich with the crusts cut off, two delicious chocolates in the pink and blue wrapping and three small wedding cookies. We thoroughly enjoyed our supper. I'm glad we waited as it allowed us to think back on our day.  We guessed the boxes came from a catering company. I wish we knew from where, as we would highly recommend them. Everything was delicious and it was a fun and out-of-the-ordinary supper for us.

That's the end of our day, and what a day it was. Right off the bat we met that nice couple who took our photos at the Moon Gate, then there was Oreo, Apple and Linguini. Lastly, the lovely young man who extended the best kindness with such a gracious invitation to his family's wedding. We will always remember. 

Years ago we went to a Jewish Wedding Ceremony, an invite from one of Gregg's young petty officers back in our navy days, and all these years later we were invited to a Muslim Wedding Ceremony. Amazing! We still talk about that other wedding very affectionately, and I know we will be talking about this one with just as much affection.

I have photos of flowers which I will share next time.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day everyone!

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE - GREEN SPRING GARDENS - 9/18/25 - PART 1

Our obligatory photo of the old house that I always take a photo of and put on my blog. I must have taken a hundred of these. I wrote about its history in this post written in 2017.

Whenever we come here, we always have the most wonderful time at this garden. The weather was perfect for walking. Today though, was special for other reasons...

starting with the very nice couple above who saw us taking a selfie with the moon gate in the background, which now has a lovely brick walkway by the way. The lady started chatting about how great the weather was for walking, as always seems to be the way when exchanging pleasantries. Their pups may have come into the conversation also. I never miss an opportunity to talk about pups. They moved on but after they got about a hundred feet away, the lady turned around and asked if we would like for them to take a photo of the two of us. We thanked them and said yes please. The husband walked back. I could tell he knew what he was doing as he directed us out of the sun and then said perhaps it would be better from the other side. He took his time which we were very grateful for.

After they left, we walked a little further along and I see 'my' bench and sit down (my bench because no one else was sitting on it this time). It is in the shade of an old shade tree, which seems like 50 feet high, a great place to observe others having a good time. In the distance there was a gentleman coming towards us on the path, with three of the cutest Boston Terriers. 

When they neared the shade of the tree we were enjoying, as soon as she hit the shade, the one called it quits and lay on her back, wouldn't budge another inch. Her human spent quite some time trying to coax her. We chuckled and this gentleman looked up and said something. 

They were about 30 feet away. The two pups looked at first pup lying down and, as if they knew it could be a while, they decided what's good for the goose was good for the gander. Except that now, head came up and first pup stared at us. She must have heard me say hello as she walked right up to us. Her nice human said she wants a fuss but was concerned because she was a jumper and could give quite a head-butt. I can move fast when I am motivated I told him, and I was more than a little willing to take a chance on her. She could have been King Kong!

Meet Oreo, who is the mother of the two other dogs, Apple and Linguini. They were getting a bit jealous and wanted in on the action but were being held back on their leashes. I got to know Oreo for several minutes one-on-one. This is a shortened version of the video I took.

Furthest away is Apple, the middle one is Linguini (the children), and Oreo, the mother, is closest to us and in the video.

Here's Apple looking a bit tired like his mother. It was very warm that day but lovely, no humidity.

As you can see, we had a great time with these cute pups.

After a while they moved on. I have more photos from our time at the garden and will share them next Tuesday. I was surprised at how many beautiful flowers were still blooming.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a great Sunday, and an equally great week ahead.