Althouse: Bee climbs goldenrod.

August 4, 2010

Bee climbs goldenrod.

8 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Bees are busy as fall approaches when the flowers will all be bloomed out. I am wondering if Kagan is ready to run her gauntlet of swarming of GOP bees with stingers.; 8/4/10, 10:31 AM
As my whimsy leads me.. said...: Goldenrod--Kentucky's State Flower. You're going to make me cry. Sniff, sniff...ACHOOOOOO! (No, that was really the ragweed.)

Toy

WV: I am not kidding: Insultem. I'll do my best. With whom shall I begin? Any suggestions?; 8/4/10, 10:32 AM
Phil 314 said...: An allergist's dream; 8/4/10, 10:33 AM
ricpic said...: The bees are feasting
The monarchs are sipping
And white paper folds unfold flit and fold.
Honey and bumble in concentration collide.
It's a frickin' madhouse out there!
But somehow it all works out
As each furious worker
Fills out her quota of
Food for the hive.; 8/4/10, 10:46 AM
Irene said...: Allergies also came to mind for me.; 8/4/10, 11:46 AM
Balfegor said...: It is, I suppose, a measure of my experiential impoverishment that up to now, "goldenrod" had existed in my imagination only as a hazy idea of some kind of yellowish plant, called up by the lines:

And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
Quickens to recover
The cry of quail and the whirling plover
And the blind eye creates
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth.

Well, now I have a flower to go with the lines.; 8/4/10, 12:25 PM
ken in tx said...: Goldenrod pollen is so heavy that it takes a bumblebee to carry it around. Unlike ragweed, the wind cannot blow it around and cause people to sneeze. The bee in the picture is a bumblebee, or possibly a carpenter bee. BTW, bumblebees do not live in hives. They live in small family groups of about five or six in holes in the ground. Each one must gather its own food, pollen and nectar, because they cannot feed one another or make honey like honeybees do. However, they are good pollinators of many plants because of their fuzzy bodies.; 8/4/10, 1:06 PM
As my whimsy leads me.. said...: Right, Ken. Goldenrod and ragweed grow in similar areas and bloom at the same time. Ragweed is a much less obvious flower, so goldenrod gets the blame when people start sneezing.

By the way, all you hay fever sufferers: I read that if you wash your hair and change your pillowcases before bed, you will cut down on allergen exposure. Pollen electrostatically attaches to hair, and when you go to bed, the pollen gets on your pillow, so you have your nose right in the stuff all night. Add pollen night after night, and that's a lot of sneezing and sniffing.

WV: avingold. We're 'avin' gold-enrod talk; or 'Aving old thoughts today.; 8/4/10, 1:34 PM