The life of bees

Bees are disappearing from the planet and nobody seems to know why. But I worry about it. How will things be pollinated without bees? I've planted plenty of bee balm (although this is a pincushion flower above) around the estate to do my part. And when I go out to get the paper (another endangered species) just before 6 a.m., I walk out to the perennial garden in the front yard to see if there are any bees. I'm quite certain if anyone was up at that hour, they'd think Old Man Collins is off his rocker.

Two years ago, I had lots of bees. Last year, not very many. This year: Just a few more than last year.

I'll keep my eye on them and wonder whether bees are at all worried about this -- or anything else for that matter. Do they feel the pressure to make their deliveries on schedule? Is it good to be a bee? Is there something to be said for ignorance of the matters of the world?

I'll see you tomorrow morning, bee.

A bridge too far

I don't know why but when life is too hard to figure out, I've always headed for the shore, whether it's the camp in Vermont, or Plum Island, or Hampton Beach or -- as befits my land-locked locale -- the Mississippi River. (Click on the image to see full sizes)

Reports from back East have not been good. Carolie's dad is not doing well and there's a fair amount of sighing going on at my house. And I walk to the river.

The Wakota Wabasha Bridge is the best bridge in a city of bridges, especially if you're walking.



It doesn't look like much, perhaps, but the designers of this bridge knew what they were doing. The stairs that take you from the bridge deck down to Raspberry Island, leave you out over the river.



Never been scared of heights? Try these stairs.







Raspberry Island is a lovely little spot below the city, along the river, which is low right now and is only this high because of high rainfall out in the western part of the state. The water made its way to the Minnesota River and eventually to here.



I can sit in the sun and ponder chucking it all and living on a boat on the river:



Or whether the guy in this little house atop the railroad bridge has the best job in the world ...



... or the worst.



I can consider the merits of swimming in this river, which I still consider America's sewer...



Or I can just sit and try to prove the existence of a loving God with his plan to make a good man -- and a good man's daughter -- suffer.

I always find myself heading for water to make a question like that make sense. Two-thirds of the planet is covered with water.

I don't think that's going to be enough.

The great deck rebuilding project

My mother has said she feels as though summer is over on July 4th (this year might be the exception since she lives in New England and they haven't had anything resembling summer weather yet), and being genetically linked and all, I could hear the tick, tick, tick of another summer slipping away without completing one of my long-standing projects. I'll bet it's been six year since I started rebuilding the deck.

Of course, when I started I didn't intend to rebuild the deck. I was replacing some rotted stairs at the bottom of the deck, but that led me to notice the railings were wobbly, which led me to noticing some planks were rotted which led me to just rebuild the darn thing (except for the joists which were fine).

So this holiday weekend, I finished the bottom deck and then removed the top, added a new footing and beam and just before work Monday morning, I screwed down the last plank and cut the overhang.



Now I need to make stringers for the stairs (they'll be much wider than the old ones) connecting the upper and lower deck, then add posts and railings.

Where did summer go?

The Senate race ends

My family and friends from out of town can stop asking me if we have a senator yet.

Here was my on-air analysis of the end of the Minnesota Senate race.

Outed

The talented people at work have designed a new Web site, upon which my daily offerings appear.

As with any new endeavor, there's a few kinks to be worked out.

Spiderwort in the morning

This is the most interesting thing in the garden these days. I bought the Spiderwort plant and put it in a container on the deck. The flowers only unfurl in the morning, along the lines of a Morning Glory.



I like the fact a bumblebee was at the Spiderwort this morning. Click the images for the full effect.

The afternoon walk

One great thing about working in St. Paul, is the Mississippi River is just a short walk away from the downtown headquarters of Minnesota Public Radio.

My new favorite activity at midafternoon is to walk over to Rasberry Island and sit on the benches and watch the world go by.