We’ve all heard how important it is to eat a diet high in roughage. Likewise, “roughaging” (spending time outdoors) is essential to our mental health. Even if it’s a settee on the porch, we need it, gotta have it. I aim to be the reason you pulled your bedding out the back door last night.
Winnie Nielsen says: This outfit looks circa WWI to me with that pith style hat. I love her preppy plaid and leather jacket outfit.
Winnie Nielsen says: I love that little crocheted dress with the Indian bead belt and wooden spool gem hat. Adorable!
Winnie Nielsen says: Beautiful poppy! Perfect November Armistice commemoration. Did you see the story in London where an artist made hundreds of ceramic red poppies that were placed on the grounds of a government building for November 11? Plus everyone on the BBC and in Parliament were wearing these lapel poppies. Apparently after the November 11 ceremony, the ceramic poppies were going to be sold for charities.
MaryJane says: I did see that, tearfully so.
Winnie Nielsen says: Cutest bird houses made from scraps ! Does it come plate with curtains ?
Looking for some frightening fun this Halloween? About.com has published a list of things to see this spooky season. From theme parks to The Big Apple, you’ll find events like Guavaween, a Latin-themed Halloween celebration in Ybor City, Florida; creepy corn mazes; horrifying haunted houses; and more.
The Pumpkin King outside of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, by Imperpay via Wikimedia Commons
Or check out The Travel Channel’s “Best Halloween Attractions 2014.” Not for the faint-of heart, these attractions have been chosen by Ghost Adventures lead investigator Zak Bagans and paranormal expert Jeff Belanger, and will give you shivers to last a lifetime … if you survive the thrills and chills.
Winnie Nielsen says: Halloween is a favorite holiday of mine as it falls right in the heart of my favorite season. Although there is a huge popularity on the macabre therein most places , my preferences are still rooted in family fun of the 1950s. Funny homemade costumes, carved pumpkins, and old fashioned fun like apple bobbing, and a wee bit of spookiness appeals to my sense of a celebration. I always wanted to attend a Halloween Murder Mystery Dinner at an old castle that was all decorated out for Fall but where this unexpected event takes place. Sort of in the Hercule Poirot style or maybe Miss Jane Marple style. Attendees would dress in clothing of the era and the dinner would be set up as just a fall dinner party. Or maybe I am dreaming of a Downton Abby Halloween experience?
MaryJane says: If you find a good venue, I’ll join you!
Winnie Nielsen says: That would be awesome to find such an event and show up together! Hey, How about this one. When you get your farm set up for the B&B plans, we plan the perfect Wall Tent Halloween Murder Mystery dinner? ……. on a cold crisp Halloween night, amid big orange grinning pumpkin faces on the main lodge porch, and the warmth of the inside fire as guests lingered over pumpkin cheesecake and hot tea or cider, a sudden scream was heard that broke the cozy dreamy ambience. The Headless Horseman back for another scare? And who let out that scream? Everyone is here inside……
MaryJane says: Love it!!!! You have to help decorate, carve, murder …
Winnie Nielsen says: Deal!! We might have to seek out the local apple cider for the pre-party!
MaryJane says: Or press some of our own … with you here to identify varieties:)
Winnie Nielsen says: I am in love with that truck! Does it still run?
Winnie Nielsen says: Wall Tent Romance in the tall fall grasses. sigh!!
Nancy Coughlin says: What a lovely setting. I have not been able to get out tenting this year and have truly missed it. However, my screened in upstairs porch has become my special get-away place. I have a reading area with two comfy chairs and some big , plush pillows. Also have my sleeping area: daybed with mosquito net canopy, side table with reading lamp, etc. Unfortunately, it is now becoming too cold to sleep out at night and I will soon have to dismantle that area until Spring rolls around again. Guess it has become my “stand-in Glamping” spot. We do what we can to have our ‘own’ spaces.
While out in the garden snapping photos last week, our farm photographer, Karina, was startled by a bee.
But not just any bee …
Not the industrious honeybee, who’s busy gathering pollen for the long winter ahead …
Not the giant, fuzzy bumblebee who buzzed past her ear, sounding very much like a very large, very close remote-control helicopter …
Yes, this bee had the signature yellow-and-black stripes …
but his upper body was bright, shiny GREEN!
What the heck? Were her eyes playing tricks on her? Was Karina’s camera lens hooked up remotely to Photoshop? She quickly snapped a couple of photos, then buzzed on over to her computer to find out more about this shiny, green bee.
Turns out, our visitor was something called a Metallic Green Bee (Agapostemon). They’re commonly called “sweat bees” because they resemble (and are kin to) other species of bees that are attracted to human sweat. But don’t worry, these little beauties are too refined to like your stinky sweat. There are about 40 species of Metallic Green Bees in both North and South America. And our guy was a guy—the females are usually metallic green all over, while the males have a yellow-and-black striped abdomen, like our guy did. There are two generations of Metallic Green Bees a year: one in the summer, which is almost all females, and one in the fall, which includes both females and males.
Photo by Dan Mullen via Flickr
These bees are ground-nesting, living alone instead of in a hive, although many can live in close proximity. Sometimes, a couple of dozen females share one entrance, but each one then builds its own little nest off the main corridor—a kind of Miss Lavinia’s Lodgings for Ladies, if you will. In this case, one of the ladies (Miss Lavinia?) guards the entrance and you can see her little green head sticking up slightly above the hole. Don’t mess with Miss Lavinia’s girls!
Keep an eye out for these gorgeous green buzzers … and their bright-blue cousins, Augochloropsis sumptuosa … simply sumptuous!
Photo by Bob Peterson via Wikimedia Commons
Winnie Nielsen says: Wow, this is incredible. I have never heard of such a thing. The metallic green with the yellow and black is stunning against the purple flowers. I must say, however, that their size makes me think bad bee sting for some reason. We have some black and yellow large bee/hornets with a similar body configuration down here that pack a whallop of a sting. Thanks for sharing these photos and information today. I love a little science class first thing in the morning!!
Karlyne says: Wow!
Oh good ,then iIwasn’t hallucinating after all when I saw a metallic bee about a month ago. I just thought I had somehow confused a bee and a bright blue dragonfly- now I know, as Paul Harvey always said : ” …the rest of the story ..”
Cindi Johnson says: THAT is amazing!!! Oh I must go out and find some to photograph myself ~ yes, to show off my new found knowledge to all of my friends! They will be way more impressed with this than they were when I told them about the giant Palouse earthworm I found in the yard (lots of “ewwwww – that’s creepy” comments for that one 🙂 made me proud). Nature continually astounds me! What a wonderful gift she gives us.
Very interesting! I find bees to be most fascinating! Loved the book required for the “bee” Merit badges, “Bees, Nature’s Little Wonders”. One of my favorites!
Thanks!
CJ
Winnie Nielsen says: I have never seen a bird house complete with a door and latch. It makes it convenient to clean it out on occasion? I love that outhouse style!
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
My only experience with outhouses has been in warm weather. I am guessing that when it is cold and snowy outside, the experience is quite different!
Ah yes, winter treks to, and sessions in, an outhouse in the winter definitely build character.
Great picture. made several trips to that little house on our farm.
When my favorite campsite at Worlds End State Park went to heated bathrooms with showers, I felt like something had been lost. I had camped in my tent during the winter months because their cabins closed in November. Then they started too have cabins open during the winter months and my kids and I shared some neat Christmas times there. Eventually, the “new” bathrooms came into being rather than the pit toilets and somehow things changed. Roads were macadamed and now one has to dodge kids on bikes, skateboards and inline skates. Not the camping I used to know and enjoy so much. Sigh!!!!!