While I was pondering over my very ponder-inspiring garden, I saw a bumblebee behaving interestingly on the lattice. With my HD video setting, I hurredly shot this video, but really didn't need to hurry, as it continued this rutine long after I stopped taking the video! Curious about this particular behavior, and not finding satisfactory answers online, I ordered a book that deals specifically with Bumblebees as apposed to honeybees, of which I have read much, and their ecology, evolution, and behavior.
I am excited to delve into this study, as bees fascinate me. Did you know that bees leave chemical signals on petals of flowers which are later decoded by other bumblebees that come to the same flower, letting those bee know that that flower is exausted of its supply of pollen, so that no prescious foraging time is wasted? What I found even more interesting than this, was that a Bumblebee that detects a chemical signal on some surface that was made to direct it to a newfound, and profitable foraging site, can not only find the new site with astonishing precision and speed, but also, durring its flight, can even account for wind drift that it encounteres!!! Awesome right!!! I mean....I coudn't possibly dream of doing something like that without the aid of GPS, and the world at the level of a Bee is so much more complex, vast and confusing than the world we humans think we have "discovered". These little tid-bits of knowledge never cease to astonish me, and fill me with awe..but then, I get thinking to myself...well, of Course, God is a genious, of course he could make a such a tiny, simple-looking insect capable of such complex tasks.
More to come later on this topic, once I dive for a few days into my knew Bumblebee book.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Change is in the Air
Independence Day rolled in and right back out, as it does every year, with it's fleeting moments of joy, and camaraderie as family and friends mingle as one over a BBQ and a rustic American Flag Cake. It brought with it a new type of summer this year, though, and it will roll in again next year to find changes that were impending since I came along, but never realized in full until the present. As I sat with the family on a picnic blanket at Tanglewood last evening, eating drippy watermelon and listening to James Taylor pluck his guitar strings tunefully and sing about "showering the people you love with love" and assuring his loved ones that he is always there for him I looked around me to all of my loved ones, knowing they would always be there for me, and hoping that they feel as showered with my love as JT sings about.
I was just getting used to being a high school graduate when the college paper work came in by the ream and the postman handed me stacks of Colby College Envelopes stuffed to the poorly sealed seems with an incredulous and inquisitive look on his face. Luckily for me, I found how much I hate administration. Not only do I question Colby's need for no less than 8 documents which all ask for my name, my DOB, my age, my nationality and my signature and suspect some form of scheme to mass identity theft, but I have become seriously concerned with the lack of usable pens in my home which are desperately needed to carry out Colby's redundant and ceaseless requests for information. As Dad so profoundly noted, "You'd better get used to it because that's the rest of your life." Well, if the rest of my life is going to contain sheets of paper that request all my personal information, then yes, and thanks Dad...I'd better get used to it.
College is just eight weeks away, and so is my step up to the responsibility that comes with young-adulthood. I am excited and nervous as anything I will admit, but I am ready, and that's what counts. I look forward to the people out there that I will soon meet and who will become some of my best friends, and I look forward to learning that one thing that will give me the spark that will grow into a passion and that will fuel my interests and career for the greater part of my future.
And just on a very ponderous note, though so much will change for me in the coming months, so much will stay the same, and I find tremendous comfort in knowing that the people that are there for me are the friends and family that built me up to who I am today. Thank you for making me possible!
I was just getting used to being a high school graduate when the college paper work came in by the ream and the postman handed me stacks of Colby College Envelopes stuffed to the poorly sealed seems with an incredulous and inquisitive look on his face. Luckily for me, I found how much I hate administration. Not only do I question Colby's need for no less than 8 documents which all ask for my name, my DOB, my age, my nationality and my signature and suspect some form of scheme to mass identity theft, but I have become seriously concerned with the lack of usable pens in my home which are desperately needed to carry out Colby's redundant and ceaseless requests for information. As Dad so profoundly noted, "You'd better get used to it because that's the rest of your life." Well, if the rest of my life is going to contain sheets of paper that request all my personal information, then yes, and thanks Dad...I'd better get used to it.
College is just eight weeks away, and so is my step up to the responsibility that comes with young-adulthood. I am excited and nervous as anything I will admit, but I am ready, and that's what counts. I look forward to the people out there that I will soon meet and who will become some of my best friends, and I look forward to learning that one thing that will give me the spark that will grow into a passion and that will fuel my interests and career for the greater part of my future.
And just on a very ponderous note, though so much will change for me in the coming months, so much will stay the same, and I find tremendous comfort in knowing that the people that are there for me are the friends and family that built me up to who I am today. Thank you for making me possible!
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