The Bee Tree on Nature Friday PLUS Happy Valentine Day

  I stood and counted the blooms on the powder puff tree (known to us as The Bee Tree) and it now has close to 250 open and that many again ready to burst. Today is not about the tree but THE BEE Colony that is having a blast at the Bee Candy Buffet in our backyard. 

The bush/tree has long, about 4 to 5 feet long, sweeping limbs and blooms November through April here in central Florida.

There is not one flower, fully opened, half closed, that doesn't have 1 to 5 bees on it. Above is the best shot with my camera of the bees. You can see five in the two but there are 5 in one bloom and 4 in the other. The berries are the pods that will open as the other fall dead to the ground

This view shows just how many one limb can have. I can attest to the fact that there is a whole colony of bees in this tree. I water 3 times a week trying to make our Milton Deposit of Dirt Only Yard grow green to cover the dirt, and one day I lightly sprayed the Bee Buffet. 

They rose up and swarmed me, and I was standing 20 feet away, the followed the path of water straight to me. No Snapper was harmed, but I keep away from it now and it can die or not die for lack of water

When my son came to visit, he said Wow Mom, that's a lot of Bees, I said just don't touch it or you will find out how many.

Bees and flowers have mutual relationships with each other and spread the pollen needed to grow things. I don't have to like them though.

Today is Nature Friday over at The LLB with Rosy and Sunny. 

 and this tree fits with Nature for sure as do these Moss Rose flowers that are growing on the stump in the back yard. I know you will love them Rosy

these flowers are being watered 3 times a day with dishwater and short sprays of a hose.

Happy Valentine Day All You 'all... I made all these valentines for you, while learning in Procreate on Ipad. is that werid? 

Happy Birthday to my son Dave, 60 years old today and

Happy Anniversary to Dave and his wife Deanna. 

I am so weird I laughed and loved it when my cousins 160-pound Mastiff sat on my lap. is that weird?

Winston gave me Joy when he sat on my lap, Beau gave me joy with his head on my tummy. Sunshine gave me flowers and joy in our backyard. Beau is Dane/Catahoula and Winston is a Great Dane/Mastiff and belongs to my cousin Shari.

Powder Puff Tree-Christmas Day 2024

 post created for Christmas day and left in drafts due to Beau and Mama very ill.

Below shows how fast the thing grows when cut back. It will grow into a tree if left alone.

On March 23, Bob cut the 10 foot tall powderpuff bush top photo above, to the size you see in bottom photo. It has to be cut back each year or it would cover the whole back yard.

this is the Top of it after cutting on the day we took it down March 23

I

Top 20 days later, April 10
Fast growing isn't it.

I took these 2 photos Jan 3rd, 2025, to show it will cover the ugly fence soon. The dirt you see above has had no water since Hurricane Milton and below is the other side that I water with hose 3 times a week. Just water the dirt and look what is growing.

We have had 1 slight shower that could not be measured, since Milton slammed us

Waiting for rain to assist in making the jungle grow

Powder puff in a bucket

Bob and I are no longer able to dig holes with a shovel, the ground is hard as a brick and is full of

tiny roots... the volunteer plant found in the back yard, went in a big pot.

First year in the pot, the white bugs ate all the leaves.

I thought it was dead. 

the leaves came back, I sprayed with Seven and for 2 weeks have been giving it the secret formula.

Fill left over coffee in coffee pot to top with water and I give it a pot 3 times a week.

 the alternate days , the 3 pots of ferns get the pot and wow do they all love their

Coffee Break.   I am thankful I found a way to save the tree 

I am thankful that my memory is better these days.

My last doc visit, my Thyroid was the only red thing on the blood lab report.

She asked me how I was taking the pill, that something was wrong for it to just change that quickly.

Her instructions were to keep the thyroid pill by the bed, with a glass of water and any time after 1:30 am that I woke up to take it and ALWAYS wait 1 hour before I took my BP pill or had anything other pill or drink than water. 

I was doing the 30 minute wait and taking BP at same time which worked for 15 or 20 years. that said. I followed instructions and now my focus is back, of course I still have the crazy normal things that age causes but my focus that was causing Anxiety is gone. She also changed my hormone cream to twice a week instead of once.. 

Below is of course ME, showing you the bright pink sticky note that said 

INR 3:50 pm (finger tip prick) for blood thinner.

Bob always gets his coumadin check at 8:30 am once a month. they changed it to PM and we NEVER leave home after 1 pm...

 I just knew I would forget it. I had pink notes in kitchen, bath and computer room.I am thankful we got there at the right time

Joining Brian's Home- Forever for Thankful thursday https://brianshomeblog.com/

The Apple Shape and the Powder Puff Take Down Part 2

 

In prior post, the Powder Puff Take Down, you may have seen the above creation of 

#OOTD (# outfit of the day) and read the story of taking down our Powder Puff tree.

The above #OOTD ugly jeans are the leg protectors for yard work, I only have one good pair, these are the old ones I wore when I weighed 70 pounds more than I do now.  Thus the "draped jean skirt effect"

The story of the pants is the fact that underneath whatever I wear, the body parts between head and hips is a perfect Apple Shape. This has frustrated me for all 79 of my years. Even as a child/teen, even though I was not overweight, the apple waist was always larger than the bust and hips.

Anything I buy, from skirts, pants, blouses, underwear, if it fits my waist comfortably, it is way to big on the top and bottom.  

See the apple above?  In 2017, I found stretch leggings, and a box shaped T-shirt, hides the apple from sight. Comfy and the apple disappears unless the wind is blowing like last week and it presses the box shirt up tight against me then the apple appears. 

This size chart is off of Amazon and since they are never correct, I am using it to show you there is no size that is small bust, large waist, even smaller hips. My hips are 6 inches smaller than my waist. NONE of this is my size because I have no size. I must try things on to do the mirror test of 

DOES IT HIDE THE APPLE

I created 3 of me showing the Apple Effect, this was a photo of a real apple, sitting on a pepper shaker.
MAD? MadSnaper

Someone Please Design pants and a top to fit the model below created in Bing Designer

this is my shape, legs/arms like sticks, the more weight I lose the skinnier they get

below is my Failed Attempt to describe what I wanted. 

It is all about what you say in AI... 

Powder Puff Tree Take Down🌳🌳

2023 photo, and there are more, they all look the same. I did not take a photo this year

 Every April for the past 34 years Bob cuts the powder puff bush down to about 3 or 4 feet, and by November it 12 feet tall and as big as a small school bus and flowers in November until March and down it goes again. 

The past 5 years, he does the wielding of the chain saw, I run to the curb dragging the limbs for trash pickup. 

The tree is down, the deed is done. It was our first time at ages 79 and 87 and it nearly killed us. 

This time I counted the drags to the curb. I dragged 10 piles of limbs to the curb, walking 100 feet there and 100 back. This feat was accomplished by bending, stooping, gathering up about 20 limbs, and dragging them while walking 1000 feet. Also, I had to fight the limbs through the privacy fence gate and then a chain link gate. NOT a wide one, a person sized one. Did you hear my words?

Picture this, An American football field is 360 feet (110m) long.. I walked 1000 feet that day. DRAGGING Tree Branches. Bob was nice enough to say, I did the hardest part. The thing is, I can't do the chain saw. he can't walk. He can stand but now really well, while I walked out of sight, I pictures in my fretter mind, returning to the scene of the take down and find him on the ground bleeding.

For 3 full days, each morning the neighbors may have heard the sounds we made when getting up out of bed, sitting, walking, or making any movement at all of our limbs. Our Limbs not the powder puff.

Because last year, I ended up with multiple stab wounds on my legs, this year I donned the 

#OOTD

But Wait there's MORE! 

TO BE CONTINUED

Seeds of Hope

Above is our 35 year old Dwarf Powder Puff Bush, bottom before drought, top 2 months ago and below what 2 inches of rain did 3 weeks ago. But that was our last rain. We are still in drought. I watch it and hope it will come back. Looks hopeless, right?

 

Below is the large powder puff from our bush that came through the drought and now hs over 200 big red balls on it. they bloom from Nov to end of March. We cut it down and it comes back in about 6 weeks

If you have time to scroll photos, this is the LABEL for it and for the other larges bush, that is in full of blooms now.

Dead or alive, its beautiful

I asked Bob to hold the ugly dead ball and I touched with my finger and all these seeds fell into his hand.

each one can make a 30-foot tree of beauty. 

to see the miracle of the seeds of hope, enlarge the photo.

I say miracle because we now have 3 little trees from seeds like this one, they planted themselves.

If the big tree dies others will take its place, unless of course mankind interferes with The Plan

Nature just as God planned it

Less Speak, More Peek!

 

I borrowed the phrase from Yamini, Less speak, more peek, just to show you the scrawny, barely hanging onto life tree and the stunning Powder Puff blooms that are the result of

five minutes rain, twice in a week.

I was shocked one of the bolts of lightning did not strike the skinny tree

Powder Puff March 21st part 2

The ferns above were planted in a giant pot in 2020, I pulled them from different places around the yard. 
Magnificent

2012 photo showing Dec Blooms

The powder puff bush had no flowers, but the tips, see above top right corner were spectacular without blooms