Things keep rolling even when I'm not...

I've been sick for over two solid weeks now. I came down with my husband's cold the Saturday I was in Boise for my second cousin's graduation. And then it just hung on. Coughing, lost voice, fatigue, lots of fun. Apparently I had some severe allergy attacks on top of the cold, which triggered my mostly-latent asthma. I ended up having to go to the doctor to get a Proventil inhaler, then hit the MucinexD hard. (Side note: in my state, you practically have to sign over your first born child to acquire MucinexD, due to the pseudoephedrine content. I don't care. It works.) Then the cottonwood bloomed like a summer blizzard, and took me out again. Finally got smart and slept the entire day on Saturday, and almost felt human today. Almost. I'm getting there.

But while I was sick, things kept moving along, as they tend to do. Last Friday I got a call from Will Dart letting me know he had another huge swarm of bees for me, to try again. This time I was home to see the installation, though I had to watch from inside because I was feeling so awful. Fortunately, we put the hive directly below one of the screened living room windows, so I could chat with Will and Todd while Evie and I watched from inside. After the bees were offloaded into their home, I went out with a plate of honey water as an offering, and went back inside to watch them drink it all up. The good news is, this time the bees seem to have approved of their new home. They are still there a couple of days later, doing their bee-thing.

I went out tonight and moved the false back of the hive to the second to last top bar slot, vastly increasing their home space. While I was doing this, the neighbor kids came over to watch, and I let them all look inside the viewing window briefly since it was cool and late in the evening, so almost all the bees were inside and completely disinterested in any goings-on outside the hive. I've been deemed "cool" and asked if I had any more interesting things in my yard. So, I showed them the empty robins' nest and where the bumblebees live.

Yes, the robin nest is empty. The three baby robins have grown over the last couple of weeks, and finally fledged this morning. The mother robin was chasing one of the "teenagers" around the yard and into the arborvitae hedge, still trying to stuff it full of worms. Silly momma. I'm leaving the nest for now in case she decides to reuse it, but in the fall I'll bring it in the house.

The second batch of Old World Sparrows has fledged out of the front birdhouse as well. The mother and father bird are making overtures towards one another and the nest that make me think we might have a third clutch coming up very soon as well. Prolific little critters; explains why we have so many of them in the yard!