Talk about snarky. The New Yorker slipped these little cartoons into last week's issue. Guess they saw the end coming.

Don't you love the birds in his hair? But the toaster is my favorite.
Credit: Barry Blitt, for The New Yorker, May 9, 2011.

Oh, and these little cartoons are called "spots." Live and learn.

Anyone know what this shrub -- or weed or shrubby weed -- is?

Irises and Mexican evening primrose.

I know where the irises came from -- gifts from friends with too many irises -- but the Mexican primroses, if that's the right name, arrived mysteriously. They are very aggressive and maybe I shouldn't encourage them, but they give me the most beautiful pale pink flowers all spring and into the summer. Each year I get a little better about weeding carefully enough to allow them to spread throughout one of my side gardens. They'll have to battle it out with the also-invasive bronze fennel and the apparently invasive caryopteris. All so pretty. And I don't feel any guilt about having them because when I'm dead and gone and no one cares about this garden they will be overcome by the mile-a-minute weed. Now THAT'S an invasive plant.

On Sunday I went with my friend Susan to the annual Takoma Park, Maryland, house and garden tour. Beautiful old houses at the peak of spring.

I covet that metal aquamarine outdoor dining set in the backyard of one of these houses.

Nearly perfect photo. It would be fully perfect if someone photoshopped in Trump's head.

I apologize to anyone who is offended by my glee over the death of another human being. Or my wallowing in the press coverage of said death. Having no job makes me loopy and easily amused.

"...not walking this Earth again."

"... there is no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden. It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool. That's not who we are. We don't trot out this stuff as trophies.

"... I think Americans and people around the world are glad that he is gone. But we don't need to spike the football. ...

...There is no doubt that bin Laden is dead. Certainly there is no doubt among al Qaeda members that he is dead. And so we don't think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference. There are going to be some folks who deny it. The fact of the matter is you will not see bin Laden walking on this Earth again."

President Obama in an interview with Steve Croft of "60 Minutes." To air Sunday, May 8.

Lettuce? It came up in my veg. garden along with dozens of weeds. I ate it in a salad. It was a little bitter but nice texture.

May 1, 2011: The GOP nomination for President 2012. Check out No. 25, Jonathon Sharkey, wrestler and vampire from Florida.

Possible candidates, in no particular order. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone but I'll be updating the list.First debate is Thurs, May 5. Sponsored by Fox News. I'm not sure I'll watch it.

1. Pawlenty (Tim, former Gov MI)
2. Palin (Sarah, former Gov AL)
3. Bachmann (Michele, Congresswoman MI)
4. Gingrich (Newt, former speaker of the house/congressman GA)
5. Trump (Donald)
6. Daniels (Mitch, Gov IN)
7. Romney (Mitt, former Gov MA)
8. Huckabee (Mike, former Gov AR)
9. Huntsman (Jon, former Ambassador to China)
10. Paul (Ron, Congressman TX)
11. Santorum (Rick, former Senator PA)
12. Giuliani (Rudy, former Mayor NYC)

Outliers.
13. Christy (Chris, Gov NJ) -- has said he won't run.
14. Bush (Jeb, former Gov FL)
15. Perry (Rick, Gov TX)
16. Alan Keyes (former candidate for lots of things, including I think the IL Senate seat won by Obama in 2004….must check on that)

This shows the most recent poll results -- from realclearpolitics.com -- for some of the candidates. Real Clear Politics
Date 3/31 - 4/27/11

16.9% Huckabee
16.9 Trump
16.3 Romney
9.4 Palin
8.4 Gingrich
6.7 Paul
4.0 Bachmann
3.6 Pawlenty
2.6 Daniels
2.4 Santorum

Goldmine! Wikipedia shows these candidates also:

17. Herman Cain, businessman and radio talk show host from Georgia
18. Gary E. Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico
19. Fred Karger, political consultant and gay rights activist from California
20. Andy Martin, perennial candidate from Illinois
21. Jimmy McMillan, perennial candidate from New York
22. Roy Moore, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court of Alabama
23. Buddy Roemer, former Governor of Louisiana
24. Ole Savior, perennial candidate from Minnesota
25. Jonathon Sharkey, perennial candidate, wrestler and vampire from Florida

May 4 update: I forgot to add No. 26. Herman Cain (Georgia businessman, talk-radio host, and Tea Party darling)

Hats and Hair in the News.

Enlarge picture. Check out the headline next to Trump's picture.

I didn't say it.

Not a clue about what's going on inside there.

Top picture taken after my 10:30 AM hive inspection. Bottom picture taken just before inspection.

What did I find? Well, I found a lot of bees, moderately upset at my invasion but not overly so. I found a lot of either honey or syrup. I found some weirdo hard black capped something: dead brood? honey gone bad? dunno. I didn't see queen cups, and I didn't even look for the queen. Am I going to pull out 40 frames and look at each one carefully to see if there's one there? No way. It's all I can do to keep the damn smoker smoking. I saw a little pollen. All 40 frames in the bottom 4 boxes were filled. Five box, on top, had some nice comb but just a tiny bit. No sign of hive beetles, no bad smell. Swarm was now 5 days ago. Could a queen-less colony stay this populated for 5 days without a queen? dunno. Will the existing workers make a new queen? dunno. If they don't have brood they won't.

Am I discouraged? you betcha. Did I get a sting on my big toe? you betcha. Was I wearing socks and sandals instead of socks and shoes? you betcha.

Next step: take a shower, go work at the library for my volunteer day, and forget about the damn bees for 4 or 5 hours.

These sweet little heuchera (coral bells) have a strong will to live.

These coral bells are in their third home, at least, in the 4 years I've had them. They were much bigger when I bought them but each year the deer eventually break through my deer fencing (or storms knock it down) and they nibble these babies back to the ground. And yet every year they arrive with the spring. Just after I took this picture I moved the plants to pots, which I'll keep on a porch away from the deer.

I want my girls to come home. At about 6 PM they were settling in for the evening.

I know they won't come home. I hope they find a nice hollow in a tree nearby and stay in the neighborhood. And I guess this is goodbye to my original queen, who had a nice blue spot on her back so I could find her. If there's a new queen she'll be unmarked of course. I doubt if I'll ever see her.

Swarming is natural. But beekeepers try to avoid swarms in order to keep the hive strong so it will produce more honey (I guess that's the primary reason). Swarms are said to occur in the spring, often when the hive is crowded, but I just read an article in the April 2011 issue of the American Bee Journal in which the author, Peter Loring Borst (isn't that a great name for a bee expert?), said:
"...given all the 'right conditions,' some colonies swarm and some don't. Beyond that, some honey bee colonies swarm under circumstances that to their owners seem downright foolish. What it boils down to is this: the most you can say is that there are times when bees are more liable to swarm than others."

Little movie about my little swarm.

Go to about 55 minutes on this video to see the swarming action. I wasn't sure what exactly I was focusing on so it's not a great video, but you can hear them buzzing like crazy.

7:30 PM and the swarm still sits there high in a maple tree. The temperature is supposed to go down only to about 60 tonight so I guess they'll survive.

Swarm? I guess so.

It happened at about 2:30. Actually, it's still happening because the small swarm cluster is out there (4 PM) and who knows how long it will be there or where it will eventually go.

I'm going to build some more frames to put in a box in the very unlikely event they decide to live there -- something I procrastinated on all winter and now regret.

Things I don't about this swarm but am not going to worry about:
1. Is the queen with them?
2. Is a new queen installed in the hive? Or are a couple of them battling it out? (I DID see queen cups when I inspected the hive last Monday.)
3. Will the cluster get any larger? It seems so small compared to pictures I've seen.
4. Will it come home? Two beekeepers in my local association report that bees will sometimes do that.


Things I DO know: I'm not getting on any ladders to save swarms. And this one is way, way the hell up over the center of my small back yard lawn area so there's no way anyone could safely get it.

It was exciting. The sound of it was wonderful! But I have no idea what's going on and I'm sorry but that still gets under my skin.

Video coming in next post I hope.

Lucy likes to show her tummy. Georgette is inscrutable. They are one year old this week. But still my babies.

Good advice for all humans and some dogs.

From HuffingtonPost: "Here Is Your First Electoral College Projection Map Of 2012, So Go Nuts, Nerds!"

I won't get fooled again.

Last year this boneset wildflower -- the big white-blooming behemoth at the top -- did very, very well. Too well, since it cast a large afternoon shadow that denied sun to a big chunk of my veggie garden. So I vowed to never let it grow that big again. I think I'll let it get to about 8 inches, prune it continuously, and see if it blooms.

Hard to believe that this huge shrub would grow again from this single little rootlet (not the right noun...stump? trunk?)
September 2010 (top), April 2011 (bottom).

My daughter captured this shot on her cell phone when she was in DC a week or so ago.

Yesterday we saw this bunny in the back yard and assumed the worst-- bunny injured, had a stroke, maybe dying. Later I read a much nicer explanation.

Information from here, a book called "Rabbit Language or Are you going to eat that?" by Carolyn R. Crampton.


BEHAVIOR: Bunny lying completely stretched out. Ears back flat against body. Eyes partly closed.
WHAT IT MEANS: Supreme happiness.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: Leave your bunny alone but prepare snacks for when bunny wakes.

Not sure what this is other than a pretty red-budded tree about to bloom. I know it's not redbud.

From the park next door.

If I ever plant more daffodils I want them to look like these peachy-buttery ones. Most daffs look sort of dayglow to me, but not these.

In downtown Silver Spring.

I was driving north on Georgia Avenue -- in an especially unpretentious part of a very unpretentious city -- near the intersection of Georgia Ave and Bonifant St, when on the left my eye caught a small sign in a window: Meditation Museum. I drove back to look at the sign and then just a few yards away I came to this beautiful red building. I wish I had taken closer pictures of the hand-painted quotations on the wooden plaques, but the big curved doorway sign is carved -- or painted or both -- with a quotation from Mother Teresa: "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." The building houses something called the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, and I think I'll go back sometime and explore both the museum and the art center.

First bee sting of 2011. On the ankle.

She got me through a pair of thin Hello Kitty socks -- hand-me-ups from my daughter. Next time I crack open the hive I'm wearing my daughter's hand-me-up high-top boots.

The stings never hurt that much. Just a quick sharp pain at the site and then I ignore it and don't think about it much. Until about 24 hours later, when it starts to itch. So then I scratch it, and it swells and gets red and itches all the more. I've read that some beekeepers get more, not less, sensitive to the venom the longer they keep hives. (I don't necessarily believe it, but I did read it somewhere. You read a whole lot of sh*t about a whole lot of everything these days and I'm getting more and more skeptical about all of it. Sorry for the sidebar rant.)

So since I'm still a bit conflicted about this bee business, maybe I'll have to give it up because my body will rebel. Speaking of conflicted, here's a comment about bees that appeared recently on Garden Rant. It expresses so well why I'm conflicted about this wonderful, fascinating, life-enhancing hobby I've chosen:

I hate to be a pooh bear, but I hate my neighbors bees. I live in typical urban southern city with small residential lots. My neighbor has 6 active hives in his backyard. We have bees everywhere! My kids are constantly getting stung to the point they are afraid to go out. If the door is left open, bees swarm inside looking for water. I thought I would love them but, I now I just want his hives gone.

Excellent news!

Whew!
“Mad Men” lives! And it’s going to keep on living for at least two more seasons and possibly three under a new multi-year deal announced Thursday night by AMC and parent company Lionsgate along with Matthew Weiner, the show’s creator and executive producer.

I don't drink alcohol and I don't smoke cigarettes but I used to do both, so I've really missed Mad Men over the past, what ... year? Less than a year? More than a year?

I've been living vicariously through all that smoke and booze, without the liver and lung damage.

What's he drinking? Is that a whiskey sour? And that cig looks unfiltered too. Hard core! Although I know the actors are only smoking clove cigarettes (or so they say), I've never heard what they put in those glasses.