Friday, May 27, 2011

Along came a bumble bee...

So the other morning, I wake up for the day, go downstairs to the basement bathroom and begin my morning preparations for the day. With my glasses off, feeling around trying to find my contacts case, I suddenly see in the mirror this enormous black entity start crawling across the carpet behind me.  The cat was watching it bemusedly.

I lunge for my glasses (scared, of course, that it was some sort of spider on some homicidal mission to take control of my home in a baby-step effort to one day take over the world) and slipping them on stared, puzzled, at one of the largest bumble bees I've seen crawling over the carpet in my basement.

Unhappy bumble bee waiting to be released...
Why was she there? How did she get in? Is there a bumble nest somewhere in my finished basement? Why is my cat so entertained by bugs?

I love bees dearly, bumble bees and squash bees in particular, so I grabbed a notebook and a tupperware container, lifted the lady up, and took her on outside to greet the day.  She wasn't entirely happy with this turn of events, but happily flew off to visit some flowers in the garden.

So, it might be a sign; I picked Bumble* as my trail name for a reason, but I nevertheless proceeded to carve a cute bumble bee series that I hope to plant soon...

Runway clear; ready for take off.
Tomorrow, I'm off to the Remember the Railroads mini meet in St. Thomas, hosted by Big Blue Team.  I'm excited and looking very forward to it - the pasta salad is made and ready to go.

*Actually, it was BumbleAlong until recently.  But that was only because AtlasQuest wouldn't let me register Bumble as my trail name at the time, apparently because it was too close to some existing name.  On a whim, I tried to change it and it let me.  So there you go.

2 comments:

  1. So cool. I'm wondering if it's actually a mimic. Looks like it has only one pair of wings instead of 2 pairs (flies have one pair, bees have 2 pairs). It would be very cool if you found a Robber Fly. They're harmless, except to other insects. (Can you tell I did a minor in entomology?)

    One of my favourite mimicking insects is the Hummingbird Moth. They really do look and fly like a hummingbird. Saw one in my garden years ago.

    I hope you're enjoying the St. T event. Looking forward to your next write-up.

    Lone R

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  2. Ooo, cool - I just assumed that it was a bumblebee, but it could have been a fake... It was huge though, still can't figure out how or why it was in my basement.

    I studied Peponapis pruinosa during university, as well as honey and bumble bees. I do love watching bees in gardens.

    Write-up to come!

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