Just when the two-year stint of construction on my corner ended, a new kind of work crew showed up: bumblebees, mobbing the fireweed, and especially the purple Ceanothus flowers. There were so many and they were so loud that occasionally I just could not sit in the side yard with my morning coffee without groaning please, SHUT UP! Do you have to be so frigging INDUSTRIOUS?
photo: flickr user LeeLeFever, used under CC
And this for a genus that is generally in trouble — though perhaps between my yard and this Transformer, people are starting to cut them a little slack.
[...] year will turn into a huge purple blob, especially impenetrable because it is serving as a kind of Burning Man for bees. Leave a [...]