November Hill farm journal, 50

Pollen is floating everywhere now, even with the cold rain and in a few places locally, frost and snow.  So many leaves have come out on the trees in the past few days, and my pollinator garden plants are going crazy. Our dogwoods are in full bloom. We have a volunteer baby dogwood blooming near the front of our driveway and are so happy to have it there.

I found the first tick on the Big Bay and the second tick (two total so far) on ME, the carpenter bees are still busy, and I have a bird nest in the “shelter” side of my mailbox. The bird building the nest kicked my little Keil Bay Breyer horse right out of there and I found him lying on the ground about four feet away!

It’s definitely springtime but we continue to have odd weather - 80s for a few days, then back down to low 50s with lows at freezing in the evenings. Our usual temperatures this time of year are highs in the low 60s and lows in the mid-40s. As it is, we seem to fluctuate between early summer temps and winter temps.

I’m working on getting ready for my three honeybee nucs, which are said to arrive the second week of May assuming the weather hasn’t slowed the bees down. I am very excited but need to review all my beekeeping school notes and literature, and plan to do the online “Beekeeping Like A Girl” sessions as well before the ladies arrive.

Yesterday we slept in a little (truly, just a little) and when I looked out the upstairs window this is what I saw:

What would they do if they could come all the way in?