The bees arrived at the post office yesterday afternoon, and Al went and picked them up. Sue and I were quite surprised to see them in the garage, in 3 boxes hooked together, buzzing very loudly!! I don't know how I thought they were going to come in the mail. You can see the Sue and Al taking the boxes apart. After lunch today, we put them in their new homes.

The queen is in her own little box with a screen on one side so that her people can feed her. There was also a can of food...some mixture of sugar and water for the trip. Once the can was pulled out of the box, the bees wee dumped into their respective hives. We made up a batch of sugar water for them so they have some munchies while they get settled.

This is Sue and Al dumping the bees into the hive

Earlier this week I took a photo of our mini tulips that we are loving...the squirls didn't get too many. The special treat this week, is the intoduction of two more of the scary baby family. Clearly they are loving it here in the garden by the pond.


















Sue and I spent time on Sat am cleaning out the green house and planting seeds. The greenhouse looked like this for less than 5 minutes... They are popping up already, and we are all keeping our fingers crossed for rain this weekend. Every thing is so dry!
Well, tonight is a dinner party for Sue's mom's 80th birthday, and my sis is madly working on our fancy press kits that we wanted to have done 2 months ago for Starr...so I should go back to work!

Well, Al and I made it to the quilt show in Chicago and back and had a great time. It was wonderful to around stitchers who "got" our product. Our "make and takes" went well, we met new wonderful people, bought a few great beads, and I have to admit I bought another bag...I really try not to, but I just couldn't help it!!
My sister was tied to the "cash register" area, because I was too lame to add and figure tax without my brain freezing. It is a sad situation, but that is just how it is. She is great at it, and I appreciated it very much. I did my best to be the restocker person and chat with customers.
We were very tired when we got home, but had to jump right back into the Artgirlz business mode...production...had to get the Dada kits to the National Gallery...phone calls, data entry, emails, shipping, ordering, planning, whirling magazine project ideas around...I bought these roses at the grocery store when we got back. They are so beautiful, I was carrying them around so that I could see them all day.

The garden is getting very exciting. The daffies are blooming, including some very sweet miniatures. The miniature tulips are also starting to bloom...the ones that have survived squirrel attacks...will get photo's tomorrow. The pulsatilla's are also starting to bloom...the purple variety seems to pop out earlier than the white...

I also want to introduce our scary baby collection. The first one that you will see has been sun bathing all winter next to the pond, and is now gazing into the pool and watching the fish...the ones that weren't consumed by the great blue heron. There seem to be four fish out of fifteen. The good news is that we didn't buy the very expensive koi last fall!!


Happy to be home to my house, my girl, the garden and moving forward with the nation!