Beez were buzzing

Thought they would be easier to see

A branch on my palm is in flower and as I walked by it sounded like a beehive. There were so many bees I'm surprised a few more didn't show up. These guys were not aggressive and let me stick the camera real close. Last bee encounter was a bunch of hives in a mango orchard that I ran across when  walking my dog. Maybe the difference was a hive is where they live and were being protective .... but they chased us both for a few hundred feet. I was convinced they must have been breeding with those African bees, The bees they used to pollinate orchards in Washington were totally docile. 

Woodinville Farmers Market

Sure enough the Farmers Market was where it was a few year ago, near the City Hall.  The season is winding down and the final Saturday will be the 27th of this month. Growing season is relatively short up here in the north. There were only about 10 booths which is less than half the number of mid-summer.

District Farmers Markets in Seattle are fairly new and something I wasn't able to enjoy in Ballard back in 2005. Probably 4-5 years ago they began closing Ballard Avenue on Sundays for a Farmers and Artisan Market. Fun place to hang out. The real Farmers Market of course is the Pike Place Market downtown and it's been around forever.

Bautista Farms from Yakima

Bautista Farms from Yakima - nice veggies

There were 3 flower booths

Blue Berry and Raspberry

Woodinville Farmers Market

My first bananas

I only noticed the flower yesterday and it's open a little more to show the young fruit. Everyone said it had months to go before producing. I got these from my neighbor Linda and she didn't know what kind they were because they have a grove of three kinds. I'm thinking maybe the small sweet ones but we'll see in a few weeks.

Now if I could only get some corn to grow. With two batches from seeds I brought down last year I've gotten nothing. I think maybe a local breed next time.

First platanos and flower

Gardenia and Coffee

Fresh brewed coffee that is ... both have great aromas, are in the same family ... but luckily smell nothing alike.

Gardenia is a genus of 142 species of flowering plants in the coffee family

People have been giving me plants over the last year and I've had no idea what some of them are. Some died of natural causes, some the dog dug up and some were just plain ugly and I pulled them up. When the rain and humidity starts here they all begin to do what they are supposed to do.

My best survivor is this Gardenia bush ... at least I think Gardenia. The one flower smells wonderful. It just bloomed today but has about 20 more blossoms on it. My sixth year in Mexico but the first where I get to watch my plants do what they do over the whole year. I'll be able to make more educated choices next year

Gardenia the flower

Gardenia the plant

Another flower/plant

This plant/flower came along with a vine that I really like. Actually there were three plants in the same pot but the third faded when I tranplanted it. The red centers are part of the leaves but it does look like there may be blossoms coming in the middle. This is another that I have no idea what it is.

Rain Flower

I don't know what this is but it must be from a long lost bulb that the rain encouraged.   In the year I've lived here there has never been signs of life back in this patch of dirt.  The ground is totally saturated