Why "von der Vogelweide"?

Ich saz ûf eime steine


und dahte bein mit beine.


dar ûf satzt ich den ellenbogen, 


ich hete in mîne hand

gesmogen 
daz kinne und ein mîn wange.


dô dâhte ich mir vil ange, 


wie man zer werlte solte leben.

"Von der Vogelweide" has a dual meaning to me – it means literally in German “bird pasture” or “meadow of birds” which aptly describes our land here. During the Middle Ages, bird handlers would go to a Vogelweide near a castle or town and capture hawks there for falconry or for song birds to be enjoyed in the home.

As a German major in college, one of my concentrations was the Middle Ages and my favorite lyrical and political poet or Minnesänger was Walter von der Vogelweide (1170-1230). He broke the boundaries of this genre and wrote critically of the struggles between the papacy and political players of the time including Philip of Swabia, Otto IV, Innocent III and Gregory IX. He served first in Vienna and was trained by the famous singer Reinmar von Hagenau and moved on to other courts between Germany and Austria and eventually settled in Würzburg, where he served Frederick II.

For more information, see:
http://www.rwth-aachen.de/go/id/fshe/?lidx=1

http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/autor/walther-von-der-vogelweide-622

https://www3.nd.edu/~gantho/anth164-353/Walther318-327.html

Catmint Lovers

Right beyond our solarium, we planted catmint or Nepeta and enjoy the show of pollinators all day long. One morning though I was especially surprised to see goldfinch. First a pair arrived one morning, then it seemed as if they passed the word and the next few days several more birds arrived, perching on the stalks, swaying with the breeze and nibbling on the flower’s tiny black seeds. Here are some websites to learn more about goldfinch and catmint.

http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/rhgiles/speciesssm/goldfin.htm

http://www.daytonnursery.com/encyclopedia/perennials/nepeta.htm

How Sweet It Is!

It has been awhile since I shared some bee adventures. Starting in early April we observed our strong hive working hard and creating some queen cells. We were concerned with swarming and kept an eye on things. The queen was laying well and the hive was booming. Near the end of April, we decided instead of splitting the hive we would add some honey supers as we noticed they were making honey in the brood chambers. On May 22^nd we harvested over 50 lbs of honey. We used a fume board and bee quick spray and it worked like a charm pushing the bees below. The honey is light and sweet. We have the honey supers back on and will extract probably another 40-50 lbs in about 2 weeks, after the nectar flow comes to an end.

Regarding the photo, the jar to the left is our honey from last year, which we extracted in mid July.

On the Move

As I was walking on Monday in the early afternoon, I noticed a female snapper turtle heading up the driveway moving rather quickly towards the pond across the street where she will spend the summer. She still had wet mud on her shell which was almost a foot in diameter. It was a perfect day for a move - sunny, warm but not hot with a pleasant breeze. As soon as she saw me, she stopped dead in her tracks. Last year, a female was hit by a car (see entry from Nov 20^th) by my driveway and luckily lived after being cared for at the Aark. I didn’t have time to wait for her to continue on and stop traffic as she crossed so I scooped her up into my recycling container and carried her across the road. I went back to grab my camera to document the event and she was almost in the water when I took this parting photo. She has most likely already laid her eggs near the stream she left so we will be on watch for the babies next.

Down by the stream

The swamp or skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) emerged a couple of weeks ago down at the stream. I had read that it provides one of the earliest sources of pollen in the spring and I was curious if my bees were taking part. Upon closer scrutiny I indeed found many bees flying in, crawling deep into the dark purplish curled hood and then off again to the hive to store the pollen. The foul odor attracts the bees and inside they may find a cozy temperature reaching into the 80's. After knee deep in mud and patiently awaiting for a bee to emerge, I captured this great shot. If you click on the picture, you can see the bee at the tip.

At the dig

When the snows melted, revealed to my surprise were many extensive mouse trails around and inside the meadows. It was like discovering a archeological dig. A few weeks have passed since then and the trails have faded. The mice actually helped aerate the soil and now the grass is growing in nicely.

Snowy Tunnels

While walking early this morning, I noticed some interesting shadows in the meadow. The slow melting of the snow has revealed some intricate mice pathways. I am happy to see the mice are living in the meadow and not in my garage. Sadly, we caught 20 earlier in the winter after I haphazardly attracted them with my sunflower seeds but we haven’t seen any since. (See Nov 22, '09 blog)