WHOA!!

too excited to post any photos but you HAVE to look up the mud dauber wasp! i got out of the shower tonight and went to put on my shirt and it had a thumb sized, cocoon like mud thingy on the back center of the collar! but it was familiar. andrew had found one a couple months ago and we put it on the window sill awating action. it has since dissapeared so i ran into the kitchen displaying my discovery and then decided the best thing to do was see what was inside!! i crumbled the mud between my fingers and oh my god! 7 spiders fell to the ground! holy shit!!! i was not expecting that! we poked and prodded and they appeared to be dead. what the hell was going on? i had a sneaky suspision that there might be a wasp involved and after a google search of mud wasp spider we found the answer. mud dauber. so fucking cool! the mud dauber wasp builds a mud tube, then hunts for spiders, stinging and paralyzing them then carrying them into the mud tube. THEN, she lays an egg on one of the spiders, closes up the hole and leaves forever, her young to hatch and grow on the spiders!
i've seen a video about other parasytic wasps but holy crap! this thing was on my shirt!
read more about it here. although i don't think it was a pipe organ wasp. the ones flying in and out of my cabin are black and yellow.
http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek020401.html

guess who ate a watermelon from the field today! oh hells yeah!

in these moments when there's time to wonder around the farm i find peace in the beauty of onion blossoms and beetles hiding out inside mariposa lilies. i dream of days laying amidst flowers like these with someone i love. on my own farm, watching the insects fly by against the blue sky and calling out images the clouds are making with my daughter. then i think about what i might dream if that was in fact my life. would i dream of being a lonely intern with nothing? i wonder.

"ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering.
there's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."
written on this wonderful planter filled with sunflowers and corn on the streets in san francisco.
makes me so happy.

this week....

tomatoes!!!! hot, hot days. strawberry basil crumble. fox in the morning. bear in the trash. mariposa lillies. lots of ice cream. even more flies and mosquitos. 6 stitches. reflection. a much needed break.