BLUE DELPHINIUM BRIDAL BOUQUET

Thank you for visiting Andrew’s Reclaimed, and for taking a look at my newest line of boxes for the gentle blue-black, amazing mason bee.

This garden accessory, once populated with bees, is sure to bring more fruit and vegetables to your garden, and do so in an eco-friendly way.

CAPACITY

The Mason Mansion, with 23 1/2 linear feet of smoothly and precisely milled 5 3/4" long tunnels, has 2 1/2 times the capacity of my Mason Bee Block Size 2, which makes this an excellent value for a medium sized garden.

FEATURES

One unique feature of these Osmia Lodge Mason Bee Boxes is the grooves. Terminating 3/8" from the end, no straws are necessary. By simply removing four bolts from the bottom, the Osmia Lodge will come apart easily for cleaning, or for removing the mason bee coccoons. Carefully drilled bolt holes, precisely sawn parts, and quality hardware make this a bee box that you may rely on year after year.

INSTALLATION

With these carefully milled Mason Bee Boxes, you can bring greater yields from your garden. Simply hang it near your garden, preferably facing East or South, in a sunny spot where the box will be sheltered. An ideal location is on a wall that will receive morning sunlight. Also it is best to have some source of mud nearby. If you live in a drier area, a stray drip-line on a small pile of soil works well.

This model comes with its own shelter, and should be placed near many flowering plants, facing sligthly downward, in a fixed location. Shelter assembled with tightly fitting components made from select yellow pine, waterproof glue, and stainless steel hardware.

SPECIES

Although mason bees are one of the most widely dispersed species of bee, there are several other bees that will use this nest block, including the hornfaced bees, leafcutters, and, the later-emerging Osmia Californica, a bee that flourishes in the West and will lay its eggs right about the time the Mason Bees have emerged.

LATE EMERGING SOLITARY BEES

If you live in the Northwest, and select other areas of the continental US, you may be pleasantly surprised to find other species of pollinators moving into remaining unoccupied tunnels after your mason bees have retired for autumn.

MASON BEE ACTIVITY 101. Please don't hesitate to convo should you have any questions about mason bees.

The mason bee is a proven pollinator, superior to the Bumblebee, due to its earlier start in colder temperatures. Their nesting activity starts as early as February in the lower latitudes and elevations, and as late as June in colder areas.

Unable to burrow nests for their young, Mason Bees usually nest in abandoned beetle burrows in dead logs. They have been shown to prefer smooth 5/16” holes, which I mimic precisely, using razor sharp perfectly round tools.

Upon selecting a nest cavity, the female Mason Bee starts collecting mud to build an initial partition at the far end of the nest cavity. Females usually nest near the site from which they emerged, and although solitary, they tend to nest closely together.

Once this partition is ready, she goes out to collect pollen, to provide food for the eggs she will lay in a linear fashion from the bottom of the cavity, mud, pollen egg, mud, pollen egg until the cavity is nearly filled. The final layer is always a heavier deposit of mud, to protect her growing babies from harm. The following spring, the fresh bees emerge, to start the cycle all over again, collecting pollen, and pollinating your garden at the same time.

This particular style bee box may be disassembled in autumn for processing and storage of your mason bee nest coccoons.

MATERIAL

Yellow pine, spruce, or fir, from a mill which abides by 2005-2009 Sustainable Forestry Initiative standards.

Dimensions: 10" x 8" x 9"

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Although Songkran is officially set of April 13th, the festival stretches over four days, each with its different focus and activities.

April 13th--Wan Sungkran Lohng. On this day the people clean their houses and engage in preparations for the new year festival.The Chiangmai Songkran parade takes place on this day with Buddha images, floats, contingents from the province's different districts,musicians and local beauties in traditional costume,all of whom are liberally drenched by the spectators as they march.

April 14th--Wan Nao. On Wan Nao people prepared cooked meals and preserved food of the Buddhist merit-making activities that occur the next day.This is also the day that people go down to the river and gather buckets of sand which are used to construct molded sand chedis, decorated with flowers and paper streamers, in temple courtyards.This practice is an old practice intended to raise the level of the temple grounds.

April 15th--Wan Payawan. On this day the new year begins with early morning merit-making at the temples where the people offer preserved and cooked foods, fresh fruits,robes and other offering goods to the monks.Traditionally this was the day when gentle water play began but this has developed into the aquatic free-for-all that stretches across the entire festival.

The free-for-all of water throwing that greets the visitor to Thailand for his or her first experience of the Songkran Festival represents a development of customs related to the celebration of the Thai astronomical new year that some would say has gotten out of hand.

In the old days people might sprinkle a bit of scented water over your shoulder and wish you a good new year rather than drench you with a plastic bucket of ice water. But one of the important customs of the festival was to take an occasion to pay respects to family elders and persons of influence worthy of respect through the ceremony of rod naam dum hua, or paying respect through the pouring of Songkran water.

According to old Lanna custom, the family and subordinates would approach the elder to be paid respect with a vessel khun oh of water scented with dried flowers, cumin and other herbs. These small heartfelt offerings of lustral water would be poured into a large red lacquerware bowl that was placed before the seated elder. On the table were presents of mohom shirt, multipurpose length of colorful cotton call pa-khao-mah, flowers and useful items.

A representative of the persons paying respect to the elder would then speak on behalf of all the gathering asking the elder to forgive misbehavior and improper attitude on the part of the younger members of the family during the prior year. The elder would then dip his or her hands in the large offering of scented water and rub them over the sides of his head, pronouncing blessings for the new year to the group assembled to pay respect. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the group, led by the elder, would then proceed to the temple of sueb cha-dta or 'life prolonging' ceremony.,

Nowadays, the focus of Songkran is the throwing of water. While inside the city limits of Chiangmai this is allowed by law only on the three days of the festival, rural children indulge in this amusement for as long as two weeks in the time surrounding the festival. Readers who want to enjoy the beauty of the rural countryside around Chiangmai on motorcycle be warned and dress appropriately. Also be warned that Songkran revelers will frequently aim their water throwing at a motorcyclist with the face as a target or at the spark plug in order to kill the engine and drench their immobilized victim at leisure. Train travellers in non-air-conditioned coaches might want to watch the open windows, as these are favored targets of water throwers and hurlers of giant water balloons.