The Bee

This blooming orchid lives, for the time being, in our living room. I used that celery vase, the green one with the face, to prop up its stem because it's the only vase tall enough to keep the flowers from dragging on the windowsill. It's pretty, but the reason I'm posting it is the bee in the upper left of the photo.

That bee has become obsessed with the orchid. (I assume it's only one bee, but I suppose it could be several. I haven't seen more than one at a time.) It flew inside a few days ago and, as I do with all bees that come inside, I got a magazine and gently shooed it out the window. This is not an easy task because the bees often don't cooperate, but I managed. It was back minutes later.

And it's come back every day since, flying in and out on its own. Yesterday I caught it in a drinking glass and took it out to the middle of the back garden, thinking that might be far enough away to keep it out of the house. No! About fifteen minutes later, there it was again.

I have no objection to an infatuated bee courting our orchid. I just don't want it to die in the house, as sometimes happens when insects get trapped in here. But it seems to know what it's doing, so from now on I'm leaving it alone.

I don't remember any insect showing an interest in our orchids before, but apparently bees do pollinate orchids in the wild. So maybe it's just doing its thing. Weirdly, it seems more attached to the leaves than the flowers. I wonder if there are tiny insects on the plant -- scale, maybe -- secreting honeydew and that's attracting the bee.

I took Olga to the cemetery yesterday. It was a very slow walk, but as you can see, she had a lot of fun rolling in the grass. (And I started that video after she'd already been rolling a minute or so, so that's not even her at her most vigorous!)