Backyard Blessings
I could not believe my luck when I had a front row seat to the miracle of life.
As I sat on my deck observing the birds and blooms come to life in the morning sunlight, a mason bee flew under my chair. After a minute or so, it flew out. I wonder what she’s doing? I thought.
Paying close attention, I watched as she made several more trips to my chair. Finally, I got up and examined the underside. There, I saw a small hole in the chair slat where a screw was missing. The mason bee crawled into it.
What a feeling of pure joy and delight I had. She was building her brood in the chair slat, and I got to see it happen!
I sat down on the deck and watched as she made trip after trip, crawling into the hole, then crawling out and flying away. I pictured her laying each egg and putting up her tiny mud partition. First thing the next morning, I checked the chair. Ms. Mason Bee was nowhere in sight, but the hole was plugged with mud.
She had chosen my chair for her babies; I was honored. But I was sad and sorry, too. The lifespan of a female mason bee is just five or six weeks, and I knew she would not live to see her brood emerge the next spring. With a sense of responsibility, I vowed I would do everything I could to make sure they survived.
Summer was very hot. Every day, the sun heated our deck to 90 degrees. Like a doting mother, I covered the chair with a towel and ordered it off limits.
All through the rainy, cool fall, I wondered about the bees. Every week or so, I checked the chair to see if the plug was still there. Then winter arrived—bitter cold with piles of snow.
Spring came late, colder than usual, with rain and fog and frost on the lawn. But the plug remained. I hoped the bees were waiting for better weather. In April, I began checking the plug every morning. I wanted to catch the bees as they emerged. Though the weather had turned warm and sunny, the plug was still there. I was losing hope.
The morning before Easter, I checked again. The plug was gone. “They made it!” I told my husband.
Two days later, a new Ms. Mason Bee buzzed about my lawn chair. Nature is so amazing.