Zombie Bumblebee Races: Onward, Trusty Steed!

First, let me apologize for posting a photo that includes a deceased bumblebee. If it makes anyone sad, I am very sorry. I do not mean to offend, or to make light of this tiny tragedy in my yard.

But honestly, I didn't know he was deceased at the point where I started taking pictures: I thought he was just sleeping. I did think it unusual that he was being so obliging, as I posed the crittergators on and around him. (And let me interject at this point: getting even crittergators and other objects to behave in the way you want them to for a picture is often much more difficult than one might think. Perhaps not as bad as children and puppies, but still . . . )

Crittergators, as you know from my past photos, are opportunists, who will pose with or ride anything that will hold still long enough. Take, for instance, the rhizome races, in which they pressed two irises into service for a madcap race around the yard.

Likewise, this crittergator was hopeful that this steed would yield an adventurous twirl around the yard. Physics experts may tell us that live bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly; and I can only imagine what pejorative words they'd have to share about the flying prospects of dead ones.

However, zombie bumblebees can reach speeds much higher than one might expect. In the flash of an eye, they are off! And then back again!

It may soothe some tender-hearted viewers to know that this bee - as do all creatures in my yard - enjoyed a good life, full of tasty flowers, sunny moments, and shady green bowers. He had not a mark on him; I can only presume he died quietly, in his sleep. Oh that we should all be likewise favored by the fates.

He will be interred with all due pomp and circumstance - and some quiet but meaningful words of thanks for all his important work in the Pollination Sector of my yard denizens - in a quiet corner of my butterfly garden among his major loves in life: the echinacea, the monarda, and the sweet globe thistle.