Have you ever needed to move a bumblebee nest?   We discovered a nest under the basketball hoop on the driveway when the guys came to sealcoat.   To move it, I waited until dusk. Then I grabbed a terra cotta pot that was a little bigger than the nest...  and my pizza peel from kitchen.   I placed the pot over the nest and then slid the peel under the pot.    As I was carrying the nest, the buzzing sound from inside the pot was tremendous.   I moved the nest about 10 feet away into a shaded and out-of-the-way spot in the garden. Then, I cut a 10 inch piece of 1inch tubing from my irrigation system and slipped that under the pot to elevate the pot a bit and to give the bees a way to fly in and out from under the pot.        Brevities   #OTD     It was on this day in 1797, that Charles Newbold patented the first cast iron plough.    Farmers were worried that the iron would negatively effect the soil.           #OTD   It was on this day in 1880, that the Chicago Tribune wrote an article about the herbarium of Dr. Charles Christopher Perry; it contained 15,000 species and it was being presented to the Davenport Academy of Sciences.     Thirty years earlier, in 1850, Perry had written to the botanist John Torrey, he said:   "I here found a new species of pine growing in sheltered places bout the bluff. Its characters are so unique …. if new I wish it with your permission to bear the name Pinus Torreyana…”   Besides the Torrey Pine, Harry discovered the Colorado Blue Spruce on Pikes Peak in 1862.   Colorado made its official state tree in 1939.          #OTD    On this day in 1967, The Rolling Stones compilation album “Flowers” was released.    It included three previously unreleased tracks – “My Girl”, “Ride On, Baby”, and “Sittin’ on a Fence”.         #OTD   And it's the anniversary of the death of the ornithologist, Margaret Morse Nice, who died on this day in 1974.   Nice developed a close bond with nature, especially birds; it was deepened with her hobby of gardening and frequent walks.   In 1939 nice wrote these words in the opening pages of her book, The Watcher at the Nest:   “The land was defended and won by age-old ceremonies and fierce battle…. Their conflicts with each other and their neighbors, their luck with their wives and devotion to their babies… the fortunes of their sons and daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren—all these were watched season in and season out until tragedy overtook them.”    It's hard to believe when you hear that passage that Nice is referring to song sparrows.   She was the scientific outsider. She conducted all of her groundbreaking studies at home, in her backyard in Ohio, while she was busy raising a family of five children.     Unearthed Words Why Was June Made? by Annette Wynne Why was June made?—Can you guess? June was made for happiness! Even the trees Know this, and the breeze That loves to play Outside all day, And never is too bold or rough, Like March's wind, but just a tiny blow's enough; And all the fields know This is so— June was not made for wind and stress, June was made for happiness; Little happy daisy faces Show it in the meadow places, And they call out when I pass, "Stay and play here in the grass." June was made for happy things, Boats and flowers, stars and wings, Not for wind and stress, June was made for happiness!       Today's book recommendation: 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names by Diana Wells Diana knows that every flower tells the story and she's collected some of the very best stories about our flowers. Once in an interview Diana said, "If we fail to remember the history of our flowers we know them less and to trace their link with us is to make them part of our lives."  Here is a good example of Diana's storytelling ability when it comes to flowers. This one's about lilacs: "American settlers planted lilacs in front of farmhouse doors, not for usefulness but for beauty, while they struggled to make a new life in the wilderness. Sometime