The Purple Wonder.

I think I inadvertently did something really good for the bees this week. And the more I think about it, the more I wonder if it was fate's way of giving me a celestial fist bump to acknowledge my efforts.

Or maybe it was just plain laziness.

Behold, the enormous car-sized foliage that is threatening to overtake my entire driveway. It's like nature is trying to reclaim our land, and no matter how hard I try to make it think otherwise, it is rather insistent on claiming the asphalt for itself.

I'm not a master gardener (Despite my efforts to the contrary. I once tried to grow an African Violet and it bit the dust before I even got it home from the store), so I have no idea how to even identify half of what's growing along the side of our driveway. What's even more confusing to me, is my long-standing track record of planticide (see previous statement regarding African Violets and substitute any plant in it's place. I probably murdered it at some point.). For some bizarre reason, the thing growing along the side of our driveway likes me. It really, really, does.

The berry-laden tendrils reach out to tickle me whenever they see Pondscum and Fresh Powder (actually, Yousuf recently re-christened it "White Lightning". I think it makes him feel more manly.) creeping up the driveway towards them.

And the little purple star-shaped flowers bow their heads prettily in my direction whenever I take their picture. I swear I'm not imagining it. They're so dainty.

 

It's probably also a weed, which is why it won't go away. Instead, the bush just keeps getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider until it looks like it could cover my entire car with trailing vines of purply-blue stars. If I didn't have to drive anywhere, I might actually leave it the way it is...but alas. Groceries need getting. Trips need taking. And the cars need driving.

I've resisted trimming back this beautiful-big-bush-for-which-I-have-no-name, because it's lovely, it's not hurting anyone, and because I'm a lazy, lazy girl. Plus, I'd rather sit and stare out my window at tiny purple flowers that refuse to wither in my presence, instead of going at them with an implement of death (aka The Dreaded Snippers!). For some inexplicable reason, this plant likes me. And I like it.

We have a mutual admiration thing going on. At least in my head.

But here's the really crazy CRAZY thing that happened on the VERY DAY that I started the To Bee or Not To Bee Do Something Good Giveaway.

I was sitting inside drinking my morning tea after I had just finished putting together the giveaway post, contemplating the feeling of happy satisfaction that I had earned. Looking outside the dining room window at my favorite weed, I caught a flurry of activity from the corner of my eye...but when I looked directly at it, it was gone - just like that.

I looked at a different part of The Purple Wonder and saw it again, a tiny hovering movement that was nearly impossible to discern from inside.

Catching my breath, I wondered...could it bee (punny, I know)? Could it really, really bee...a bee?

I grabbed my camera, and ran. Sweatpants and braless tank top and all, while my uncombed hair stuck up around my head like the South Asian Bride of Frankenstein. I think I even had mismatched flip flops on as I crept around the corner of the house.

A man walking his dog passed by and gawked. I pretended not to notice.

But I sidled closer, with baited breath, and waited.

Until...I saw the tiny, fuzzy, hovering busy little body of....

A BEE!!!

Can you even imagine how excited this made me? It was incredible to see, and I felt SO vindicated about not cutting down that big bushy flowering planty thing taking over my driveway. Clearly it is needed and loved, not just by my but by all the wild bees that are native to my tiny, green, overgrown corner of the world.

The only thing that would make me happier would be to learn the name of The Purple Wonder. I hope it's something beautiful and exotic. Do you know what it's called? Let me know in the comments below.

And while you're at it, please don't forget to enter the Do Something Good Giveaway. It's your last chance to win some really lovely goodies, before 5pm today. And it's so easy to enter too. Maybe you're like me, and have done something wonderful for the bees without even knowing it!

I just love it when life works out that way.