I accompanied Fereshteh to her volunteer beekeeping session at Garfield Park in the western part of Chicago. The area around the park is pretty desolate, by contrast, the interior of the conservatory is lush and active. We spent about two and a half hours observing the bees and activity in several hives. I learned a lot from watching the volunteers-- how to spot the honey and the larvae, how to look for eggs (still couldn't see them!), how to pacify the bees (with smoke, but they seemed pretty focused on their tasks already), how to spot full pollen sacs on the bees' legs. Apparently there is an upswing in interest in beekeeping due to concern over Colony Collapse Disorder, so the volunteers had to write essays and make it through a wait-list before beginning their work.
Here I am in the Fern Room; along with the rest of the Conservatory it was designed by landscape architect Jens Jensen and built in 1907-1908. Jensen had immigrated from Denmark and began work in Chicago as a gardener, eventually becoming superintendent of the West Parks; as a designer he is renowned for his invocations of the regional prairie. The Fern Room was his vision of a pre-ice ago "Chicago," with stacked stone representing cliffs, ancient plant species, and watercourses recalling rivers.
The Fern Room was absolutely beautiful. Liverworts blanketed the rocks and diverse textures of green, lush ferns rose above them.
a walk through the Fern Room
Fereshteh and I liked this cactus that reminded us of Cousin It
No comments:
Post a Comment