Time of Flowers/ May Day; Ūsiņš and Ziedu Māte: A God and Goddess to bring Green, Flowers and Bees

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A whitish Crocus flower generousy veined with purple, and bright orange sexy parts. A tiny dark wild bee has just climbed out of the centre, and is at the top of a petal, some pollen grains clinging. The title text is over the image in alternating lines of orange and mid-violet-red in varying font sizes.

 
The text First Flowers, First Pollinators: Bees and Flies on Pussywillows and Aspens in yellow and red appears across the top of a large open many branched pussywillow, seen against blue sky. The image is framed in black and white (as was the first title image).

NOTE: I originally started a post showcasing the first bees on the first flowers- wild Aspen and Willow catkins, then the earliest flowers in the garden. Since I hadn't finished that one, and wanted to move on to May Day/Ūsiņš, I decided to combine them, since Ūsiņš is associated with bees in Latvia, and this year's post was going to be mainly about bees anyway, so-more photos in this post, even an extra title photo, since I already had the first one ready!

A fuzzy looking honeybee is working on a dangling Aspen catkin- it is covered in grey clumps of fuzz between pollen clusters, many pinkish-red unopened, The twig is greeny grey with shiny red-brown leaf buds; and background blurred blue-grey
Honeybees on Aspens, even though they are supposed to be wind pollinated


Another Cross-quarter day has come around- the actual date May 04, this year. As usual, there are various traditional celebrations orbiting this date, fixed at one day or another for calendrical and/or religious accommodation reasons (e.g. to align with Christian Saint Days). So we have Beltane, the Celtic beginning of Summer and May Day both typically observed on May 01. In the Latvian tradition we have Ūsiņš Day which should be placed on the Cross-quarter day but has been conflated with Jurģi/ Christian Saint George Day on April 23. I look at possible origins, and speculate on (invent?) a possible partnership with Ziedu Māte/Flower Mother in this post: Ūsiņš Day 


Looking up at the upper parts of some mostly not too thick Aspen trees with some green spruce visible behind. Trhunks are whitish with black marks around branches etc, branches greeny grey. Upper parts are fuzzed by many catkins. Sky is deep blue


In all cases, these are celebrations of greening and florescence, of moving into the richness of life in summer, of agrarian seasonal schedules (e.g. traditonally Latvians change horses' pasturing at this time). The Latvian tradition divides the year into seasons, and Ūsiņš Day marks the beginning of the Time of Flowers- while I'd hesitate to say summer is truly beginning here, flowers are appearing daily in my gardens and just beginning now in the wild (including the catkins of poplars and willows, we can extend that season back a few weeks). Ūsiņš is also associated with bees, certainly an important part of spring and flowering season! Honeybees make an early appearance here, visiting poplars and willows, and native bees and other pollinators begin to show up as more willows open flowers and things pop up in the rock and woodland gardens.


A medium sized fly, which at first glance seems black, but on closer look is splendidly iridescent with green and blue and a hint of red on its wings. It sits on a male pussywillow which has opened its tiny flowers- the many thread-like pollen bearing stamens emerging from teh silivery fuzx.
Bees get all the glory, but many flies are important pollinators

Early spring here is a time of melting, thawing, a slow awakening. Now we celebrate the next stage as flowers and buzzing life return, the creeping green that begins in sunny or watery spots slowly spreads and soon the trees will burst forth a new season's leaves!

Honeybee sits on one side of a vertical red willow stem, facing the ground, on the other side a single pussywillow with some open pollen bearing stames, some unopened showing the reddish casing.
Even the very first scattered willows to open flowers manage to attract honeybees!

Wishing you a Beautiful Time of Flowers, and (belatedly now, but I think the season still applies!) Blessed Ūsiņš Day, Happy May Day, Blessed Beltane- may your summer be bountiful. (And a Beautiful Autumn to those on the opposite side of the Sun's path!)
Now: some videos and more photos!


Videos, recorded from April 14 to May 08 Bees on catkins and garden flowers.
The initial videos are hosted on YouTube. At the end of the post I will include links to Spectra which is part of the Fediverse, operating on Peertube which is a decentralised and non-corporate video hosting service for those who prefer such things! (like Mastodon etc- feel free to ask me if you want to know what that's all about). The videos are the same, though the Spectra version is usually a smaller file size.

           1-Spring has Sprung: Buzzy Bees Fuzzy Flowers!


           2-Happy Bees, Hangry Cow? Bees on Aspens


            3-Bees + Pussywillows! That's Spring 



           4-Itsy Bitsy Bees on Spring Flowers + Honeybees on                                Pussywillows 



           5-Bees and Flowers! Spring Rock Garden



While growing native plants is important, and I have many both growing wild all over the acreage, in gardens and in 'marginal garden' areas, non-native plants can also greatly extend the flowering season, and native bees take full advantage. Spring flowering bulbs, woodlanders, alpines etc. in the gardens  are flowering before any natives other than tree catkins start, and are in mass flowering when only the very first couple of wildflowers have started in scattered locations. Below: tiny bees in one of the rock gardens, enjoying some of the first Crocus flowers, and a Bumblebee Queen looking at Cardamine glanduligera.

the same/same kind of tiny dark native bee witha bit of iridescence , pale fuzz on legs, head, upper body and faint stripes on abdomen, sits on the edge of a bright yellow Crocus flower. It is dotted with grains of pollen matching the flower

A tiny native bee. mostly black with some light fuzz climbs up out of a Crocus flower, whitish with generous purple veining and orange sex parts.

The same tiny bee as previous two photos, in close view of its head as it emerges from the flower, its pale fuzz dusted with golden pollen

Large bumblebee queen pale gold with black head, legs, 'shoulder' spot and black band toward 'tail' with an orange band below that. She's carrying an orange clump of pollen and hovering in front of several pink-purple sort of trumpet shaped flowers, several on each of several plants with bare stems half a foot above the soil and just opened palmate foliage above the flowers.


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As usual, if you love an image, it could be loaded to any of the print on demand sites as cards, prints, mugs, clothing etc. Haven't played with any of those for a while, hope to get back at them soon.

Now, those Spectra video links I promised:












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