• Tuesday-What'sUP September 26 - 09:24 am

As the temperatures get cooler, we'll be seeing less of the buzzing bees, so Kathy Archambeau has been enjoying watching them each morning, as they wake up from their snooze, deep inside her Hollyhocks. They sure picked a beautiful place to call it a night, with the pretty colors surrounding them. These flower 'beds' (pun intended), must seem like the ultimate bed and breakfast for the bees, since they just have to rouse themselves out of their sleep and they're treated to a breakfast of sweet nectar from the flowers.

Very soon, now, the bees will be gone for the season. I don't really know much about bees, so I'm wondering if they hibernate, migrate somewhere else or if they just die off? Are there any beekeepers out in Pasty Cam Land that can fill us in on their activities for fall and winter? Thank you in advance!

These are GORGEOUS! I love hollyhocks or "alley flowers" as
my mom used to call them. Wow, these bring back some
fun childhood memories, thanks.
We woke up on Munising Bay this morning--it's so
wonderful to be back in the UP.

I love Hollyhocks . These giant flowers attract bees and hummers and bloom for a long time.Great pics!

Those are really pretty hollyhocks. I have never seen hollyhock flowers up close before; I had just seen the tall plants from a distance. Thank you, Kathy and Mary. :-)

Count me as one of the lovers of hollyhocks. We had several stands of them in our yard...along with sunflowers. Brings back memories.:)

Nice to see these in bloom again! Their season is gone here.

marilynnB-- You sure brought back some wonderful memories when you referred to hollyhocks as "alley flowers". As a child I lived on the east end of Houghton and our alley fence was covered with these flowers. We would close up the flower from the back side and capture the bee, then drop them into a mason jar. Of course when we got tired of that game we would let them go. Hollyhocks, the alley, the '30----- what wonderful times.

Neat photos of a parade of boats on the Portage Canal on yesterday's Pasty Cam. They were posted in the evening, so here's a link to check out the series of photos, in case you missed them.
Sept. 23, 2013 Pasty Cam photos

One of the first things we noticed upon becoming home owners in the Keweenaw is the large variety of "bees"... honey bees, wild bees, yellow jackets, wasps, hornets and bald-face hornets. The bald-face guys made a good size home under our deck two years running, and let me tell you, they were a tough adversary to remove. When cutting the grass I try to leave patches of wild flowers so there's something to draw the bees into the yard. Honey bees and wild bees will hibernate thru the winter feeding on the product of their summer's work. Yellow jackets, hronets and wasps leave only the eggs for the next generation and die off when the deep cold sets in.

Wonderful memories of my cousin and I making hollyhock
dolls!

Suomiyooper: My cousins and I made hollyhock dolls too. Did you
connect the parts with a toothpick?

Beautiful flowers!

Yes! I remember growing up in Detroit and those flowers were always called "alley flowers". I didn't learn the name Hollyhock until I was a teenager.

JohnofMI...We lived in Detroit, too and I remember those flowers always growing in the backyards by the alley. As kids, we would trap the bees inside the flowers, shake the heck out of ‘em, let them lose and run.
We lived on the edge :-)

Beautiful Pictures.!!!!love the hollyhocks...

Look how many of us love hollyhocks! Count me in!
And like Ann, I used to make hollyhock dolls. Such
lovely memories of them. Thanks for the lovely
pictures today.

Oh, and kosk, too. Yes, my sister and I connected
the parts with toothpicks. So simple and so much
fun!

The hollyhock dolls are so cute. To bad they can not be prserved somehow, to last longer.

Hollyhocks...I love them. Spent many a summer afternoon making
hollyhock dolls. The pictures today are some of the nicest ones of
this flower I have ever seen. Thank you Kathy Archambeau for
sharing them with all of us.

Eugenia--Didn't those little dolls look elegant for the few hours
they lasted?

Great pictures from my cousin again!! Love hollyhocks. I remember when my family lived on Main St in South Range, there was an alley behind our apartment with hollyhocks growing. They were so beautiful!!