Chapter 2 The Wild Stone Garden
My biggest wish was to be able to build a laboratory in the wild. But at that time, I was busy running around every day to make a living, and that kind of wish was like a fantasy for me. I've been living this dream for 40 years. I dreamed of getting a small piece of land, hedged around it, and leaving it to be exposed to the sun, barren, overgrown with thorns and weeds, and finally an ideal environment for wasps and bees to grow. In such an environment, I was able to observe and experiment with my insect friends without being disturbed and with peace of mind. Working on such a small plot of land eliminates the need for extra time and energy on hiking trips, allowing me to concentrate more on my insect friends.
Fortunately, my wish finally came true. In a secluded corner of a small village I was given a small plot of land, covered with red clay mixed with stones, and there were traces of the land that had been cultivated. The locals told me that vines and thyme used to grow here – much to my chagrin because the farmers had removed the plants with their forks. I had to replant the lush thyme here as a hunting ground for the bee colony.
This is the paradise that I have earned for forty years of struggle!
My seemingly strange and inhospitable country has indeed become a happy hunting ground for bees and wasps. I've never seen so many kinds of insects in the same place before!Behold, there's a kind of sewing bee out there. It peels away the veins of the reticulated leaves beneath the yellow paulownia flowers, proudly using its jaws to carry the filling wrapped in the net—it will store these things in the ground for honey and eggs. There is also a swarm of leaf-cutting bees that plan to go to the neighboring woods and wrap their harvest today by cutting the leaves into small round pieces with black, white or blood-red brushes underneath their bodies. There's also a colony of plasterer bees that look like they're clad in black velvet, and they love to mix mud with sand and gravel. Traces of their work have been left on many of the stones of this land. Many wild bees also make their home here. Some build their nests in spiral-shaped empty snail shells, some live in the trenches of hollow reeds, and some even live in empty tunnels left by plasterer bees......
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I built what I called "walls" around the land—piles of fine sand and gravel everywhere. The waste pile, which the construction workers turned a blind eye to, was soon taken over by various households. The plasterer bee used the gap between the stones as a bedroom. The lizard also chose a nearby cave to wait for the dung beetles passing by. The thrush, dressed in black and white feathers, resembles a black-clad friar, sitting on a stone and repeating simple tunes. It is not known if the nest with the blue eggs can be found in the rocks, and the little friar disappeared among them. This makes me feel terrible, knowing that they are really cute little neighbors.
In the mound of sand are other inhabitants - burrowing bees and hunting bees. They spend their days trying to hunt down wriggling little caterpillars. The most amazing thing is that a giant wasp goes out to hunt venomous spiders – the dirt is home to a large number of spiders. You can also see huge ant colonies marching in long queues, and they are confident that they are ready to hunt down formidable opponents.
In addition to these insect friends, the nearby woods are inhabited by many birds - nightingales, sparrows, owls, and frogs everywhere in the pools of the woods. As soon as May arrived, the restless frogs volunteered to form a band and sing deafening songs.
All these insects and animals, all these friends I already know, they live here, they hunt, they nest, they raise their offspring. If I'm going to change the viewing location, I'm just a little bit of a walk away from the mountains where wild strawberries, cistus roses, and heather grow. There are also muddy and sandy slopes. It was in foresight of such a treasure that I escaped from the city and came to the countryside of Cerion, where I was obsessed with weeding and irrigating my turnips and lettuce.
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