First bumblebee.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Sometimes you get the shot. Our first bumblebee of the season, and decidedly unbothered by my presence. then again, he had the catmint blossoms all to himself, so I suppose that's a pretty good incentive.

One of a few such bright spots in a day that I dread every year. Not enough of them to make it a good day, but it's something. This is one of the worst days of the year for me, always, and I always envy the people who have good memories around it. I don't, and I never will. It doesn't help that it always occurs on or around the 11th, and that date, tomorrow, is another marker I'd rather not have to remember.

 But tomorrow, at least, I expect to be a lot busier in other ways, and there won't be all the commercial reminders everywhere, shoving it in my face. 

Meanwhile, everything still has to get paid, and after paying out taxes in cash, in full, and now the last couple of week's costs? We've got to recover a lot of that if we're going to make it through the year. And we've got to maintain it, because we've also got big costs [the side exterior door, for one; the flue cleanings for another; and a set of tires for the truck for a third] immediately ahead. But I have got to get us caught up on this awful year in terms of sales. Those two new pairs of earrings I am determined will go up later tonight [::sigh:: no, they're STILL not up, because see above], and there's a ton of newish work on the site. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [and I'm going to be adding new items, because we are literally tapped out; right now, we're almost out of chile and traditional wild rice, both of which are at the top and top priority];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, and so far, it's been very grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.