I drew this in my backyard garden. The honeybees were having a hard time that summer, but the bumblebees seemed to be doing well, perhaps because they were filling in a few gaps. When I first moved to Shirley, every summer seemed to have a theme. For the summer of '96, the theme was bumblebees.

Besides the bumblebee, the main actor is a purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) whose luxuriant leaves and audacious color combinations sucked me in. Another conté crayon creation I believe.

August 21, 1996