Happy Bee Year 2016 - It's Finally Cold

In Atlanta, it is finally cold and the bees are clustering (and hopefully alive). They have had countless days to fly. As is typical of January in the south, there are some blooming plants so the bees can find pollen and some nectar from outliers like Fatsia Japonica:

As I walked the dog, I saw camellia in bloom and the bees are often on it. Unlike the day I took the photos above, the day I shot the camellia was too cold for bees, but here is the camellia anyway:

While my own rosemary is not in bloom, I saw several rosemary varieties that were:

And although I didn't get its picture, mahonia is in bloom as well. I passed one in bloom while walking Hannah and thought, oh, I'll get the next one and there was no next one! Here's a photo of it from the Internet. When the bloom is finished, dark blue berries appear. The bees love the flowers and the birds love the berries - isn't nature grand!