Surprises in the backyard

This past weekend, since it was warm I felt it was time to transplant root-bound plants to larger containers. I was surprised to find so many of the potted plants had grown during the past month.

All of the potted salvia plants needed to be re-potted. Although we bought several large sacks of organic potting soil, the issue became finding enough larger pots at home for transplanting. In the process, as I dug through the soil of a pot that held a large sunflower plant last year, I noticed this large blue glass marble in the soil.

How odd, I don't remember ever seeing this marble before.

Another mystery - what critter deposited the marble in the soil...

The marble's coloring reminds me of our planet Earth, and in the image above, the little bits of matter in the soil look like stars in the dark universe.

While I was transplanting the lavender and salvia plants to larger containers, honey bees kept buzzing near me. At first I couldn't figure out what was attracting them. Then I realized that the damp soil was what they were after, probably wanting the water in soil. I keep meaning to create a bee bath (something like a bird bath), but need to do more research about that.