Saturday this and that . . .

 

How doth the little busy bee

improve each shining hour,

and gather honey all the day,

from every shining flower.

How skillfully she builds her cell,

How neat she spreads the wax,

And labours hard to store it well,

with the sweet food she makes.

~Isaac Watts  

I have long held a certain fascination for bees.  Bees pollinate about a third of everything we eat, and play vital roles in helping to sustain our planets eco-systems. I can remember as a child going to the Scotian Gold Plant in Cambridge, Nova Scotia, where they had a glass window into a beehive where you could watch the bees at work. This was always one of my favourite things to see.

When we lived in Meaford, Ontario, our landlord had hives and my ex and the boys often helped him to gather the honey from them.  He used an old wringer washing machine to extract the honey from the combs. It was a fascinating process.   

There is an apocalyptic quote attributed to Albert Einstein (although there is no proof he actually said it): “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years left to live.” It resonates with people as a plausible consequence of the bee’s demise. While the timescale is wildly exaggerated and fails to take into account man’s ingenuity, it highlights how mankind’s survival has been inextricably linked to bees.

Bees are our friends.

Never, ever harm a bee if you can help it.

 

You can learn a lot from watching bees.  Valuable lessons that  we can carry with us and apply to almost every aspect of our lives. 

1. No Bee Stands Alone.
Whilst bees are fully invested with the skills to go about their tasks independantly, they all know it is best to work together as a team. Did you know that they switch jobs throughout their lives? Its true. All stages help to ensure that the hives run efficiently. Before they become foragers (in the last couple of weeks of their lives), they tend to the hive, working as nursemaids, caretakers, cleaners, honeycomb builders, nectar ripeners, pollen packers and hive repairers.   As they age, they begin public work of collecting water, pollen, nectar, and propolis. Propolis is the thick wax which holds the hive together. They work with the house bees to appropriately store and utilize their goods. It is truly a family/community affair.

 

 

2. Bees always give 100%.
The relationships between bees are not 50/50 partnerships or competitions. If a job needs doing, any available bee will hop to it. This helps to make their community both efficient and harmonious in a way that is seldom seen in human society. They don't ask questitons. They just dig in and get whatever needs to be done . . .  done.

In some cases, if the Queen becomes ill or dies, a worker bee will even lay eggs to help protect the genetic legacy of the hive. Although a female worker bee can't fertilize the egg, a male drone will be created through the process of parthenogenisis. The colony still dies out . . .  female worker bees are needed to help the colony thrive, but the drones go out and mate with other colonie's Queens, ensuring that the health of the larger bee community is maintained, even as the local hive dies.

 

 

3. Bees leave legacies.
Bees and flowers communicate with each other. Researchers have found that not only can bees read the negative charge of plants, but that the positive charge acquired by bees as they fly through the air reacts with the electrical field of the plants they come in contact with during their nectar and pollen collection.  Bees flying by effected plants somehow know to avoid them until the flower is able to  regenerate its resources.

Flowers simply don't want to attract bees and then fail to provide nectar. This is a great lesson in honesty and trust, and relationships  . . .  between the flowers and the bees.

 

4. Bees have each other's backs, literally
 If a bee has an itchy back, another bee won't hesitate to jump aboard and determine the source of he itch. A worker bee in need of grooming will dance to signal their need for assistance until a fellow worker comes to her aid. In addition to basic maintenance, worker bees don't hesitate to share information about the best plants by using a type of "Dance" to give precise directions to the source. Through a complex and patient communication dance, bees work together to ensure that their colony survives.

This model for precision, and a compassionate community can ony be achieved through being attentive, practicing great communication and not being afraid of hard work.

We can learn a lot from bees! 

 

This was the view out my back door this morning.  We had a bit of much needed rain yesterday, but the skies seem to be clearing at the moment.  There are plenty of clouds still around however, and some of them are dark, so we are probably not out of the woods yet! 

  

This fat guy was making his way across the paving stones on the patio . . .  rain always brings out the slugs.  Sometimes I even find slug trails in our kitchen across the tiles and on the carpet in front of the sink.  Long gone by the time I get up of course, but  . . . .  shudder  . . . . Maybe each night I should put a smattering of salt in front of the door.  I think I will. 

I hate the thoughts of these things partying on down in the kitchen 

while I sleep.

 

You can see how sad the garden is starting to look now  . . .  with very little rain all summer . . . things are not lasting like they normally do.  And I can see the leaves changing on the trees as well.  It seems to early to me, but then again, we are heading into the last week of August. 

 Where has the summer gone????

Whooosh . . . .

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *If you never heal from that hurt,

you'll bleed on people 

who didn't cut you.

~Unknown•。★★ 。* 。

 

In the kitchen today  . . . Polka Dot Pettitcoat Tails.  Buttery, crumbly and so good with a hot cuppa. I used three jams, fig, blackberry and apricot.  They are pretty hard to resist.

Have a fabulous Saturday.  I will be finely tuning my lesson for tomorrow.  I hope it goes well.  Don't forget!

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and I do too!