In Joy Emporium: ~~~Gratitude~~~

a humble bumble

waiting watching ~ arrival!

breath ~ peaceful relief

orah

I have to admit I have a little bee arrival anxiety. With all the bee trouble in the world I get a bit angsty in the late spring when I haven't seen the Bumble Bees yet. This week they finally appeared! I am ever so, completely, GRATEFUL for Bees and all the pollinators who make our food possible!! <3

I kept honey bees with my dad when I was a girl. I lived on the edge of suburbia then. We had a larger than average yard and in house that was built before the sprawl started to happen. There was a very large vacant lot across the road for most of my childhood. It did turn into a subdivision in my teens :( Anyways, the beehive was one of my favorite places to hang out as a girl. I would spend hours watching them go in and out of the hive. It was here I learned that nature was peaceful and had no wish to harm. You leave us alone, we will leave you alone. I was never stung while watching the hive even though I sat only inches from their home.

A few year back, before the knowing of Colony Collapse Disorder http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp?gclid=CL-wtrHBxbcCFVSe4AodpmYAqAI thought I might take up beekeeping again. I was worried that my many vegetables and berry plants were not getting enough pollination. So I started researching and preparing for the endeavour. (this was before we had the internet) I read books and contacted Cooperative Extension. This all lead me to a the head Apiarist for the State of Maine. I got him on the phone to get further advice. He was a super curmudgeon! Very gruff with me and wanted to know why I wanted to keep bees anyways!? Well, I went on about my pollenation worries. He cut me off and gave me a speech about only those who truly love the art of beekeeping should be beekeepers and the wild pollinators will serve me just fine! Well! I became more determined than ever to have bees...by golly..who did he think he was...oh yeah the head apiarist..but telling me off...!!?

Meanwhile, I had recently finished the book Behaving As If the God in All Life Mattered by Machaelle Small Wright (see Amazon Link at the side) a book about co-creating with nature and some of the principles of animal communication. I kept getting "messages" not to keep bees. Just one stumbling block after another but I still remained determined! Until one morning I awoke from a very vivid dream. I actually sat bolt upright from my sleep with the vision of the face of a giant bumblebee in my face. I "heard" "we don't want them (domestic bees) here! We will take care of your plants!". I stopped my beekeeping pursuits that day. When late spring finally came that year I never before or have since seen so many bumblebees in my blueberries! You can believe me or not! But, since that day I have believed in animal communication and have taken many more steps to be a co-creative life on this land where I live!

Speaking of animal communication....

Yesterday morning as I was about to start transplanting my tomato teens...I heard Raven not too far off. So we did a little back and forth squawking at each other. I was photographing my planting set up for a future blog when Raven flew right over me and did a little hover flight above me and croaking! It felt like a very nice howdy do! Believe it or not...Raven and I are friends!