Update: Gratitude, Books, and Bees

First, I want to let you know how much I appreciate you, my followers and readers. Sometime in May, I passed 2000 followers! What a surprise! It seems these things happen when I’m not watching the numbers. I wish I could read every post of every follower, and while that might be possible, life calls me to a variety of responsibilities and adventures. I do enjoy learning about people from all over the world as we share our ideas, hopes and dreams. Thank you for your patience and your support!

♥ ♥ ♥

Next up, my story, “I Almost Gave Up on Romance,” is now available in

The Miracle of Love. 

I’d submitted stories to Chicken Soup for the Soul twice before, but they weren’t accepted. Another reminder to persevere!  As I begin reading The Miracle of Love, I’m finding the stories rejuvenating and easy-to-read.

If you’d like the juicy (and mostly clean) details of my story, just click on my book, Trust the Timing, up on the right side bar for more information.

 

And now to the BEES!

A little while ago I mentioned about the bees in the wall at my church and our plan to bring them to our backyard. It took a couple of weeks to get everything ready including putting up a fence around the bee area to keep Doodle out. Then we had to wait for the rain to stop. During that waiting, David noticed fewer bees coming out of holes in the brick and wondered if they’d “swarmed” to a new location.

On Monday, he opened up the wall while I handed him stuff and took pictures.

Once David opened up another section of wall, he discovered there were only a only few hundred bees and no brood. Most hives have several thousand bees. The original hive had swarmed. The bees present were likely “robber” bees from another hive attracted to the remaining honey. I prefer to think of them as scavenger bees doing a job.

David vacuumed the bees out of the wall with a very gentle vacuum he built himself.  The inside of the hose was smooth which is extremely important for bee survival. I’d been worried about this common procedure, but it worked.

Since this collection of bees was not really a hive (there was no queen), David decided to let them go. When he opened the box outside, hundreds of bees immediately flew away – hopefully to their own hive. A small group hung around getting their bearings, but went home before dark.

Being an aspiring vegan, I’m not 100% comfortable with this whole process, though it is interesting. David, who jokes about being allergic to fun, greatly enjoys working with bees. He had fun even though he didn’t get to bring home a hive. So I’m supporting him in this interest and learning a lot about bees myself. Besides, the  bees could not stay in our church wall, especially since our music director is allergic to them. The more I learn about bees, the more I appreciate them. As pollinators, they are part of a wonderful system and responsible for most of the food we eat.

Here’s a moving video about compassion for one special bee.

The Beauty of Pollination

Watching this is in full screen was a natural high for me. My favorite part seeing the baby bat riding on its mama. The pollination process gets me marveling at the grand design of our planet. Enjoy, thanks to Brighter World Press.

Brighter World Press

This photography and music of this brief video left me absolutely spellbound.  It captures the beauty of nature in a way that simply cannot be believed!  I had to watch it twice–and each time I noticed something new.  My favorite parts are the hummingbird spinning as he chases a bee (about 30 seconds in) and the bat carrying its young one as it feeds on cactus nectar.  Be sure to watch in HD if possible and do have your sound on to enjoy the wonderful music that accompanies the video!

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Let Them Be!

Big fat bees buzz around my deck this time of year. They bore into the wood beams  holding the deck roof up, so I think they are carpenter bees. But they remind me of bumble bees. Maybe I’ll study that more to find out. Or maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll just let them be.

They are not aggressive bees, but there are a lot of them right now, buzzing around me when I go outside, like I’m invading their space. Like I’m some big giant…., dang, how redundant can I be?  They leave sawdust around from the holes they create, but I don’t believe they will damage the wood enough to worry about. They’ve been coming back every spring for a few years now.

Once, one of them got in the house by riding in on my hair. I didn’t know it hitched a ride; I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose. Sometimes they bang into me and make me jump. But they’ve never stung me. I will try to stay calm and co-exist, because all bees are pollinators. We need pollinators. They do us a big favor. Without bees, we would be in big trouble.  I think I’ll do more than co-exist. I think maybe I’ll try to send good vibes out to these busy bees. I wonder if they like the dogwoods that are blooming like crazy around here. Mostly, I think they are waiting for the Rose of Sharon bushes, that sometimes look like trees, to bloom. It won’t be long my buzzy friends!

Photo from my back yard.

Today’s SoCS post prompt was, “be.”

If you wanna be part of the Saturday Stream of Consciousness posting, visit Linda’s blog at the link below. And don’t be fooled by her April fool’s prompt joke. 🙂

There’s no Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS April 2/16

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!