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The alphabet marches on and we have arrived at “B” week. Naturally, there are many words needing our attention this week--bugs, butterflies, babies, bananas--but one is a can’t miss: bees. It’s particularly handy for teaching the letter, being exactly the same and all, but I have a complicated relationship with bees. I really love honey, but have done the whole honey-retrieval process, including suiting up and puffing out eye-stinging smoke, and would never eat honey if that was the only way I could get it. I am a hard-core pacifist, but experience an almost delirious joy at the idea that a bee I’ve just been stung by has ripped its own guts out and will soon die. I can get on board with the queen concept--giving proper credit to those who actually do the work of procreating is an idea humans could learn from--but feel a little uncomfortable with the drone situation for personal reasons (even though I know they are all boys). What to do? Of course, I may be overthinking things in light of the fact that we’re talking about stories for toddlers, but any two year-old who knows the words to both Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and Elvis’ “Fools Rush In” is obviously picking up messages we don’t even know we’re sending. Regardless of my relationship status with the bee folk, they are fascinating. In Elizabeth Winchester’s Bees!, we learned that one beehive houses 70,000 bees. That’s how many people go to the Superbowl. Who knew?

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Kids-Bees-Editors/dp/0060576421

http://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Winchester/e/B001IR1C6K

I have a rather large, seemingly healthy eggplant…. plant, but no egg plant fruits.

I have watered, I have fertilized I have talked lovingly, wishing it healthy spurts of growth. No eggplants! So I did what every one does…. I asked my mother. “Have you seen any bees?” she said.

Light bulb moment “No I haven’t!” So I did what every one does and looked it up on the internet…. Eggplant … plants drop their flowers before fruit because of the lack of water… meh!   And a lack of pollination… from bees.

Enter my paint brush! I’ve decided to try to do the job of our missing bees. For this I will talk especially lovingly to my eggplant! As I flit from flower to flower I think about how much easier it would be if the bees were able to do their job of spreading the love! As for me… I miss the bees!

A honeybee. Photograph: Judi Bottoni/AP

There’s been really bad news about bees recently. Billions of them have been dying!

Why is this happening?

Most scientists agree that the widespread overuse of pesticides is one of the main causes. These days there are around 120 different pesticides found inside bees, wax and pollen. “We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies,” said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS’s bee research laboratory. The Soil Association has been trying hard to alert us for years about this.

Why are bees so important?

Other than being sort of cute, bees are one of the most effective pollinators on the planet. The honeybee pollinates crops, fruits, vegetables.. everything from apples to nuts, sunflower, coffee, soya beans, carrots and alfafa (used in cattled feed). Turns out that 1/3 of everything we eat depends on bees. Without bees we will face the collapse of the food chain!

So what can we actually do?

Thankfully there are quite a few groups trying to tackle this problem head on. Here are our the ideas we liked best:

So let’s get buzzing, it’s not too late!

White petals are falling from this spring's early blossoms and the lawns and sidewalks are covered with scented confetti, as if festive for the May King and Queen.

On this beautiful first weekend of May I set out with friends to mark the turn of the season with a long walk in the woods. There were trilliums, may apple about to flower, and masses of trout lilies; yellow ones, such I have seen before,
and translucent white ones, which are new to me.On every walk up in these woods I hope to see the deer, but once again only small wildlife showed themselves, like this bright-eyed garter snake beside the path.

Following fresh deer tracks in the mud we found another small field dweller. He was in a hurry and in one hop he was out of the picture frame and away.

3 Comments on Welcome May, last added: 5/4/2010

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Frances said, on 5/2/2010 6:04:00 PM

Hello and thank you for this walk through the woods. Sorry that you didn't see any deer, but so glad that you and your camera did catch so much beauty.

I have never heard of trout lillies! And now I have.

Hoping that you will be able to get those burrs out of your hair. Will gentle brushing do it, or lots of conditioner?

Anyhow. Thank you. Happy belated May Day!

acornmoon said, on 5/3/2010 2:03:00 AM

Happy May Day to you too!

Your delicate illustration is so pretty, you manage to make the make believe believable!

I wonder if you have bluebells in your woods? I don't think we have trout lilies but maybe I am wrong.

How exciting to see a garter snake!

Barry said, on 5/4/2010 3:46:00 PM

Lindsay is famous for getting burrs in her hair too. They go in easy, but they sure hurt coming out.

Hope your hair is back to normal by now.

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45. The Humblebee Hunter

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By: Tasha Saecker, on 4/28/2010
Blog: Kids Lit (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Book Reviews, Picture Books, nature, science, bees, Charles Darwin, Add a tag

The Humblebee Hunter: Inspired by the Life and Experiments of Charles Darwin and His Children by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Jen Corace

Told from the perspective of Etty, one of Charles Darwin’s daughters, this book is an invitation into the lives of the Darwin family.  Etty does not want to stuck inside with her mother and Cook learning to make honey cake.  She would much rather be outside with her father helping with his scientific observations.  The children grew up asking questions just like their father.  They measured worm holes, experimented with seeds and salt water, counted snakes, and captured moths.  So when her father appeared at the door and asked her to bring out the flour shaker, Etty happily did so.  The question was how many flowers a humblebee would visit in a minute.  The flour would make the bees the children would be observing more easily seen.  And what is the answer to the question?  You will just have to read the book to find out or dust your own humblebee with flour!

I was immediately charmed by the illustrations of this book.  They have an old-fashioned feel merged with a modern edge.  The colors used are vintage and immediately place the story in the correct era, but the illustrations themselves are crisp and add interest.  Hopkinson’s text is equally successful.  The pacing is varied which makes for an interesting read.  From the slow pace when Etty is inside baking and remembering her father’s stories to the brisk pace and excitement of following a bee from flower to flower. 

This book will make every child want to have dust a bee with flour and observe them.  It is a book that has you itching to head outdoors and measure your own worm holes or capture moths.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by Charlotte’s Library.

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• Children’s Books: Children’s Bookshelf (nytimes.com)

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46. Four Hives Of Bees and things on my kitchen table...

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By: Neil Gaiman, on 4/2/2010
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Time Magazine, bees, Instructions, Stories collection, I am a Dalek, Add a tag

posted by Neil

I'm home.

When I left, it was winter. I've come home to the kind of Spring that means that Summer is just rumbling around like someone shuffling his feet waiting to be invited into a room: temperatures in the 70s, everything green and warm and welcoming.

The best news is that all four hives of bees survived the winter. I wasn't sure that they would -- was pretty certain that the red hive (which swarmed last year) would be empty (it wasn't), but all the lessons from the previous year had been learned, and luck was with us. (Sharon Stiteler wrote about the bees here, while I was on the road.)

My dog and my daughter were both very happy to see me home again. One of them has started driver's ed. and has a driving permit.

(I didn't put up the picture of me and Neil Jordan far above London on Tuesday. Here it is...)

There were many amazing things waiting for me when I got home. I haven't even finished opening the mail from when I was away -- there are two large tubs sitting in the kitchen, not to mention random boxes, envelopes and just things. Things I have discovered in the mail so far include:

THE SORCERER'S HOUSE, by Gene Wolfe.

A proof copy of STORIES, edited by Al Sarrantonio and me. The US edition looks like this:

(I am so very proud of this book, from Tom Gauld's wonderful cover on. Contributors are, in story order, Roddy Doyle, Joyce Carol Oates, Joanne Harris, Neil Gaiman, Michael Marshall Smith, Joe R. Lansdale, Walter Mosley, Richard Adams, Jodi Picoult, Michael Swanwick, Peter Straub, Lawrence Block, Jeffrey Ford, Chuck Palahniuk, Diana Wynne Jones, Stewart O'Nan, Gene Wolfe, Carolyn Parkhurst, Kat Howard, Jonathan Carroll, Jeffrey Deaver, Tim Powers, Al Sarrantonio, Kurt Andersen, Michael Moorcock, Elizabeth Hand, and Joe Hill. And the stories are remarkable.)

An advance copy of Instructions, my poem illustrated by Charles Vess.

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By: Sevensheaven.nl, on 3/28/2010
Blog: Sugar Frosted Goodness (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  metin seven, sevensheaven, bees, worm, voxel art, 1992, hoi, copper, 3d pixel art, platform game, color gradient, team hoi, let's play, green alien, green dinosaur, commodore amiga, Add a tag

So you thought you used to play 2D games. If you had taken a look behind the screen, then you'd have seen this. The featured game is Hoi (subtitled "let's play!") from Team Hoi, a 16-bit platform game for the Commodore Amiga, released in 1992.

Being one of the three Team Hoi members I created the original game's pixel graphics as well.

You're invited to Sevensheaven.nl for an extended impression.

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By: Neil Gaiman, on 2/17/2010
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  bees, russian bees, Add a tag

posted by Neil

Today was warm -- warmer than it's been for weeks. I missed the hottest part of the day (I was taking my son Mike back to the airport) but got home while it was still daylight and slipped and slithered through the thick, half-melted snow, to inspect the hives. As I expected, there were lots of dead bees around, freshly dropped, and lots of small brown spots on the snow. The bees in the hive took advantage of the warm day to clean out the dead bees from the hive, and to, er, defecate.

The bees we can see here in the purple hive, in the square exit at the top of the hive are alive and wandering around. The bees hanging around further down are frozen and dead.

Three out of the four hives look healthy. The little red hive is, I suspect, dead. I won't check until it's warm enough that, if there is a cluster of bees hanging on inside there, I won't kill it by opening the hive to look. Here's a slightly more close-up look at the green hive. Click on any of these for better, bigger photos. (All pictures taken on my Nexus 1. The one above, with the flash.)

Next May we hope to take shipment of three hives of Russian Bees, which are reputed to winter better than the Italian bees we already have (this is because they maintain lower populations into the winter months, so need less food, and keep Queens-in-Waiting ready to go at all times in case anything happens to their Queen. Not because they wear little fur hats and dance cossack dances to keep warm, as a number of people, many of whom were Russian, suggested last time I blogged about this).

Below is a photo of me, taken mostly because it's the first time in ages I've been outside while home and not wearing a hat and muffly face stuff, and I wanted to celebrate this.

Tomorrow, Alabama.

Then home.

Next week, Naperville, then to the UK for a couple of days, then off to LA for the Oscars, where I will be cheering on Henry Selick for Coraline.

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By: Melissa Wiley, on 2/13/2010
Blog: Here in the Bonny Glen (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Links, bees, Social Media, TBR, Add a tag

• The Hidden World of Eloise: The designer apologises – How Twitter helped an artist protect her copyright. Social media WIN!
• In Appalachia, a Researcher Makes Honey From Coal – Faculty – The Chronicle of Higher Education – “Her vision is to create nothing less than an Appalachian “honey corridor” in eastern Kentucky and neighboring West Virginia, starting with more than 33,000 surface-mined acres, which could be reforested in a way that sets up a bee industry.” HT: Monica @ small things—thanks so much for sending this my way!
• Who Is Mark Twain? by Mark Twain – Oooh, a TBR pile topper for sure.

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I finished another black and white drawing today. More bees. Lots and lots of bees! Buzz buzz

Flight of Bees

Then I decided to add color to see what it would look like. I think it looks good either way. What do you think?

Colorful Flight of Bees

It’s time to get started on my NaNoWriMo novel, then more sketching.

4 Comments on Flight of Bees, last added: 11/3/2009

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Lyon said, on 11/1/2009 6:32:00 PM

Why are you drawing bees? I like them.

stephanie said, on 11/1/2009 11:04:00 PM

Thanks Wendy! The bees are part of my NaNo novel and I thought they would be good for black and white images for my portfolio (I posted a couple other pics earlier with the MC and bees). I have a portfolio review in one week!

Adrienne said, on 11/2/2009 9:58:00 PM

I like both versions!

stephanie said, on 11/3/2009 1:05:00 AM

Thanks Adrienne!

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