The Good Bees

Bees are disappearing from America.  This is not a well-known fact but it is true, nonetheless.  Last year when bees invaded a crawl space between the exterior bricks of my house, I panicked when they arrived in my bathroom and bedroom and hallway.  I could hear the droning of their wings beating faster than the human eye can comprehend, as if I were in an old Alfred Hitchcock movie.  In my ignorance, I called the exterminator and he killed them all, much to my relief.  Their near seven pounds of honey was ruined in the process.  Exterior bricks had to be removed and after it was over, I had to hire a mason to get the house back together. 

In the meantime, I learned how all of our good honey bees are disappearing. http://news.discovery.com/animals/honey-bees-disappearing-still-a-problem.html.  It isn't just the human error causing the problem.  But we humans can be part of the solution.

That's why this year, when the bees invaded a space just outside my bedroom window, I called a beekeeeper instead of an exterminator.  He removed them all with a safe vacuum cleaner-type of tube and took them to his multi-million bee farm.  I felt a lot better about this approach.  These are the flowers around my house that the bees favor, sweet and full of nectar.  I see many bees again and wonder if they have returned.  The mason has already repaired the area where bricks were removed.  Hmmm, I wonder if I will have to do this all over again?

Sago Palm With New Shoots

I have been away from my blog much too long, mostly due to caring for my husband who has had multiple strokes.  Slowly, I am coming back to photography... I hope to get out more.  The other day, I noticed new shoots on the sago palm that I had trimmed back so drastically last year that I wondered if I had killed it.  The sign of the new shoots was more than a bit of a relief.