The other day I went into my bedroom intending to get my Kindle. As I picked it up, I felt a sharp sting on my wrist. Turning my arm round I saw a bee stuck to me, and for a moment it didn’t move as it buried its sting into my flesh. The pain traveled up my wrist into my hand and fingers. For those brief seconds, I panicked.
I can’t remember the last time if ever, that I’d been stung. It really frightened me because I didn’t know if I’d have a reaction. Was there a sting in there that I had to get out? The answers were no. No adverse reaction, and nothing to remove. Although the day after, it’s still red and sore to the touch.,
Today is a day to enjoy locally sourced honey. I’ve never been a honey lover until recently. I’ve found I liked clear honey from the supermarket, but when a man came to clean our carpets he also had a basket of honey that his wife had made. It was simply called Welsh honey and I was allowed to sample it. Although I liked the supermarket one. This was totally delicious. Sweet and pure, it was a delight for my taste buds. I bought two bottles and will not be buying supermarket ones again.
I’m also in the process of cross-stitching a bee. I started this before I knew I would be writing this article. This is my work in progress. It’s from Cross Stitcher magazine
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For more information on World Honey Bee Day click here.
The ultimate bee book for bee enthusiasts and experts alike
The Bees in Your Backyard provides an engaging introduction to the roughly 4,000 different bee species found in the United States and Canada, dispelling common myths about bees while offering essential tips for telling them apart in the field.
The book features more than 900 stunning color photos of the bees living all around us―in our gardens and parks, along nature trails, and in the wild spaces between. It describes their natural history, including where they live, how they gather food, their role as pollinators, and even how to attract them to your own backyard. Ideal for amateur naturalists and experts alike, it gives detailed accounts of every bee family and genus in North America, describing key identification features, distributions, diets, nesting habits, and more.
- Provides the most comprehensive and accessible guide to all bees in the United States and Canada
- Features more than 900 full-color photos
- Offers helpful identification tips and pointers for studying bees
- Includes a full chapter on how to attract bees to your backyard
The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut set in an ancient culture where only the queen may breed and deformity means death.
Flora 717 is a sanitation worker, a member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive where work and sacrifice are the highest virtues and worship of the beloved Queen the only religion. But Flora is not like other bees. With circumstances threatening the hive’s survival, her curiosity is regarded as a dangerous flaw but her courage and strength are an asset. She is allowed to feed the newborns in the royal nursery and then to become a forager, flying alone and free to collect pollen. She also finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers mysteries about the hive that are both profound and ominous.
But when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all—daring to challenge the Queen’s fertility—enemies abound, from the fearsome fertility police who enforce the strict social hierarchy to the high priestesses jealously wedded to power. Her deepest instincts to serve and sacrifice are now overshadowed by an even deeper desire, a fierce maternal love that will bring her into conflict with her conscience, her heart, her society—and lead her to unthinkable deeds.
Thrilling, suspenseful and spectacularly imaginative, The Bees gives us a dazzling young heroine and will change forever the way you look at the world outside your window.
