Wax & Wane Encaustic Retreat
Grünewald Guild
3/25/11
Blog
Blows my mind
During the spring and summer the queen lays up to 2000 eggs a day. It’s just mind boggling that an animal that is born with all the eggs she’s going to lay in her life can lay 2000 eggs a day and can live for five years! I mean, that’s a huge, massive amount of eggs! There are just so many things like that about bees and each little piece of information like that just blows my mind.
– Suzanne Connolly Howes
My small contribution
I’m a gardener. I’m not so much into flowers but I’m into vegetables and things that I can eat… That’s my small contribution… Raising my own food, not using sprays, trying to conserve on gasoline and heat and energy right here.
– Marge McLellan
Sister Bee has a Facebook page
You’re invited to become a friend of Sister Bee on Facebook.
Beautiful mother
Let’s say the creator is a beautiful mother. She doesn’t love one of her babies more than the next one, right? She loves them differently, maybe. But she loves them equally. And, you know, we can imagine any kind of creator we want… So from my world view I guess that just because we’re human doesn’t mean we have any more of God’s love than that butterfly that just went by. He loves us all the same. Or she loves us all the same.
– Julie Finley
Brooklyn, New York
Making Brooklyn Bloom
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
3/12/11
It appeals to me
It appeals to me, to be outside working the bees and watching them.
– Ruth Eastman
Breaking news in the bee world
The National Honeybee Advisory Board has asked the EPA to remove the popular pesticide clothianidin (also known as Poncho) from the market based on a leaked agency memo that discloses flawed research. You can read the full press release here.
Watching
Sometimes I go out there and sit by myself with my son and watch the bees bringing in their pollen and flying in and out… It’s always nice to be around animals. I want my children to grow up around animals and this is just the beginning of that.
– Mery Molenaar
Methodical, patient and slow
I tend to be able to get things done in a hurry, and that works for me, but beekeeping is an activity that I think is going to teach me patience because otherwise you just waste time.
– Patricia Butler
Honey, honey, honey, honey, honey…
More honey, honey, honey, honey, honey…
– Suzanne Connolly Howes
I just like it more all the time
The more you know about it don’t you think you like it more?
– Marge McLellan
Coming to the garden
An experience of the environment is something people look for on the weekend on their mountain bike or doing extreme kayaking or whatever. I just realized, for myself, that I need to experience the environment every day. So coming to the garden is how I decided to make that fit into my life.
– Julie Finley
Nacogdoches, Texas
Hive
Cole Art Center
11/12/10 – 12/10/10
Marjorie McLellan, 1925 – 2010
“You know, you reach a time in your life when you’re not trying to impress. You just want to get along.”
- Marge McLellan
Marjorie McLellan, the older beekeeper in Sister Bee, passed away on Friday, July 16th.
The above quote is one I treasure from Sister Bee. It’s a tricky one that I didn’t get at first though did feel it was important when Marge first said it because her tone shifted markedly from lighthearted self-deprecation to solemnity. My first thought was that it had something to do with resignation and the giving up or softening of one’s opinions/principles/stridency with age. Today I feel differently. I think she was talking about an opening that comes with maturity. When we’re young there’s so much to prove! But as we age and gain confidence it’s possible to take a break from “trying to impress” to listen and appreciate what others have to say.
Marge McLellan modeled graceful aging for me. She was a dear friend and mentor to many. I miss her already.
– Laura
Marge McLellan using the uncapping knife on a frame of honey
Marge McLellan walking with her garden cart
Midsummer Night’s Eve
“Tonight is Midsummer Night’s Eve, also called St. John’s Eve. St. John is the patron saint of beekeepers. It’s a time when the hives are full of honey. The full moon that occurs this month was called the Mead Moon, because honey was fermented to make mead. That’s where the word “honeymoon” comes from, because it’s also a time for lovers. An old Swedish proverb says, ‘Midsummer Night is not long but it sets many cradles rocking.'”
Working with my hands
Somebody said to me one time, “You do massage, why in the world would you do woodworking? What if you cut off your finger or hand or something?” To me, doing massage, doing woodworking, and when I stop and think about it, working with the bees, I’m working with my hands. I’m physically involved as well as emotionally involved. It makes total sense to me that I’m engrossed in all three of those things.
– Ruth Eastman
Loveland, Colorado
Bee Week
Loveland Museum
4/20/10
Sister Bee beekeeper to teach beekeeping in Boulder, CO
Learn beekeeping from Sister Bee beekeeper Julie Finley. Register and find out more at Growing Gardens of Boulder County. Highly recommended.
– Laura
They’re pretty easy pets
I’ve always been interested in nature and this is just a great way of being together with animals. They’re pretty easy pets. They’re really easy pets, actually. And you have a lot of them.
– Mery Molenaar