Meadow sweet
Meadow fine
Honeybees all in a line . . .
The meadow is alive. We have goldenrod like a yellow sea behind our house, just past the fairy grove. It waves in the wind, glistens in the sunlight, and murmurs a soft gentle song to the bees. And they love the tune . . . Honeybees – Everywhere!
I understand they are losing their habitat, and for us humans that is a sad story. These bold little workers pollinate our vegetables and fruits.
Here’s how it works: An apple tree, for instance, produces a beautiful flower in spring…the honeybee comes along to drink the nectar inside the flower…she has to go in deep to find the nectar and while she’s wiggling around inside the flower, little bits of powdery pollen get stuck to her “furry” legs … when our friendly little bee flies off to visit another flower, the pollen from the first flower brushes off inside the second flower thereby pollinating it – only a flower that is pollinated will produce an apple. In a nutshell, without them, our fruits and vegetables don’t grow. Surely, you have seen the delicate white flower of the tomato or the bright buttery yellow flower that foretells the zucchini? These work the same way.
And they are losing their habitat. It doesn’t seem very wise, but then again, maybe we just forgot to watch, to listen, and to remember. I am lucky to have a meadow to remind me.
We are keepers of each other.
We need wild places to reconnect with the natural beauty that is Mother Nature; that is ourselves. The beauty of all things can be found in a mirror, or just outside your door. I have done nothing special with my meadow, other than to simply let it be. When I see and hear the bees buzzing happily along the flower tops I am pleased to give them a fresh, organic place to be; we need each other.
This morning Rob and I watched buzzy little bees jump in and out of the golden flowers in his mini pumpkin patch. Hurray! That means pumpkins for October! Thank goodness for bees!
Here is a bumblebee on goldenrod, and a honeybee with Marigold. The honeybees are slimmer and less fuzzy than the bumblebees.
