AIR BEE and BEE...

Every summer, I run an "Air Bee and Bee". Free to male bees and solitary females, who  have stayed out too late or  strayed  too far from home the night before. They "bee" too tired to return to their nests. Inula is the best place to sleep, as it is a safe, warm place in which to snooze and snore, when the night gets cooler.

Even Yum Yum ( yes, that's what we named him, cause he  goes "yum yum yum" when he comes to visit), one of our resident deer, sleeps away the hours, where he feels safe. ZZZZZZZZZ....

If you're very, very quiet, and very, very careful,  you can pet the bees, as they sleep. Unfortunately ,this tends to wake them, and  they aren't too happy to have their siesta disturbed.  Best to let sleeping bees "beeee" ....till morning......

Morning Song of the Bees by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

Awake! Awake! for the earliest gleam of golden sunlight shines on the rippling waves that brightly flow beneath the flowering vines.

Awake, Awake, for the low sweet chant of the wild birds' morning hymn comes floating by on the fragrant air.

Through the forest cool and dim; then spread each wing, and work, and sing, through the long, bright sunny hours

Over the pleasant earth we journey forth, for a day among the flowers.

Awake! Awake! for the summer wind has bidden the blossoms unclose

Has opened the violet's soft blue eye and wakened the sleeping rose.

And lightly they wave on their slender stems fragrant and fresh and fair,

Waiting for us, as we singing come , to gather our honey-dew there.

Then spread each wing, and work and sing, through the long, bright sunny hours;

Over the pleasant earth we journey forth! 

For a day among the flowers!

"The bee's life is like a magic well: the more you draw from it, the more there is to learn..." - Karl Von Firsch

 Photographs 2025

HOLD out your HANDS...

"Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all..." 

-Helen Keller 1880-1968

(The Open Door)

Excerpt writings from "The Faith of Helen Keller" edited by Jack Belck

Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of the sunbeams.

Press the soft blossoms against your cheek, and finger their graces of form,

their delicate mutability of shape, their pliancy and freshness.

Expose your face to the aerial floods that sweep the heavens,

inhale great draughts of space, wonder, wonder at the wind's unwearied activity.

Pile note on note, the infinite music that flows increasingly to your soul

from the tactual sonorities of a thousand branches and rumbling waters.

I am sure that if a fairy bade me choose 

between the sense of sight and touch,

I would not part with the warm, endearing contact 

.....of human hands..... 

or the wealth of form,

the mobility and fullness....

that press into my palms.....

"Even more amazing than the wonders of nature are the posers of the spirit..." -Helen Keller 

Photographs 2025

 

WILD THINGS COME to THIS PLACE...

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.." - Aristotle

Every day something wild comes through the back yard. The Cooper's Hawks are the loudest. They screech. They call to each other. Then swoop to bring down prey. In midair.  Then silence.

Meanwhile, baby bandits tumble into the basins of water I leave out. They splash and tussle, before mom heads them off into the cedars above the fence. They watch  from there, making lovely sounds: Chirrrr Chirrr, hmmmm hmmmm  as they watch the hawks, who aren't interested in them.

"How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude..." 

                                                                                                                       - Emily Dickinson

Every morning and every night the Cooper's Hawks talk to each other. Then hunt. Suddenly and Swiftly, getting up to speeds of 64 kilometers an hour. Yellow talons grab smaller birds like doves, grackles, songbirds, just above the trees. Silence again. Except for the buzzing lull of bumblebees hovering over the Cape Fuchsia.

"It was the humblebee who survived, not the dinosaur..." -Meridel Le Sueur

Meanwhile, the baby bandits roll around  in the cedar tops. They make chirring sounds. Their little masks peeking out . Chirrr Chirrr Mmmm Mmmmmmm....

"Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius..." - Edward O. Wilson

Nom Nom, our resident deer, lumbers into the yard, stuffing himself as he trundles along. Ivy, geraniums, nettles are his favourite. He stops to deposit his dark offerings of jelly beans; plop,plop, plop. He sees the hawks. They see him. What a magnificent meal he would make......but he's too big.

Nom Nom drops more jelly beans and saunters off to snooze on the  hill under the cedars. The baby raccoons stare at Nom Nom, who proceeds to snore. Chirrr Chirrr hmmm hmmmmm...

The size of a raven, or a fat chicken, Cooper's Hawks dominate the roofs. They're not too concerned over fat deer or roly poly raccoons. This week they have pigeons and doves in their sights...

"Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on empty sky..." - Ursula K. LeGuin

Most afternoons, two younger bucks,   "Town deer",( like Nom Nom), have their siesta in the blueberry patch, their velvet horns high above the patch. They've squashed all of the veggie plants. (Deer have the only living and growing tissue that becomes antlers. Only Chinese water deer don't have antlers. )

 On these summer days, the  bees hum. The baby bandits with their little masks have scurried off. The deer doze, while hawks rest on housetops. Silence again.

"The silence holds with its gloved hand the wild hawk of the mind..." 

                                                                           -R.S. Thomas            

                                              

Wild things live here. They were here first. It's their place. I'm just a caretaker................Wild things come to this place...

"I think wildlife is just like a magnet, and it's something I can't help..." 

                                                  -Steve Irwin ( the Crocodile Hunter)

Photographs 2025