Bee Kind

For a long time - like years, really! - I've been thinking about painting a bee. I've started bee paintings, but always gave up on them, because they seemed too contrived or too...something. But this morning, this little worker bee showed up and I am rather pleased with it.

Honey bees have intrigued me for some time - since I planted my first blue spirea bush when we still lived in the Waverly log house. I was pretty thrilled that the bush seemed to thrive where I planted it, but even more so, that in late summer and early fall, when it was full of blue blossoms, the bees would come in hordes...all kinds of honey bees, from big bumbles to teeny tiny little bees. As I would work around them, they paid me no mind - they were gentle little souls, just buzzing about doing their part for Mother Earth. In the two houses I've lived in since, planting bee friendly plants is my first priority. I even have recently learned to make peace with a colony of European paper wasps who decided the pergola on our back patio was a perfect place for their busy hive. I made a deal with them - don't attack me and I won't attack you. It worked - and even as they got a little more frenetic in their search for food in early fall, they never got aggressive. 

I don't know. Maybe there is a moral to the story.  Bee kind to others and they will bee kind to you.