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Friday, March 30, 2012

"Return"

The people who owned the lot behind my childhood home kept bees. A row of white boxes were lined up just on the other side of our property line, and the bees, who don’t understand property lines, came over and pollinated our apple trees and garden, climbed all over the deadfalls in autumn, and generally thought they lived at our place. It seems like the neighbors should’ve given us some honey in exchange for our pollen, but I don’t remember any honey gifts. I used to watch as the old guy came out in his white space suit and with a smoker to get the honey. It looked like a good job to me, especially since the bees were doing all the hard work. Sometimes I think about keeping bees too.

There’s an ancient apple tree in our backyard. It doesn’t make very good apples, unless you’re a boy who likes to use apples as weapons. Our hard, knobbly, green apples made excellent bruising projectiles for unsuspecting little girls. The boys knocked birds out of the trees with apples too. Boys can be mean. They got even meaner when they realized that hitting hard apples with badminton racquets was the equivalent of a nuclear missile assault, and tennis racquets were even better. Maybe thinking about boys reminds me of why I like the bees, because the bees took their revenge on those barefoot boys.

I have a great deal of affection for the apple tree too, despite the misuse of its fruit. I climbed the tree with my sketchbook or a novel and whiled away my afternoons in a secluded bower of blossoms with buzzing bees for company. One of my brothers lives at the old homestead now, and thought he’d take the tree down since he didn’t like mowing over the mess of hard green apples. The tree took revenge too because someone had spiked it with metal. It wasn’t me, but I can only applaud the effort. I’m very glad Pete wasn’t hurt by the chainsaw, and I’m very glad that the tree is still there, still making inedible fruit, and still feeding the bees.

This is old art. It’s a 20” x 30” poster that was used for interpretive programs and for sale in the parks’ gift shops. It went over so well that I had it blown up and printed onto backlit Plexiglas for a honeybee display in the nature center. Bees could come in and out of the building through clear tubes, and the honeycombs were visible through clear windows. Now that I think about it, I didn’t get any of that honey either. I see a continuing flaw in my compatibility with beekeepers, but no problem at all with the bees. I was very happy to see a honeybee in my house this week. Well, not happy that it was in the house, just happy that the bees have returned. I gently caught the lost bee and asked it to get busy pollinating my fruit trees.

The crows are back in my yard too. I had singing crows last year, and I’m really hoping they come back this year. I wouldn’t have believed they were actually singing if I didn’t actually see them standing on either side of my road and watching their beaks moving. It wasn’t CAW, CAW, CAW, but rather a really beautiful, melodic duet between the two of them. Crows often come back to nest where they nested the year before, so I’m hopeful they’ll be back. I was really nice to their babies and reassuring to the parents, so I hope they know this is a good place to live. And since I’m talking about crows, I have an EVENT that happens every evening, shortly before twilight. Crows from everywhere come to my house to discuss their day before flying to their individual homes. We aren’t talking about 10 or 20 or even 100 crows. There are thousands of them, all talking at the same time. It’s impressive, and very noisy. I feel happy to be included.

31 comments:

  1. Wow I can hear those crows from here Linda..they are rather vocal souls aren't they. Good to see the bees are returning as we certainly owe them a lot in the circle of life. Your poster was great, that bee display must have been really impressive. There are some great summer musings in your thoughts today, fond memories ;0)
    Jane x

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  2. The bee poster is a very impressive work, Linda. And, as usual, I love how you share your childhood memories. Makes me feel as though I totally wasted mine!

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  3. I enjoyed both your memories and the poster art. Thanks, Linda!

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  4. It really is a beautiful poster. I remember when we worked at the park, and you doing this piece, and how proud you were.

    After reading about the old apple tree and your memories, I now understand a little better at how upset you were at the thought of it coming down. Nice write up, it made me "feel" summer :)

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  5. lovely image. I think bee are fascinating. My niece was just telling me when they visit their friend the beekeeper they have to keep their big black dog far from the bees. Evidently their instincts think he's a bear. Even black cats need to keep their distance. They also had honey from bees that had pollenated from cilantro once and I guess the honey was really horrible and they had to toss it all.
    Also fond of old apple trees!

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  6. Good golly, Miss Molly, that is a gorgeous poster! Your bees are delightfully fuzzy and look quite happy in their work.

    Wow, I can only imagine what a thousand chatty crows must sound like! That's amazing!

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  7. Beautiful! Terrific composition and great muted colors!

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  8. I am soooo ready for summer! I had a little black dog back then Patti. I don't remember having any bee problems with her -- though she had so much fur, maybe they couldn't get in there to sting? Thanks for the comments everyone! And no childhood is ever wasted Korki :)

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  9. That's a nice art piece. Linda. Very solid.

    My grandfather was manager of the apiary at the Diamond Match Co. in my home town, where they built boxes and kept bees, and we always had bee boxes in our orchard to pollinate the almonds. So, I too grew up loving bees.

    I'm afraid I do NOT share your love for crows, however. They can literally take over an area and drive out song birds. They rob birds nests of their eggs and will eat the eggs right in front of the parents. They do this to doves all the time. I've witnessed it.
    My favorite birds in my backyard are the mocking birds, because they are constantly giving the crows hell. They are the only birds that will stand up to those bullies. Plus mocking birds are constantly singing and dancing about, they are the clowns of the backyard. They also used to harass the nasty Bluejays until those birds finally cleared out. I think it's interesting that mockingbirds only bother those two types of birds, leaving other birds alone.

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  10. Wow, learning new things all the time! I know crows can be bossy, but mine get along with my song birds. Well, not during the evening riots, but I see the crows getting along with my other birds during the rest of the day. I get a lot of mourning doves, so I doubt my crows are eating the eggs, or maybe the doves lay so many eggs I don't miss them? My crows do chastise the blue jay though when it gets out of line. No mockingbirds in Ohio that I know of, but glad you get to watch them Ted!

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  11. Love, love, love this poster Linda. I have a fondness for bees, honey bees anyway, not yellow jackets because I am allergic to them. So,I tend to run when I see one ;) But honey bees are so industrious and provide us with honey, and pollinate our food. They are pretty awesome little creatures and they make beautiful illustrations :) I hope you get a chance to enjoy the singing crows, I have had the singing ones here too, they are quite loud and they don't usually hang around for long. Maybe the song birds bully the crows and cause them to leave!?!

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  12. I've been sleeping a lot and almost missed your post this weekend. My life would have been the poorer for it if I had. Back in the hills of Nova Scotia they would take the bees to field of clover. You'll never taste a more succulent honey.

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  13. Crows are so darn smart. I like the thought of them discussing their day. Could I use that idea for an illustration sometime? And what a great sentence...a secluded bower of blossoms with buzzing bees for company. Magic!

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  14. Thanks everybody! I love reading what you have to say :) I've seen little birds chasing away hawks before, so I suppose they can chase away crows too if they want? I used to think that clover honey was the only kind of honey, but I guess that's just because there's so much clover in Ohio. Go for it Sharon. I'd love to see what you make of crows discussing their day!

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  15. I never knew that there were non cawing crows of the singing variety.... We just get the caw-caw ones. (pardon my implied French)

    Bees are endlessly fascinating like your poster.
    nice.



    .

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  16. Beautiful piece, and beautiful, abundant stories!

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  18. Gosh Linda - bet you never heard me say 'gosh' before! Well I came yesterday and sort of gawped over your work. Hot dam% this is just wonderous stuff. It's like, it's like, it's like what you see in a top of the line science magazine - now I know you had a mispent childhood ---- The Revenge Of The Bees, by Linda H! I can see it up inlights. :)

    You know I talk to crows? They look at me really strangely .... dunno why. I think it's my hair!

    see you soon

    Oh those boys sound mean. They probably grew up to be roadholefillerinners....

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  19. Beautiful poster! And interesting, thoughtful post!

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  20. Lovely illo, Linda. I like the muted palette and how it contrasts with the line art at the bottom.

    But crows? You can have 'em!

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  21. Thanks everybody! Seems like people either love or hate crows, but I love their noisy get togethers in the evenings. Andrew, you're right, at least one of those mean boys turned into a roadfillerinner :)

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  22. Hey :) Friend of mine was a graphic artist (the guys who arrange the adds)in tjhe old days on 70,000 when I was on much less It was the days of bromides etc. His toold of trade were a scalpel and spray glue -then they invented computers ... now he works on the road gang! And has more fun :)

    Ahh eyes, what an experience you had, the day where everything is beautiful. Eyes change colour depending on what colours are near them of course - but I think when our pupils dilate or contract the colour changes slightly because the pigment is either bunched up or stretched out - could be wrong! And there's also reflection off our corneas. And when we are angry our white go red and that makes us look greener eyed :)

    Me, I am always glassy eyed.

    Yes so many butterflies - on all sides I think...

    see you Linda :)

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  23. I was one of those boys :o) We loved hitting the apples from our tree as far as we could with tennis rackets. We never knew where they landed.... Hmmmm maybe that wasn’t a very good idea. We we used baseball bats too, but the apples didn’t go very far.... in one piece :o) Another great and nostalgic post Lynda.

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  24. Andrew, I was in a brown room the days my eyes were teal, so it wasn't reflected color. I can see the point of contraction/expansion because my hazel eyes change a bit sometimes, and my dad's eyes used to change a lot depending on what he was wearing, but on the teal day, I got inches away from the mirror and clear teal. It was amazing, and obviously memorable. Thanks for the professional opinion! It's always been something I've wondered about.

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  25. Jack, my mean boys were hitting apples because there were girls and birds. I'd like to think you were nicer than that :) Thanks for the comment!

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  26. Love the soft singsong hum colours of your poster. Used to sit by the hour in front of bee houses in the back field, just watching and listening to them leave and return in the hot sun. Last summer in Charlotte, PEI the art gallery had an exhibit by an artist who 'collaborated' with bees - left work out for them to add their bit to it, strange shapes of honecomb growing on her work. For the display they had one piece inside a plexiglass box with a transparent tube to the outside so the bees could come and go. I wondered where they went...

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  27. I love your bee artwork...I have a real thing for bees and collect things with that image on them. beautiful job!

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  28. Thanks so much! I so glad I'm not the only one who appreciates bees :)

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  29. I had to laugh about the bee-revenge and your thoughts about boys. Good to have bees on your side - except you don't ever seem to get any of their treasures. I had to laugh about the tree's revenge too, although I hold nothing against your brother. It seems to me the only way for you to get some honey, will be to start keeping bees yourself. As to crow-meetings I know exactly what you talk about. Every night the gather in, yes, thousands around a mountain not far from where I live.

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