It is the height of summer blooms. Bumblebees are to be found everywhere about my yard. I find them in the cool of the morning sleeping in flowers, drunk from the previous day’s feeding. As the day warms I pause to watch them at their work, mindfully probing into pistils within blooms sucking out nectar.
They are especially fond of compound flowers, those in the genus, Compositae, the daisy family, the largest example being a sunflower. These are flowers within flowers. Look closely in the middle of a dahlia, zinnia, daisy, dandelion sunflower, etc. and you will find multitudes of tiny flowerets surrounded by showy petals. It’s like one-stop shopping for bees.
Bumblebees make up the genus Bombus with 255 different species. Generally, they are black with varying stripes of yellow and sometime red. They make nests near the ground under logs, duff in small colonies. They are honey producers but in smaller quantities.
Though bumblebees don’t get as much press as their smaller cousin, the honey bee, they are extremely important pollinators. Bumblebees are particularly good at it. Their wings beat 130 times or more per second, and the beating combined with their large bodies
vibrate flowers until they release pollen, which is called buzz pollination. Buzz pollination helps plants produce more fruit. Bumblebees flap their wings back and forth rather than up and down like other bees. Researcher Michael Dickinson, a professor of biology and insect flight expert at the University of Washington likens wing sweeping like a partial spin of a “somewhat crappy” helicopter propeller,
They are gentle bees, single-minded in their work and rarely sting which is good because their sting can be particularly nasty. I have never been stung even though I sometimes gently pet their fuzzy backs then they are immersed in feeding. Such sweet bees.
In Praise of Bumblebees
They probe dreamily in the center
Of pie sized yellow flowers that nod towards the east
Keeping me company
As I work in the garden
These tiny winged beasts do their work
Heads up down, up down
Placing in precision their needle-like proboscises
In a sea of stamen and pistil
Gentle black creatures
Intoxicated by pollen and nectar
So immersed in their work
My finger can stroke their furry backs
I find them in the morning exhausted
Dozing in the midst of flowers
Dusted with yellow
Dreaming bumblebee dreams
Buzz and bumble
Find purpose in my zinnias, my dahlias
And sleep until the warmth of a new day
Calls you to your tasks again
Fun facts thanks to livescience.com
A cup of steaming tea in hand
I can only conjecture
You don’t often hear positive news of the environment- especially in the U.S. these days, so when an email from the Natural Resources Defence Council of a similar title showed up in my inbox yesterday, I thought I would share some heartening tidings. BTW, the NRDC is one of the strongest environmental lobbies in this country, if not the strongest. I have been a monthly contributor for years and am also one of their email activitists. That means numerous times a month I send out emails to urging government officials to support environmental legislation.
I’m going back to just making art and not being an artist. Having had the goal for years of being a successful artist, I recently woke up to the fact that indeed, I had arrived. That means I’m good with where I’m at. It’s kind of like where to stop on a painting without overworking it. Once I attained the label of “Artist” it came with art fairs, shows, social media, websites, marketing, basically business. I am NOT a business person and am an introvert on top of it. Looking back I had way more satisfaction when I was just playing around and gifting my work to friends and family. Seeing looks of delight on their faces was payment enough.
profit, fame, status or similar. Now, I’ve come to the conclusion after many years, that for me, fulfillment is in the creative process and the sharing. Monetary gain is just an added bonus. It’s kind of like fishing. It’s great being out in nature no matter what and if you catch a fish- even better.
all that the last few years, it’s felt too sleazy, like dressing in clothes that aren’t me. Do I really need to brand myself? Seriously, I don’t want to fit in a box like Ritz Crackers. Art galleries are there for a reason. They take 50% of sales but they could work on the selling while I could be out hiking.
equation.
By Alanna Pass 