It's July. Zip zip zip. The days fly by. I’m torn between wanting them to get over with as fast as possible and with wanting to savor the sweetness in individual moments and in parts of days.
Last night, after taking my sweet pup for a nice walk, we came home and sat out on the front step and just sat and sat and watched as the fireflies lit up the lawn. Around my house, and around the fields near here, there are a whole lot of fireflies at this time of year. We had fireflies in Vermont, but not nearly as many as I have in my front yard. It’s a sweet thing to sit out there, doing nothing except for sitting and watching. Tye usually waits for me to get settled and then tucks herself into my feet. If I’m sitting, she’s sitting. Fine with me. Fine with her.
Things in my little bee yard progress. I have four hives now, three of which are cranking along. I visited them the other day and added some empty honey supers to the three strong hives. We’re in what is called the dearth right now – the time between when the flowing nectar of the tulip poplar stops and the flow of the sourwood starts. But the sourwood flow is due to start soon and it’s important to give the bees room to make and store honey. Hopefully, there’ll be enough of a flow that they will fill up those supers and I can add more. I’ll leave a whole super for them. Anything else I can take, extract, put in bottles and give away.
Poor struggling Hive # 1 is still limping along with no Queen. Somehow they made it through the winter with a fairly strong population. But when I looked in the early spring, I did not find a Queen. There are a few different ways to get a Queen into a hive. At this point, I’ve tried three times and these attempts have not worked. Right now I’m trying one more time and am on the verge of buying a Queen or looking into other solutions. It’s a tricky thing. A hive simply cannot function without a Queen and it is very disheartening to lose bees. Fortunately I have two smart mentors and they are involved.
But back to sitting. Earlier this spring my sister and I built two raised garden beds which we put right in the middle of my lawn. I divided them into one foot squares and have planted them with an assortment of vegetables. My lawn chairs, old-fashioned bouncy metal ones, fit nicely on the lawn right around the beds. I have had those chairs for years but have rarely sat in them. Now, however, I find myself happily tucked into them. I can survey the cucumbers and the progress of the tomatoes and the lettuce and the onions. But more than that, I can watch my bees as they rush in and out of their hives.
It’s a slow time for me. I’m a sixth of the way through my treatments. Still trying to figure out how it’s going for me. Still trying to juggle sitting quietly still and taking advantage of unexpected bursts of energy. I’m happy to have my garden and my bees and my dog and a lawn filled with fireflies. They just keep doing what they do. No rush, no worry. They are good teachers for me. And, I just signed the contract for my honey book which is a very cool thing. My bursts of energy will be captured and turned into stories and recipes and this book.
And in the meantime, sitting still is good too.
