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Friday, November 16, 2012

"Zoom"

Bees are wonderful creatures.  I’ve never really understood the people who scream and swat around wildly when they see one, even though I’ve been stung like anybody else who runs around barefoot.  My mom has a knack of catching them in a hand towel and putting them outside when they find a way into the house.  I love to watch the bees zooming around, dancing from flower to flower.  The fact that they aren’t supposed to be able to fly makes them all the more fun to watch.

There’s a flower garden where I work, and I watch the bees when I take a break.  A very antisocial priest tends the garden, and he’s walled it off so nobody else can enjoy it.  I’m pretty sure he’s unhappy I acquired a key to get in, but I leave him alone, and he leaves me alone, and we both leave the bees alone.  I’m pretty sure they’re going to sleep for the winter now anyway.

Up till this summer’s bee watching, I never really paid attention to how many kinds of bees there are – black bees, yellow bees, striped bees, bumblebees, and lots of other bees too.  I’m pretty sure the variety of bees in the priest’s garden is because of the wide variety of flowers he plants in there.  I’m pretty sure there has to be acres of honey somewhere, but I’ll leave the bees to it.

Completely un-zoom related, I recently fixed a friend’s dresser.  In fact, this was kind of an anti-zoom activity because I had to build up layers of wood putty to mend the broken bric-a-brac.  I’m pretty sure I spent entirely too much time doing this, but I have to admit I enjoyed it.  I conferred with another friend about what kind of paint to use to camouflage the putty (we decided on oils), and she suggested that I take before and after pictures.  Good idea.  Wish she suggested that before I started, but I think you can tell what I was doing from these pictures.

This dresser was put out for the trash a lot of years ago, and my friend’s husband rescued it.  I’m glad he did.  It’s very solid, and now it’s pretty again too.

What is not pretty is the dark brown puddle of oil-based stain I kicked onto my friend’s carpet.  I will take any suggestion if anyone knows how to rectify that mess.  I tried blotting and also tried turpentine, but the main thing I accomplished by that was to make myself rather high and befuddled.  She says not to worry about it, but I feel bad and would like to know how to fix it.

Coincidently, I talked to another friend recently (which is starting to sound like I have an awful lot of friends!) who made the observation that I spend too much time feeling bad about other people’s issues.  I’m not so sure his observation applies in this case since I am very clearly at fault, but it does give me something to think about – which brings me back to bees…

I watched a nature show which talked about how bees communicate, and the host said bees are a lot like how our brains work.  One bee = one brain cell or synapse.  When you put all those synapses together, it’s like a whole hive of bees swarming together as one conscious thought.  I started thinking about that, and wonder if each human = one brain cell of society, and don’t humans swarm the same as bees?  Just something for you to think about, or maybe I’m justifying feeling bad too much when other people feel bad?  On the other hand, if everybody’s happy, then I’m happy too!

18 comments:

  1. Don't mind bees at all, it's the wasps that get me. Little buggers. Bee happy Linda!

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  2. Thanks Rand! I hope you bee happy too :)

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  3. Bees are indeed wonderful Linda and sadly with the awful summer we had here not so many were around this year. That dresser looks fantastic but I can understand how you feel about the carpet...how about hiding it under the dresser.....LOL..(no doubt the stain is right in the middle of the room. Enjoy the weekend,
    Jane x

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  4. Without bees, we'd all die. Just saying.

    And they really are fascinating creatures, such great work ethic! And they've got that spatial displacement thing that let's them know how to get the pollen back to the hive. Good choice for IF, and captivating as always!

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  5. ...and a pretty little bee it is. :)

    Hey, you're ean artist - you'll think of something to cover or camoflauge that stain.

    Nice that you have a garden to relax in while at work.

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  6. I did think about painting over the stain, but I'm pretty sure that would feel pretty crunchy underfoot. Thanks for the comments everybody!

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  7. Dearest Linda, did you know that bees communicate with dancing too? If worries about others enter your mind, why not make a little dance? Maybe it will distract you enough to be, become (and bee) buzzy again without being worried. :-)

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  8. Good bee, bad stain. All I know is I like honey. Maybe this whole thing could come full circle if you found out honey was just the stain remover that you are hoping for...

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  9. Very interesting end comment about the bees it really made me think. Hummmm or BUZZZZZZZZZ. :)Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Linda, I forgot to send you this website:

    http://www.beesinart.com/

    Your beautiful bee should find its place there too.

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  11. Thanks for the link Paula! There really is a website for everything. I'll look into it. I danced for my dog the other day, but pretty sure that didn't do anything for the stain on the carpet, though I do like the idea of honey being the antidote to that stain :) Thanks for the comments!

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  12. This is an exquisite drawing. I love love love the detail. It looks so soft, like one could pet it.

    I happen to be allergic to bee stings, so I'm more afraid of them than I should be (but I would never shriek or run around waving my arms). I would love to keep bees (as my brother and his wife do), but it seems a bit dangerous of an occupation for someone allergic to bee stings.

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  13. Yeah, probably not the best career move Coreopsis. Stick with honey instead :) I think of keeping bees sometimes though. Maybe I will some day.

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  14. I am dangerously allergic to bee stings, so I try to stay away, but what a beautiful drawing! And the dresser came out wonderfully, too! (sorry about the spill!)

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  15. I have no idea how to remove the stain, unfortunately, but I think you did a wonderful job with the dresser. It's really a beautiful piece of furniture. Interesting thought to compare bees' social intelligence with humans'. If you would like to read about one hypothesis that elaborates on this, I would recommend the book The Presence of the Past by Rupert Sheldrake. I don't necessarily agree with all he says, but it's really an interesting read.

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  16. Gosh, that's a gorgeous illustration, Linda! I love bees too..my daughter is so afraid of them, but we'll work on that. : ) Sending you a heartfelt happy thanksgiving to you and yours and I am grateful for your friendship out here in blogland..it means a lot! I wish I knew more about how to rectify the stain..hope someone can help! The dresser is gorgeous!

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  17. I love book reccomendations, thanks Otto! Thanks for the comments everybody, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

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  18. Wonderful drawing of a bee! Just stunning.

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