Well its been a quiet February for the most part. We did another hike in George Washington last weekend, making the most of the warm spell and this time we did a portion of the Signal knob trail. I was hiking in the rear and looked down and found a huge crystal in a bed of moss. Then Zita found two more in a tree stump and the search was on. We found a whole bunch of them all hidden on the trail in funny hollows of trees and such. It was so magical! The girls told me they are now convinced that fairies are real. It turned out to be an awesome hike and the crystals are now sitting in a little wooden bowl in the living room and the girls get them out and play with them all the time.
Currently I am reading an excellent book called "Fruitless Fall: the Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis.° For its very doomsy title it is actually written in a very witty way and quite delightful. The guy who wrote it obviously wishes he was Michael Pollan but gives an important subject a just treatment. I didn,t realize how agribuisness really depends on the honey bee and how they are all dying. Like um tons of them and its mostly because they are pushed to the limit being trucked around the country to pollinate massive monocrops of almonds, etc. Oh well, I'm sure Barack Obama will sign some kind of magical stimulus package for the bees since he is going to solve all our country's problems and herald a new era of soaring real estate, bulging 401ks and wildly productive apiaries. Whatever.
Pardon my sarcasm. Anyway I am looking forward to someday owning some bees of our own and when I do, this book has convinced me to buy Russian bees because they are REALLy tough little bastards and are not as prone to mites and varoa and all the other things that plague our poor Italian bees.
Its sad of course because I feel like I should have solidarity with the Italian bees.
Well until next week, cheerio.
5 comments:
Anna, I was trying to confirm how many grandchildren were in the Hatke clan for the MI newsletter and I read your post about honey bees. Actually, they ARE in the magical stimulus package just signed today! And have someone here in Lafayette that keeps bees, our permanent deacon's wife. I'm sure she would be glad to tell you about the reality of it all. mrs. watson
Isn't it like, 57 or 58? I know Sarah has a TON of kids.
The honey bees are really sad. It is also low levels of pesticides and stuff that is contributing to bee fatigue.
California exports something like seventy-five percent of its almonds to foreign markets, too. It is a huge money maker.
Have you guys seen the movie King Corn?
I love that top photo. She's all color and life against the Winter background.
How cool is your find?? Ok, is that common? Can I just go for a walk somewhere and find crystals like that? Is it a VA thing? Cause I would really love some fairy crystals too.
Thank you for another great post. I look forward to many more entries with high quality info.
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