Don't Make the Bees Angry.

Drawing from my Bee class notes. Don't hit the hive with a hammer.

My Beekeeping class has ended, and today I went out to my teacher's farm for a second time to have some more interaction with real, live bees. It was nice, and a BEAUTIFUL day to be a bee. I dug around in my garden a bit too....I'm mostly waiting on seedlings to get bigger, and for it to be done snowing. It's supposed to be warm this week, but I'm not sure I can trust the weather.

Some great drawings have happened in my beekeeping notebook, as well as some classically absurd conversations with my brother, my best friend Jenni, and 'best fwend' Susie, who is three years old. I'm pretty sure a children's book, or picture book of sorts is taking shape in my mind.

My Kickstarter project is creeping along...I added little journals into the mix as a reward. Take a look and tell your friends!

As always, thank you for reading!

...Bees?

My pretend boyfriend, the garden docent at historical Williamsburg.
My parents and I went there a year ago.

Today I planted snow-pea seeds, carrot seeds around the snow-peas, and more radish seeds around the carrots. I never tire of radishes, and hope to have enough at one time to pickle some this year.

I also started seeds for six kinds of tomatoes in a make-shift greenhouse situation (a clear rubbermaid tub, upside-down) and zinnias, and marigolds.

In Murray, Kentucky last weekend I divided and dug up some lemon-balm that I planted there a decade ago. I had forgotten how very heavy clay the soil is there.

Anyway, even though it may very well snow again this coming Tuesday, I am gardening, damnit. My garlic and onions look good, and I have lots of radish, kale, and lettuces on their way.

Not much to look at yet...

I'm living on a dreamy piece of property, where my landlord has a great deal of garden space, apple trees, and four rowdy hens running around. I can't even get into all the sunflowers I'm planning on planting.

A long-time daydream, (like the huge garden, and chickens in my future) is happening this spring. I think I really got decisive about it when I was in Bakersfield in January. Honeybees. Where I'm living would be such a great place for a hive of bees, and I knew my landlord would be excited about it, and she totally is.

And so am I. Like anything I get excited about, in January I began ferociously, obsessively learning all I could about bees. This includes reading four books (so far), taking a continuing ed. class at Mayland Community College, and joining the Toe Cane Beekeepers Association.

And I feel prepared. I am starting with a 'nuc' (nucleus hive...) of bees sometime around the end of April or beginning of May, and I have most of my equipment at the ready, including the hive body, which (I know the bees won't care) is painted a lovely shade of robins egg blue.

I am also planning some of my planting for the bees...lemon balm, bergamot, pollen & nectar-plenty flowers, herbs, and clover seeds wherever I can toss them in blank patches in the garden.

I look forward to sharing how this adventure progresses!