Bees and spring - - and a Correction

Snow drops .
Photograph courtesy of L. Sayahi

Happy Beginning of Spring!  It may be a challenge to feel happy with all the medical matters swirling around us, but we have reached a positive milestone in the seasonal cycle.

In early March, my friend Steve stepped away from thinking about the cold weather, to think about better things ahead.  He wrote the following comment and it may be a comfort with all the other matters to confront.  (sorry I do not know why the print here is tinier than around it)

"We get hundreds of bees every day when the garden flowers bloom. They are so preoccupied with their gathering skills that I can walk right through the workers and talk to them and move the flower stems around while they're working. I truly enjoy that short commune with nature. Wonder when the wax will finally hit the fan."

Some years ago, my friend Allen and I were sitting outside enjoying an atypically warm later winter/early spring day.  Only a few flowers were up but the warm temperatures brought out the bees and it was a joy to see them at work.

In addition to these thoughts and recollections, friends and relatives have advised that their bees did well over the winter.  

In many parts of the United States, it may be snowing or unseasonably cold.  I remember fishing on April First in several years when it was snowing or small ice blocks were floating past.

March Snow, photo courtesy of S. Edelman

The weather can still have many surprises but better weather is ahead - - sometime!

The correction:  In my previous post "Knifely Done," I called the wooden pieces on either side of the knife handle "hinges."  My friend Jonathan advised me they are really called "scales."  Sorry for confusing everyone with the wrong term.