A close encounter with a beautiful big bumble bee earlier this week suddenly made it feel as though early summer isn't all that far away after all. One of my summer pleasures is to sit in the garden and listen to the busy hum of the bees as they work at collecting nectar from my flowers. I find it a relaxing tranquil sound even though it indicates great industry on their part. I like bees, they are friendly comfortable creatures and only sting as a last resort unlike wasps. If a bee stings it dies so it isn't an option that they take unless they feel very threatened. There are two little pieces connected with bees that I really like, this poem....
Bee! I'm expecting you!
Was saying Yesterday
To Somebody you know
That you were due --
The Frogs got Home last Week --
Are settled, and at work --
Birds, mostly back --
The Clover warm and thick --
You'll get my Letter by
The seventeenth; Reply
Or better, be with me --
Yours, Fly.
by Emily Dickinson
....and the song sung by Ariel in Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest'
Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
In a cowslip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
-- William Shakespeare
