Life Imitating Art

As many of you know, with the fall well on its way, the local hives lose some of its members. Some are final nomads out of age – I believe bees only live 40 days – and some self-sacrificing out of necessity for the greater good. The hive just can’t support them over the colder months.

Back in September, I noticed some bees hustling around trying to scrounge up a meal from the then dying summer flowers. I felt bad for them.

I had just received a batch of Mark & Sara’s wonderful east coast honey, so I put some out on a paper plate to see if it would draw the bees, it did.

https://jaxandcobees.com/

I also drew the wasps and yellow jackets, many in the same boat of scrounging for their last few meals.

They all seemed to get along at the unexpected honey fest. So I kept it up.

Now last summer, Lisa picked up this solar bee light to put in the Jack The Spruce Grotto to see if it would draw any bees to the 4 large potted plants she puts out every year. I think they are geraniums.

I always hope that the bees will pollinate my one wild rose bush growing along the front of the house in the JTS Grotto – Morticia Addams – which never seems to provide me with any blossoms. The bees don’t seem to want to pollinate my by default pigmy apple trees I planted over in the side property either. They remain fruitless.

But my charity is not a quid pro quo. I pay it forward.

So, I have continued to provide the golden liquid on the bee table multiple times a day – they literally lick the plate clean – it isn’t even sticky – as long as I see them showing up for a meal. I even leave the mostly empty bottles out for them, and they crawl inside and lick them clean.

I’ve been going through 3 large bottles of honey a week. Walmart must love me.

I have to tell you, I’ve watched videos of my son, Mark (Go Blue NYPD) walk among his and wife, Sara’s (also NYPD) now 15 hives completely unperturbed by his buzzing buddies, but I never thought I would summon the nerve.

However, my service at the Bee Honey-Soup Kitchen has calmed my nerves, even when some of the customers alight on my hands when I am changing out the plates. it’s never threatening. I just gently shake them off, and nicely ask them not to bite or sting me. So far, so good.

Now throughout September, the gang usually cleared out by evening.

However, recently I’ve found a number of dead bees and wasps out around the plate and table in the morning. It really looks like a crew of drunks at the local bar that have passed out right there in place. A mass of sleeping bees. It has the feel of a Hospice.

It breaks my heart, but I do hope that they all died with a full belly and with a smile on their face. At least they didn’t die alone. I’ve taken to placing them all among the flower pots – Bee Boot Hill.

And there are still some live stragglers wandering around the table when I open the doors to the Bee Honey Soup Kitchen. And a few minutes later more arrive. Just not as many as before.

The stragglers actually remind me of an old timer from Riverdale named Willy from back in the Coaches II days, who would be waiting for the doors to open so he could get that first drink in him and settle his nerves. On the rare occasion that I would stand in as weekend bartender, usually if a wedding required the mass attendance of the regulars, I was taught to pour Willy his first drink in a shot glass and give him a plastic straw. He would place the straw in his lips and dip his face towards the shot glass, like one of those perennial motion glass birds that continuously dip forward.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird

After Willy finished that first shot, the Delirium tremens would subside enough for him to drink the natural way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens

No matter. I’m not here to judge the bees. Theirs is not an easy life.

I will continue to serve them as long as there is one hungry bee looking for my sugary respite.

I’m going to call the last one to show up, Willy.

Well, anyway, during a recent observation of the crowd I noticed that some of the more sated customers will alight on my wife’s solar bee lamp a foot or so away from the feeding table, the let out their belts and let the goodness digest, while they take a breather before going back for their next meal.

Seeing the real bees on their plastic counterparts was pretty cool.

I will miss them when there are no more takers.

Well, my morning approaches and I have to go wake Lisa for work.

Then its a kitty cuddle (and feed) and I’ll set up the honey plates.

When I go out to the JTS Spruce Grotto both Smokey and Mittens serenade me with meows until I place their meals down for them. Although only Smokey puts up with a cuddle. Still, it’s nice to be appreciated.

And it’s Thursday, which is the Lady in Waiting to Friday, so its nice to be in the promise of her presence.

So, you fine, five readers, finish your coffees and hop on your bikes.

Take care of the work week today, and tomorrow will be so much more fun.

No matter what we do, let’s make today a great one.