GLOBAL DOMINATION!
While my gorgeous girls gradually decrease in number, gather together in cluster around their queen and spend the next few months concentrating on getting her through the winter - I continue to be in and out of my hive flying here there and everywhere. I definitely need a scout be to perform a Waggle Dance every morning for me telling me which direction to go in and how far it is I have to travel. I think they are called PA’s in our world! I love this image of the honeybee carrying the world on her back.. for this my friends is exactly what she does. The honeybees and all the other wonderful pollinators, who, using one interaction after another, make our world a better place. Thank you girls.
Talking about using one interaction after another.. I’ve just come back from a wonderful week in Wales. We were in a place called Ceredigion, not far from Pembrokeshire and it was extremely peaceful and relaxing. Everyday we visited a different beach and went on lovely coastal walks with our dog, Miss Tilly. While there I decided it was time to go through the various entries to the colouring competitions I have been running throughout the summer at numerous schools and communities that I have given talks to. I hadn’t realised how many entries I had received and it was lovely revisiting them all and seeing the wonderful effort the children had gone to. I picked all the winners and sent them their signed copies of Betsie Valentine And The Honeybees. A couple of the parents kindly sent me pictures of their children for this blog with their copy of BV! Here they are with their winning pictures!
Following an audition in Bedfordshire I’ve been accepted on to their 2020 List of Speakers Which I’m absolutely delighted about. Already I’ve taken bookings from them for next year so 2020 is filling up fast! It really is an exciting time for me. To share my passion about the honeybees with schools, businesses and communities is such a privilege and the wonderful comments I receive at the end of my talks are truly heart-warming. I leave knowing I’m doing something good. So with Bed, Bucks and Berkshire in my pocket I would just like to add Herts to that and I feel my step toward global domination gets ever nearer!
I’ve done some wonderful talks to Brownies and Scouts over the last couple of weeks and would like to thank the parents of the two groups featured for allowing me to put up these images. The image below is of the Princes Risborough Beaver Scouts and I love signs they’re holding up! This picture was sent to me in an email thanking me for the talk together with a lovely note saying how much they were all enjoying the book.
These images are of the 5th Marlow Brownie group, who may be a small group but very lively and enthusiastic! Their ‘thank you’ at the end of the evening was literally mind blowing. Brown Owl told me they have a special way of saying thank you. “Oh yes” quoth I “The Brownies usually clap their hands three times in a circle and with each clap they say thank you.” “Oh no” said Brown Owl.. “not here - you will have to wait - it may take you by surprise.” And take me by surprise it did! They stood in a large circle and asked me to step in to the middle, they then joined hands, presumably so I couldn’t escape, and wooshed in towards me shouting thank you. They did this three times and the shouts got louder and louder. It was very funny and summed them up, fun and vivacious! One of the girls in the group had a dutch surname - Kleine bij which means little bee.. How sweet is that? Forgive me if my Google literal translation is incorrect!
The National Honey Show draws ever closer and I’ve been very busy getting various things ready for the competition. Determined this year to enter as many categories as I could. I’m afraid I have failed on so many levels it’s been an unadulterated disaster! I was so late entering - two of my entries - a gorgeous photograph and sweet little video, that they have not been accepted. In spite of my best efforts, the knitted dishcloth ended up looking like it had been through a boil wash and fast spin, Finally the two Identical Beeswax Wraps are about as alike as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are in the movie Twins. Super fail. So I’m left with two dubious jars of identical honey, a dodgy honey label and a cross stitch pin cushion.. Ah well, there’s always next year!
However.. below are some images of how I made the now “unidentical beeswax wraps”
Pic 1. ‘Hand printed’ (here is where I felt I made my first mistake!) squares of material, cut to ‘exact’ dimention specifications - (and here is where I think I made my second mistake!).
Pic 2. Melted down beeswax.. the most successful method I have ever used see previous blog!
Pic 3 & 4. Melted wax easily removed from carton.
Pic 5. Grated beeswax.
Pic 6. Material laid out on Greaseproof paper - then another sheet added on the top and pressed with warm iron.
Pic 7. Distorted and frayed edged beeswax wraps which have now been cut so many times, in order to get them square, they are way under the required size!
10/10 for effort I say!
And so tis time to wrap up this blog, pardon the pun. I always like to end on a high.. I got a lovely email from a friend of mine who spotted this on FB. I sent the lady in the picture below a message - as I recognised her from one of Lady Val’s Networking luncheon meetings - and she said I was the beekeeper but she couldn’t remember my name and of course gave me permission to use the post/image! Boom.. another beekeeper in the making!