Tuesday, August 22, 2006

What's The Buzz All About?

Winnie the Pooh is one of my favorite characters. Pooh loves hunny and hunny is made by bees. I love the song he sings when he is trying to sneek honey by pretending to be a rain cloud: I'm just a little black rain cloud. Hovering over your honey tree. Pay no attention to little ol' me. 'Cause everyone knows that a rain cloud doesn't like honey, no not at all...

I have no problem with bees. (Hate. Hate. I say... HATE... wasps and hornets.) Pooh's bees are honeybees. There are a lot of other bees, too, although I don't know all the different varieties. (I don't like yellow jackets either.) For the most part, bees are usually busy (heh heh busy as a bee) going from flower to flower, gathering nectar and taking it back to their hive. At the hive there is a Queen Bee. I like that. Not a King Bee, but a Queen Bee. The workers are male and they live to serve the Queen Bee. I like that. Oh, I already said that.

I have lots of flowers in my yard so I have lots of bees buzzing around. Along with lots of butterflies and hummingbirds. The butterflies are doing a job. The hummingbirds are doing a job. Just like the bees doing their job, collecting nectar. So I let them go about their business. I don't bother them and they don't bother me. Except the other day, a bee stung me on my pinkie finger. Ow! It hurt. Owww and stung. Owowowow... but then it stopped stinging so all was well with the world again.

Only Daughter has a phobia about bees. It is a well-founded phobia since she is allergic to bee stings. She doesn't like the sight of a bee or the sound of a bee. She doesn't even like photos of bees or cartoon pictures of bees. I assume she really hates the Nasonex bee, too. Of course, knowing this, I like to tease her (with love... lots of love) and send her pictures of bees. I sent her a recent photo of bees and was quite surprised when she suggested I post it to my blog. Of course, there is a story to go with it.

My Polish Prince (formerly known as My Man... which sounded so possesive and non-descript I just had to change it) asked me to come out to the back yard to look at something. I always dread it when he asks me that because usually it involves something I would rather not see. Our house is surrounded by Black Locust trees. Old ones that are probably over 80+ feet tall. He points to the big one behind the pool room. As I walk towards it, I hear a sound. It grows louder and louder. I could feel it. It roared like a locomotive. Looking up, I gasped! I had never in my life seen so many bees swarming around! Hundreds of thousands (no exaggeration!) of bees swarming that one tree and more coming in from all around. I have seen a few movies about bees. The swarm of bees coming in and the sound of them sounded so hokey and fake... or so I thought. That is exactly what they looked like and sounded like!

I felt no fear. Of course, I looked down at my body to make sure all my skin was still intact. I walked around under the tree in awe. Got my camera and took a couple pictures. Yeah, right. Try taking pictures of bees in a flurry. Only one turned out half way decent. And one wouldn't know they were bees just by looking at it... but that's what they are. An hour later, they were gone except for a few stragglers. There they go into the wild blue yonder.....

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wanted you to post it because it is quite amazing, but I still don't like it. Bees are bad. Down with Bees. I don't mind the Nasonex bee because he can't hurt me...but if I saw him in person I would want to punch him.

Not only have I been stung, but I was also pinced by a bee. I was on the top of a pontoon boat in the summer. I took a sip from my can of beer and immediately felt a sharp pain in my tongue. I screamed, spit out my beer and frantically wiped at my face - all at the same time. My friend Dina said that was the funniest noise she had ever heard a person make. I was pretty sure a bee had stung me on the tongue. One of my friends investigated the bee and my tongue (no jokes please) and he concluded that the bee "pinced" my tongue with his mandibles. Another reason to HATE bees. I think they know that I hate them too. I don't like to see one hovering near me, but I REALLY hate the noise. That buzzing sound will send me into a state of panic. Unfortunately, sometimes a fly sounds like a bee and then I look like an idiot for freaking out about a fly. Thanks fly.

Jaek said...

Aside from the fact that I feel like my mother just gave me one half of the facts of life...(c'mon people...the birds and the bees?)...

I feel as though I have just been given a most wonderful gift. A piece of knowledge that was heretofore unknown to me. My little sister is afraid of bees. Pictures. Sounds. Ahhh, the possibilities...I have just been given a great power which I will use irresponsibly. Whatch out, Sis. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

ha ha.

Anonymous said...

That's a LOTTA dang bees...

stinkypaw said...

Yuuck! And you walked around under the tree? Aaargh... just the thought of it is giving goose bumps!

MiMaw said...

Only Daughter: I am sorry. That must have hurt. I know someone who swallowed the bee and it stung her throat!

Jaek: I'll have to take care of the other half soon. At your age, someone should tell you about both the birds and bees.
And you be nice to your sister... I have too much fun terrorizing her!

Tammara: Oh yeah!

Stinkypaw: Sure, they were waaaay up there. But if they would have starting coming down... I would have run for the hills (or at least the garage).

Anonymous said...

yeah, Jaek, what Mom said :)