Busy,
busy, busy!
It was a sunny
Friday afternoon in early October and everyone was making ready for the
weekend. A good hostess is always prepared for the unexpected and it’s a poor hostess
who has nothing delectable to offer her guests and so Marjory had set out with
her friends to replenish her stocks. She and her chums always travelled together
to the market. Each one had a good idea of where the best bargains were to be
found. What one friend might miss, another would be sure to spot. That way they
were confident of filling their baskets with the very best produce available.When they
arrived they were amazed to see how many others were already there, industriously
searching. It seemed that the world and his wife were taking advantage of a
lovely afternoon to make sure they were not the ones to be caught out with an
empty larder. There was a pleasant hum in the air as friends and acquaintances
greeted each other.
Stocks
were plentiful – there was little chance of the shelves being emptied. Indeed,
some customers had already loaded their baskets to capacity and had begun to
make their way home, rather wearily, it must be said, for full baskets are weightier
than empty ones.
Marjory
set about her task with a will, buzzing from one stall to another, gasping with
excitement at the wealth of choice before her. Before many minutes had elapsed,
she had filled both her baskets and was ready to make the homeward journey. She
was looking forward to a lovely cup of tea and a delicious honey cake. She felt
she had earned a sweet treat.
I love this so much! We currently have dozens of bees humming through flowers and trees, in particular the big white cedar tree with its many blossoms and a hive inside the trunk.
ReplyDeleteIt's so good to see and hear them. They are our future.
DeleteI'm afraid a couple of bees have finished up
ReplyDeletein the webs surrounding my Virginia Creeper...
So there by there lies a 'sting' in the tail...! :(.
🧦🦌🧝🌟🍪🥛🍴🎀 🧦🦌🧝🌟🍪🥛🎀
'Nature, red in tooth and claw', and all that!
DeleteThat made me smile. Plenty of Marjorie’s in this corner buzzing away filling their baskets making most of the sunshine. Have a lovely weekend. B x
ReplyDeleteThat's good to hear. I hope you have a lovely weekend, too. Janice x
Deleteyour bee pictures look so real ! I find them ugly !
ReplyDeleteIngrid, I knew, as I posted them, what your reaction would be ;-)
DeleteLa bellezza e' neggli occhi di chi guarda...!
DeleteYou and Goethe are so right :-)
DeleteI love to hear and see bee's in our garden, they are loving our Silvia Hotlips at the moment, which is close to our seating area.
ReplyDeleteIt's comforting and makes all right with the world:-)
DeleteBeautifully written. And this shopping trip sounds so much more fun than the human equivalent!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gail.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a fun bee read! I love bees and wish they were not is such distress. Personally, I have had this giant spider, and I mean as fat around as a man's thumb, living and catching her dinner over a marigold this summer. I found bumble bees and a honey bee and more in her web. The bees distressed me, but I do like spiders and she deserved to live. She had her safe place in a couple zinnia leaves webbed together. I saw yesterday, she is gone. Don't know if she had babies, died, hibernated or what. I will miss seeing her "grow".
ReplyDeleteWe need the bees.
DeleteI'm not keen on spiders, though less repulsed by them since I started looking more closely at them. I prefer the smaller crab spiders, but all spiders deserve their lives.
We had brunch today sitting next to an early blooming lavender hedge and there was only one bee buzzing around. I think it was just too cold at 14 degrees for bees to be out collecting. Bees and their ingrained instincts are quite fascinating, as I've learnt from https://www.youtube.com/@FoxesAfloat
ReplyDeleteTheir lives are incredible. We could learn a lot from them.
DeleteThank you for the link - I shall watch it when I've got my 'Grace' connected again. Gilbert gets tangled in the wires and everything comes adrift.
"She was looking forward to a lovely cup of tea and a delicious honey cake. She felt she had earned a sweet treat."
ReplyDeleteThat could be said about all of us :)
Definitely!
DeleteBrilliant! 👏
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sal.
DeleteWonderful! Until yesterday we still had lots of bees out on 'good' days. I suspect yesterday was the end of any final pretence at a summery autumn. I loved your analogy.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Graham. Have you had the apocalyptic rains that so many in Scotland have had, or were the islands spared?
DeleteA teaspoon of honey is the entire lifetime work of 10-15 bees. They absolutely amaze me and I love how you have written this
ReplyDeleteThey are extraordinary and so important. It grieves me that they are under such threat.
DeleteThis is delightful! Our bees have nearly disappeared. It seems a bit early, a few cool nights but still a great deal of warm sun. Oregano and marjoram are their absolute favorite flowers here and they are eerily still.
ReplyDeleteWe grow everything we can to encourage them but we see fewer every year - it's tragic.
DeleteAww, what a lovely read Janice! I love watching bees going about their busy-ness! xxx
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ann. x x x
ReplyDelete