It was finally time to install the bees and today the queen arrived with a few minions.
And now they are hopefully settling in to the new hive so they can forage along the canal.
And I am reading on the Internet about their care.
They have set aside their black tin boxes,
scratched and dented,
spattered with drops of pink and blue;
and their dried-up, rolled-up tubes
of alizarin crimson, chrome green,
zinc white, and ultramarine;
their vials half full of gold powder;
stubs of wax pencils;
frayed brushes with tooth-bitten shafts;
and have gone in fashion and with grace
into the clouds of loose, lush roses,
narcissus, pansies, columbine,
on teapots, chocolate pots,
saucers and cups, the good Haviland dishes
spread like a garden
on the white lace Sunday cloth,
as if their souls were bees
and the world had been nothing but flowers.
Ted Kooser
Delights and Shadows, Copper Canyon Press, 2004, Kindle Location 143
Although Ted Kooser is three years younger than I am, he was exposed to a kind of community life that I never knew. His books are rich with it! My parents had come East from Arizona and I never saw anyone painting china. There was a fair amount of knitting, and many people sewed at least some of their own clothes. Rarely, one can find a China-painted cup or saucer in a thrift store; it always pleases me and makes me a little sad at the same time. And of course, I put this here for the bees.
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