Pull up a chair, while I put the kettle on....

​

I'll tell you about this year, and share some pictures of life at my little apiary, Love My Bees.

​

Between taking care of the bees, painting supers, harvesting and bottling honey, making candles, supplying local shops, the Orono Farmers' Market, Christmas markets throughout the Durham Region, and just plain loving those little stinging critters, I've been busy!

​

During the Orono summer market, and the autumn and Christmas markets, I met many inspiring and driven people, so talented in their trades and yet still humble and kind - from woodworkers and needle crafters, artists and bakers, to farmers and skin care magicians, and the people who volunteer their time to run the markets. 

 

Market life has been rewarding.  At local markets, I have had people tell me that they think they found my bees resting on their flowers.  One gentleman found one he felt was dying and relocated her to a flower to find peace.  A man after my own heart, and a beautiful human being showing true compassion for tiny things.  During extracting, I will often find bees in my home, put them into a jar, wrap them in my scarves, and return them to the bee yard in the morning.  I have watched them crawl out of the jar, orient themselves, and fly toward the sun or home.  Those are some of my happiest moments in beekeeping.

 

Those moments, those stories from other people, buoy me during the times I am alone in the apiary, or skiing into the glade during the frigid winter to check on them, skiing again in March to feed them, working in the summer rain or the heat of the sun, sore and tired, thinking I just can't lift even one more honey super by myself.  Then something comes over me and I want to keep going.  I do love my bees, and how lovely to know there are so many people who love bees just as much as I do, and who wouldn't...they are just so darn cute and often give so much more to us than we do to them.  Let's take care of our world for all living things.