Alive and Thriving

Planting an orchard under a rainbow

Spring has sprung. Yep, no doubt about that. We have had a wonderfully busy few days soaking up the warming sunshine, planting cherries, plums, pears, apples, hazelnuts and even peaches (intrepid - good to a zone four!). My broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages are all nicely laid out in the garden. The final summer garden spading was completed and a cold frame is in the works. I have been pleasantly surprised by the blooms occuring on our hillside - serviceberries are slowly awakening, small chokecherries are preparing for their bloom, fairybells, wild strawberries, shooting stars, oregon grapes... and so many more are all flowering at last. The ginger scented arnica leaves share the rocky hillside with patches of nearly bloomed lupine and wild onions... I love seeing all this new life surrounding me. However, there are those that are more thrilled than I with all of these blooming wonders...

Beautiful Comb up Close

We made the first hive inspection on Sunday... Mother's Day... to finally observe if the queen was fulfilling her mothering duties. I was terribly nervous, despite having watched the busy bee business nearly every day, despite having witnessed their voracious sugar syrup appetites. I just didn't know for sure... But... what wonders! What a gift to gently lift the first topbar and see the beautiful, brilliant yellow comb hanging in a perfect curve, carefully attended to by the workers and filling up with pollen, nectar (or sugar syrup) and... EGGS. The evidence of the great mother among them. Though we did not find the queen this go around, we were pleasantly surprised to find five topbars with comb, to see the orange and yellow pollens coming in, to feel the docility of a harmoniously working colony.

A Topbar in the Sky

The comb's color was another unexpected surprise. The softest, newest comb with the most vibrant lemon yellow tint... from all of the dandelion pollen? We marveled at both the color and the engineering of comb. Holding the comb up against the sunlight, my husband - an engineer himself - immediately noticed the perfectly balanced structure of each cell... how the backside cells were aligned exactly halfway between the front cells, perfectly overlapping for optimal structural soundness. What intelligence! What design! And to think it all happens without (or despite) our superior human help...

Sarah holds a piece of comb I cut off