A Bee that lost its Buzz, and A Spring Garden!

Laura saw the bee before I did. "Don't stand on it!" she said. "The poor thing must have been inside since yesterday."

Dragging itself over the floor near my feet was a very dishevelled bundle of misery. The bee was in such a feeble state that its limbs would not bear its weight, so it polled along with the occasional push of one or other back leg, and paused between each push as if to catch its breath. Laura captured the bee with one of my small porcelain glaze test bowls, and I went out into the garden ahead of her and the bee in search of a dandelion or two.

Over the years we have rescued many exhausted bees that have "run out of steam", and have found that they revive quite quickly if placed gently on a dandelion flower. The flower is broad enough to give a wobbly bee plenty of support, and there are numerous little florets for them to put their long tongue into in search of nectar.

This poor bee was so far gone that it could do no more than grip a dandelion flower with its hook-like feet, and insisted on orientating itself the wrong way round with its bottom on the flower and its head hanging over the side! I realised from its pathetic lurches that it was only a matter of time before the bee fell off. I placed the glaze test bowl under the flower for the bee to drop into, then went back to the house in search of some honey.

Standing by the kitchen sink, I put a small glob of honey into a teaspoon and diluted it with water. I took this out to the bee and was attempting to find a way of getting honey to a place near the bee's head, when it lost its hold on the dandelion and fell into the glaze test bowl. The bee landed upside down and seemed unable to right itself. What with spoon, bowl, upside-down bee and honey, everything conspired to get a bit sticky at that moment.

I put the spoon on the ground, arranged a blade of grass over it like a bridge, and managed to slide the bee onto the bridge so it was able to hold both grass and spoon with its various feet, and peer into the bowl of the spoon where the honey was. Quite soon the bee's long tongue extended, and it began to consume honey with great care and dexterity. As the bee grew stronger I was heartened to see its big rounded rump nod rhythmically. This was a good sign, our exhausted bee was coming back to life!

The restoration of the bee took the best part of half an hour. I sat nearby with a cup of tea and watched as honey and warm Spring sunshine worked their magic. At last... there was a sudden haze of wings, and the bee lifted majestically to the low blossom laden branches of the plum tree above us and embarked on a mad dance from flower to flower, scattering white petals in its haste to find more nectar. I headed back indoors to get my camera, and on my return to the garden, I was delighted to be able to reunite with the bee and take its photo before it flew away to a higher and more inaccessible tree.

It is Spring and the garden is waking up with a great rush of energy. Laura is outside most mornings purportedly "filling another bucket of weeds", but really just being there living and experiencing this season of change, and rediscovering her "treasures" as they awaken from their winter sleep.

Potting and painting, yes there is quite a bit going on in our studio and I will start glazing a new kiln load of pots for the wood fired kiln this week.

I think I'll do a separate post about that and other matters as this has got rather long already!