Sue moved to London 7 years ago and is now keeping bees in south London. We spent a day exploring the beautiful gardens and surroundings of East Croydon (pictures to come). Sue and her boyfriend took us the a spectacular estate where they keep one of 5 hive locations. We donned our beekeeping suits and got up close and personal with thousands of bees. Hearing the volume of buzz rise from a hive is amazing. It isn't time for harvesting honey yet, so we simply made sure all was well with the hives.
Bees are amazing. Their hives are an eco system of complex relationships between worker bees, drones, and the queen. To hear my friends talk about what the bees do and the entire process of maintaining the hives to harvesting the honey (which I was able to taste directly from the hive) was unbelievable. For a few minutes, I even considered starting a hive when we move (along with getting a few chickens). Then I remembered I don't have an agricultural bone in my body.
Sue and Mike share their knowledge of beekeeping on their website, Bees 'n' Beans, and in teaching classes. I'd love for you to visit their site and follow them on Twitter. Who knows, maybe one of you will be a future beekeeper.
I have wonderful photos to share, but they are on Chris' computer today. I'll be sure to post them soon.
Hope you have a great weekend!
___________________________________________________________
![om [one moment] meet up](http://i748.photobucket.com/albums/xx125/alamodestuff/OM_alamodemeetupbutton.jpg)
OM is a weekly meet up that promotes living in the moment. Whether funny, sad, ridiculous, or banal, actively looking for and sharing these moments will promote balance in our lives.Share in the OM comments here, on your own blog (leave us a link in your comments) or on my Facebook fan page. If you are on Twitter, use hash tag - #omMeetup so we can converse if we'd like. We'd love to hear your moment this week!
I love how lives can intersect! I have a student in the class I taught this month who has JUST become a beekeeper along with her Dad - they just moved a 2' x 8' hive from their garage wall into bee boxes!
ReplyDeleteSOunds like you had just the kind of visit you needed!
Dear One - Wonderful to see you here in this great city and share our love of the bees with you and Chris. So glad you enjoyed these little critters -- they mysteriously impart so much joy and you obviously felt that. (Don't know how they creep into one's heart like that!) Be warned: once you're keeping chickens, it's a slippery slope and you no doubt discover more "agricultural bones" in your body! :)
ReplyDeleteSo great to be on this journey called life with you. much love sue-chan xoxo
Keeping bees and chickens was always something I wanted to do, too! Our neighborhood isn't suited to bees, but chickens may be in our future.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great photo of you and Sue, brings back memories of the U of C for me. It was great that you guys were able to meet up on your recent trip. Good luck with your upcoming move!
ReplyDelete