Have you heard about the plight of the bees? They are disappearing .. yes literally, disappearing! It's like a mysterious horror film, there are no bodies! Entire colonies of bees disappearing. No bodies, no apparent causes, no evidence ... nothing! Do you know that some scientists are saying that if all the bees die, then so do we! A chilling thought.
It has been reported this year, that the USA has suffered losses for the third year running, of a third of their native honey bee population - that's alorralorralorra bees! Our British bees are slightly - but only slightly - better off. More bees survived our winter than expected, but we are still losing more colonies than is comfortable, instead of 7-8% loss in a normal winter, we are losing around 17%. It's too much.
The latest thoughts are that bees brains are being damaged by pesticide cocktails which are affecting them in such subtle ways that we haven't noticed, but it means that they have become unable to communicate with eachother, or navigate effectivily to reach any food sources. This explains the 'no body' syndrome - bees could just be dropping where they are from starvation or exhaustion. It's an idea which has been given lots of funding but hasn't been explored properly yet. I'm hoping they've found at least the germ of the cause though, because a world without bees, is no world at all.
Sometime last year, I watched a programme by Sarah Raven in which she described a "River of Flowers" where, in order to save our disappearing native meadow plants and to create nectar rich corridors for our bees, butterflies and birds, we plant wild and native flowers wherever we can, to bridge the gaps between meadows caused by urbanisation. Why restrict this idea to native and wild plants? Any flowers are better than no flowers, and any bees are better than no bees. Without honey bees and other insects to pollinate our crops, a huge part of the food chain collapses, and our planet changes beyond anything we could easily cope with.
This year, I am mostly inspired by the wonderful Alys Fowler and her Edible Garden series - I know lots of you have been as glued to it as I have been, and although i've been living the 'grow your own/simple things' lifestyle for years, there is still much to inspire here, because Alys is so passionate about her craft, she passes on her knowledge and new ideas, generously, effortlessly and in such a convincing way, that she has me pulling on my wellies faster than you can say 'pass the trowl'.
As we hurtle towards the first harvests, we can use our intention to create a mass of energy for bee preservation. We swap seeds, we plant flowers and food, we share hints and tips and recipes, we provide lots of pesticide free nectar for the bees in our gardens, our environments, our communities, and by doing so, improve the wider environment for all pollinating insects and therefore preserve our own quality of life.
In summary, this is an opportunity to make some magic happen.
Magic is intention to create change.
To make this magic we share the gift of life by sharing flower seeds from our gardens, and food seeds from our vegetable plots, all bound with the intention that bees everywhere survive the strange phenomenon which is killing them, so that we and the world may never hunger.
By planting wherever we can and however we can, we can each contribute to helping our bees cope with the pressures of life in the 21st century, and by planting seeds which will grow into food we can eat, we can not only see the results of the bees work first hand and the importance of what they do, we can also ease the carbon burden on our world and stimulate our tastebuds! The bonus to all of this is that we can feel the ultimate satisfaction of being able to survive in spite of Tesco!
Lets do some magic for the bees and swap some seeds again! Here are the rules - much the same as last year:
Please include in your package:
- Flower seeds and vegetable seeds from your garden or your neighbourhood ie: not from a packet - don't feel you have to send a whole field load!! A couple varieties of each will be fine.
- A recipe for the harvest should also be included
- Your favourite organic gardening tip
- Something crafty in your parcel which has a 'bee' theme. This can be a homemade gift, or some crafty bee inspired bits which your swap partner can make things with.
I have made am making a button which I will put up later today, or tomorrow - please put this on your blog and spread the word! I would really love lots of people to sign up for this.
In the meantime, Bee articles of interest:
Google "bee decline" - for scary reading!
GOSH!! i already knew about the bee decline, but reading it from a lady who isnt a scientist makes me very very sad.
know what needs to happen? - everyone needs to grow fruit and veg, or rather..perhaps just one type of veg, and they need to share with the entire street. - this would get rid of pesticides of mass produced vegies - did you know tesco keep your veg at a certain low temperature for upto SIX MONTHS???? and then bring the temp up slowly to the chilled veg section temperature, and then you take it home and refrigerate it...mmmmyummy! :S go to tesco and buy...some carrots, or peppers? and take them home and dont put them in the fridge, watch what happens REALLY quickly. grow your own man!!
- we need more traders and less shops.. creating competition and cheaper prices, but panic not..because people are paying less doesn't mean you'll get less for your trade, oh no... you will have more custom because there are less huge shops to do it for cheap... yeah its cheap, but its CRAP and some child had to make it or be beaten... ignorance is bliss eh? also..the 'stuff' you buy wont last as long as something you pay a little more for and get made.. or.. go buy a sewing machine! and make stuff yourself. the hours you'd spend shopping, or watching tv or facebooking or whatever..learn to sew!! swap the stuff you sewed for a hair cut off or a new..bird feeder. or whatever.
- people need to be kind to each other... if everyone was kind and didn't mind helping people EVERYONE would get helped and less people would be bitter for having to do everything themselves.
- so..we need... gardeners, seamstresses, , nutritionists, natural healers and doctors, obviously we need bee keepers! spiritualists and scientists, hair dressers, dentists, comedians, musicians, anndd... im not sure what else. what else? righty..so we gather these people up aaannnddd go and live on an island somewhere? yes? somewhere warm? but with soil not sand... ill think on it ;)
seriously...save the bees!!!
xxxx
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