The Bee's Knees

62 and raining.

I miss having honeybees. There is something completely satisfying about a busy hive nestled under a springtime tree, the hum providing the perfect music for this time of year. There are still some wild bees around our place, very likely from a swarm from our former neighbor, who gave up on his bees and left them to their own devices. We would like to have hives again, but the cost of replacement bees nowadays makes beekeeping almost a rich man's hobby, it seems. But maybe one day we will dive in again, because it just seems odd not to have a hive or two on the place.

Yesterday someone said something about a thing being "the bee's knees". A funny saying, when you come to think of it. What does it mean, anyway? And where did the saying come from?

A quick google search turned up the following: "The phrase was first recorded in the late 18th century, when it was used to mean 'something very small and insignificant'. Its current meaning dates from the 1920s, at which time a whole collection of American slang expressions were coined with the meaning 'an outstanding person or thing'. Examples included the flea's eyebrows, the canary's tusks, and one that still survives – the cat's whiskers. The switch in meaning for the bee's knees  probably emerged because it was so similar in structure and pattern to these other phrases." from Lexico.com .

I have never heard the expression, "the flea's eyebrows" either, but I kinda like it--so descriptive of a tiny thing, isn't it?

Then I got to thinking of other sayings about bees. We all know sweet as honey, of course, and it's self-explanatory, and about how some cultures go out to tell the bees when someone has passed away. But how about the one that says if a bee enters your home, a visitor is coming? Or if a bee lands on your hand, that's good luck? There are plenty of others, such as:

Using bad language around the bees will get you stung. Similarly, you should never argue around bees. These make sense to me, as animals, and probably bees, can sense the change in atmosphere when someone is angry or scared. Maybe we put off a certain scent, or pheromones, when we're angry.

Bees should be told when someone dies, marries, or another important event occurs. They should also be introduced if they get a new beekeeper. 

If a bee comes in the house, don't try to force it out. Just leave a window or door open so it can leave on its own.

A bee landing on your hand means money is coming to you, and a bee on your head means great success is in your future.

image from wikimedia

The name Melissa comes from the Greek, and means "honeybee". I know several ladies named Melissa, and I wonder if they know this little fact. The name Deborah also means "bee".

Bees are considered symbols of loyalty and diligence. Which makes me think of the expressions "working like a bee" and "busy as a bee".

Most of us have heard that "A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay, a swarm in June iss worth a silver spoon, but a swarm in July is not worth a fly". This is because the bees will not have time to make enough honey to survive the winter if they swarm in July. Of course, in warmer climates, this old saw doesn't really hold true.

 This old proverb really gets to the point, doesn't it? Words are like bees – some create honey

and others leave a sting. And an old Arab proverb says, "When you shoot an arrow of truth,

dip its point in honey." 

So with all of that, I'll buzz off for today, leaving you with this, one of my favorite songs by Judy Collins:

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Honey! And Bread and Gardens: Lovin' That Country Life

 We've been having a wild old time around here the past few days. I guess it started Thursday when we planted the tomatoes. We didn't have some of our favorites so we made a quick 100-mile round trip to the Charleston Farmer's Market to get what we needed--Cherokee Purple, Golden Jubilee, Yellow Pear, and Cherry. I mean, these are the eating tomatoes! Gotta have them, that is all.

Friday Larry said he absolutely had to get to work on his bees, so that was what he did, and in the process found out that he really needed to harvest and do a bunch of cleanup work. I spent the day puttering: hanging out laundry, pricing totes for the booths, planting flowers, a little painting, and the ever-present housework.

We figured out what to do with this big cracked cast iron bell we bought last year. I'd sold the yoke and stand for a nice profit, but we still had the bell itself. I could not bring myself to junk it; it was made in 1887 or thereabouts and just too cool to toss. Then we came up with this idea. I love it.

Saturday morning was nice; we took time to go into town and have breakfast with a friend and do a little shopping. I found this cool old Scotch Kooler at a thrift shop. I also came home with a lot more flowers to plant. Will I ever have enough? Seems doubtful.

Then it was time to start on the honey. He'd pulled the frames from the hives the day before. I set up the kitchen, hoping I'd planned for all the possible stickiness.

Part of the harvest; about half of the final amount.

I wasn't even close! If it was possible for honey to get on something, it did. If it seemed impossible for honey to get on something, it did. Sticky on the table, on the stove, on the floor, on door handles and faucet handles, on me, in my hair. It was really pretty funny. Eventually the job got done and we ended up with about three gallons of sticky sweetness. Cleanup fell to me because just as we were getting started, a neighbor came tearing down the driveway to tell us a swarm had landed in a tree in his son's yard.

Now for those of you who don't know about honeybees: they will swarm if their hive is overcrowded or if their queen is old or weak. They will build a new queen cell in that case, and when the new queen hatches, most of the hive will leave with her. They will land almost anywhere: on a house, a building, a vehicle, a tree, you name it. Catching a swarm is fairly simple. The bees are so intent on their queen that they stay in their cluster and can be simply swept into a waiting bee box.

Sometimes the swarm is very high up and difficult to reach but fortunately this one was within arm's reach. So Larry got a box ready and suited up in his beekeeping outfit and headed to the neighbors. He had it in the box in little time at all, then went back after dark when the bees were settled down to bring it home.

So now we have four hives, we hope. Last year he split his big original hive twice, and those colonies made it through the winter. We took no honey last year, preferring to let the bees build up their store, and we fed them often throughout the fall and winter and into this spring. Feeding can be anything sweet--I have a lot of old jelly in the freezer that we have been giving them. They recycle it into new honey!

We are definitely beekeeping amateurs, and there is a lot to know about these fascinating critters. But we are happy with our hives at present and hope they continue to do well.

Today I continued cleaning up the stickies, and stored away the honey in the cabinet. Then I moved on to making bread--honey oatmeal this week, from a recipe in the booklet that came with my KitchenAid mixer.

I must be in a cooking mood because I decided to try making hollandaise sauce from scratch, a process that was about as messy as the honey. The sauce went over a stack made of thin chicken breasts, asparagus and hard-boiled eggs, then sprinkled with a little paprika. It was delicious but I don't know if I'll try making that sauce again.

I'm also doing all the laundry today and hanging it out to dry as tomorrow's weather looks to be a very wet day. We will start the week with lots of clean clothes, and lots of clean dishes as it feels like I've washed every dish in the house at least twice.

And lastly, I'm trying hard to meet the NaPoWriMo challenge of 30 poems in April, one every day. I fell behind when things got hectic so I may not complete it, and many of the ones I write will be drafts for later work, but I am glad of this annual challenge that gets me writing poetry again.

So that's life on the gravel one-lane. What's happening at your house these days?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

A Few Projects

The past two days have been icky weather, and, rainy or cloudy, so we've kept close to the house. There's no shortage of things to do inside, certainly! And then the workroom and the back porch are always full of projects so weather doesn't mean we're bored with nothing to do.

Here's a few things we've been working on.

I had this wood box in my booths for a long time. It was just rough unpainted wood; so it came home for a make-over. I used the transfer technique for the graphic.

 The same story with this little basket. It was black, with gold trim and the paint was all coming off. I almost tossed it, but the green velvet inside and the velvet ribbon trim were perfect, so it got a paint job and a transfer too.

Then I filled it with vintage sewing supplies. Let's see if it will sell now.

Another back-from-the-booth item. This table was natural finish on top, white below. It didn't sell in a year, so it came home and became a lady in red.

Besides furniture, there are the usual spring cleaning projects. I've been taking down my glass and washing it all while we give the house a good dusting.

Of course, there's storytelling work too. I'm planning my summer programs now, searching resources for story ideas. This is a fun activity, can't really call it work! It becomes work soon, though, as I start homing in on the stories I want, and planning how to tell them. I also want to make a crankie for this summer's library programs, and that will take some time in the coming month.

A larger project has involved both of us. We took an old door and sanded it down, finding the nicest layers of paint as we worked. We painted a shelf to match the door,

and built a boot box/seat to go on the bottom. The seat will have a hinged lid, and we'' add hooks under the shelf for coats, etc. We're close to being finished with this one.

Under the door is another Hoosier cabinet project. Larry removed the side because it was in very bad shape; he'll put a new one on, then the whole thing gets sanded and painted. That yellow is a little much! The top is also yellow, so we've got a lot of painting ahead on this one.

It's time to add supers to our hives, so Larry has been getting the boxes ready.

The supers are resting on  one of these; we bought two wheelbarrows last month, and they're both getting new paint as they look pretty rough. We will take these to the big Ripley On Sale event at the end of May, where we will have a booth set up.

A slower project: this old window frame was a lot bigger but so rotted that we had to cut it down and make it three frames instead of nine, daggone it. I am planning to paint it, then tack part of a cutter quilt into it. I think (hope) it will come out well.

A small project that fills time as I wait for paint to dry on other things.

And other time-filler, repainting this from dark navy to white. I think it's a lot prettier now.

Another frame that will get a quilt piece in it. I hope.

Six woven seat chairs that were in poor condition are getting some color and will be sold at the Ripley On Sale event as decor/flowerpot chairs. The seats on most of them have some damage; you can still sit on them but I don't want to sell them as seating due to their fragile condition.

Ebay continues to be part of almost every day's work. Yesterday I finally listed these two framed art pieces; the first is a Japanese wood block print from the 1920's. The second is called Prayer in the Desert and has a handwritten date of 1916. Both were thrift store finds, and are fairly valuable. Not like thousands of dollars, of course! I should be so lucky!

And last, cooking. We're picking fresh lettuce and asparagus now, and I am trying to use up some of the food we've stored in the freezer and cellar, so we've been eating well, and yet both of us are losing a little weight. Probably because we've been so busy. Today I wanted to make bread, something I haven't done in over a year. I made whole wheat honey bread, and it came out so nicely. I do love my KitchenAid mixer! It does a great job on mixing and kneading for me.

So that's some of what's kept us hopping lately. This is one busy time of year, and I admit, I love every minute of it. Except the dusting. That I could live without!


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Winter Green, Winter White

I changed the red and green table to a winter green and white:

I really like this pale green Depression glass plate with the snowflake in the center:

My "winter green" table was done just in time:

This morning the snow is flying for the first time this year. Old weather lore says that the date of the first significant snowfall is the number we will have this winter. If the old-timers are correct, then we'll only have two snows all winter? That seems unrealistic to me, but we'll see.

Last January at this time, here is what we saw:

And this past weekend, this is what was going on:

Yes, those are honeybees, evidently after the sugar in the corn in the bird feeder.The bees were making the most of the warm weather! I hope they got snugged back in because the outlook certainly changed overnight.

It's a good day to be inside by the fire, but we may have some outside work to do. So the day's marching orders may be bundle up and work hard to stay warm.

For now, though, I have my coffee and a good book and the fire is quite inviting. I'm working on programs for this summer, searching for sun and moon and star stories.Warm work for a cold day.

Busy Days

Retirement certainly is tiring! Who knew I'd be so busy that the days are still not long enough to get everything done? I suppose I knew that in theory, but in actuality--whew!


Yesterday was one busy day. Our bees arrived at the post office so Larry made a quick trip to pick them up. Once home he set about putting them in their hive, and while he was at it he checked on the other two hives and discovered that we needed to harvest. While he was busy with that I was making the jam I wrote about last night, baking bread and doing laundry. When we reached a stopping point we spent some "porch time" and assessed the rest of the day. Since the rain had held off we decided to plant some tomatoes. I swear this is the latest we've ever put in our tomatoes but with the daily rains we've had it's been just about impossible to get any planting done. We also got in a few hills of cucumbers, some beans and corn seed and I put out some romaine lettuce plants.

We got chased to the porch by some brief showers once or twice while planting but we got about 50 tomatoes in the ground before stopping. Dinner was followed by more planting--flowers this time. Then as evening settled in we ate spaghetti on the deck and enjoyed watching the Cedar Waxwings continue their bombardment of the mulberry tree. Larry brought the laundry in from the clothesline and I sorted it and put it away, then got to work listing a few things on eBay and packing sold items for mailing, and finished up by writing my blog for the day. Bedtime came early and was mighty welcome!

Today we relaxed a little. It rained all night (perfect for our plants) so instead of hustling out to do more planting we went into town for the Ripley on Sale event--yard sales all over town and all over the courthouse lawn. I found lots of bargains, some to sell on eBay and others for us to keep, and we saw many friends as we meandered around. I was happy to find some really big sheer curtains that I plan to use to cover my cherry trees when the cherries start to ripen. I don't mind the birds getting the mulberries, but the cherries are mine! Other cool things were wood bushel baskets, some nice kitchen utensils and, very, very best--a stainless steel egg poaching pan for $1.00. My mother had one exactly like it and I loved those poached eggs. I can't wait to try it out.

When we got home Larry donned his bee suit and headed to the hives. He brought in the frames of honey and put them in the honey extractor, whirling them around to spin the honey out of the comb. I don't have photos because I was busy in the kitchen getting jars ready. When he brought in the honey (about a gallon this time) I skimmed off the bits of wax, dead bees, etc and then jarred it up. It went beautifully this time--no bees in the house like last year! The honey is light and just beautiful. Larry also found that one hive is building a queen cell so he is planning to go out there again on Sunday and try to split the hive. Wish him luck.

Tonight I've been getting ready for storytelling at Vandalia tomorrow. I can't wait to head to Charleston to hear the great old-time music, see friends at the storytelling tent and browse the arts and crafts. It will be another long, full day of this restful time they call "retirement."

Spring Fever

Lovely warm day, with temperatures in the upper 60s. I had plans for inside work, putting together stuff for upcoming workshops. But the outdoors beckoned, so after making the week's soup, getting the bread in the bread machine and yogurt in the oven to culture, I headed out. And didn't get back inside until dark.

This week's soup: Turkey and Tomato Rice with Corn and Black Beans. Tastes right yummy.

The flower gardens looked a lot better when we were done. We didn't get to all of them but we sure made a big dent.

And look what we found under the old leaves and other plant debris:

These little fellows were everywhere today, busy as bees you might say:

Larry checked the hives today and said the bees were doing their housekeeping and flying in and out so fast it looked like a traffic jam at the hive entrances. It was good to see them out. They probably liked this a lot:

not the cardinal, but the budding maple trees! The silver maples always come out early, and almost always get frozen but they give the bees something to work very early in the season and that's a good thing.

After three hours of raking and hauling, I stopped and cleaned up the porch, giving it a good mopping in the process to get rid of more of winter's dirt and Larry went back out to the field where he is cutting tomato stakes and bean poles. We finished the day off with the first fire in the firepit for this year

and got rid of more debris in the fire. We went inside just as the rain started. A perfect end to a very good day.

Oh, Honey!

This morning I was up to my elbows in elderberries and elderberry juice, the peppers were still staring at me from their basket on the floor and a half-bushel of cucumbers was waiting on the porch.

I heard a knock at the door.

I went to the door, and there stood my husband in his bee suit, holding two frames of honey. "Here," he said, "take these."


I looked. The frames were crawling with these...


and honey was dripping on the floor.

"Uh, no," I said. And closed the door.

Of course, I couldn't just back out on him at that point. I knew he was going to the hives and planned to bring back some honey. I was so busy with berries I didn't consider that I might need to get something ready for it. And Larry figured I'd take care of whatever he brought back.

As I scurried (grumbling loudly, I assure you) around the kitchen trying to find clean containers for catching the honey--everything is full of berries, berry stems, juice, and squished-out berries--Derek and his crowd arrived.

Oh boy. Now we had bees, honey and kids on the porch. Someone was bound to get stung. Hannah immediately let out a shriek. "A bee is on me." Haley's answer? "Well, duh, Hannah. You're stepping in honey." Haley had a bee on her hand at the time (pictured above--she also took the photos for this post, while holding a bee.)

Me? I was still grumbling and fussing at Larry while Derek laughed at both of us. Old people, I bet he was thinking. Listen to 'em! He studied the situation and figured out what he needed to do to calm down the old woman (that would be me).

Hannah overcame her fear to watch her Dad cut honey off the frame. Poppa Larry got out of the bee suit and out of the way. I ran around trying to figure out what and where to put the honey. I knew where I wanted to tell Larry to put it, but it would not be nice to say it here. Just kidding. Really.

In the kitchen, I put chunks of comb into sterilized jars and strained the rest of the honey through my jelly straining bag, which happened to be already set up for the elderberries. A clean bag and a pan was all it took and I was in business.

Finished product: almost a gallon of honey, ready to use. And not one bee in the house. Amazing.

I was sticky from my elbows to my fingertips, don't ask me how. I had managed to sticky up a lot of pots and countertop too. Haley hosed off the porch but there are still some sweet spots attracting a few bees.

But we've got honey! Considering the amount invested in our hives to date, I'm figuring each jar so far has cost us about $40. Two of the hives were new this year, so we may not harvest any honey from them until next year. It's going to take a while to recoup the investment in hives, bees, tools, suits, veils, smoker, and so on.

That first taste of honey made the expense worthwhile. We'll take a little more this year, not much because we want to be sure our bees have plenty to keep them over the winter. Next year, if all three hives survive, we should get a lot more.

Sweet thought.

It Sure Was Buzzing at Work Today

In a quiet alley in a small city in West Virginia there was a small tree. And in that tree...
was a swarm of honeybees! Did they cause a stir? You bet. It was on our library's property, so guess who has to figure out what to do? You got it.
It wasn't so hard, either. First call was to my husband, who'd just started a new hive at home on Monday. He could just come down and hive it! But he wasn't answering the phone.

Second call was to a beekeeping friend. No luck there either. Third call to the Extension Service, who promised to find someone. Thirty minutes later, still no help on the way, but the Extension guy gave me the number for the Ag Dept. Called them, got two possible numbers and got lucky on the second call.

Gallant beekeeper suits up. We'd put up cones and signs to warn people on the walkway because there were literally thousands of bees flying around. Quite a sight.

Into the tree...
and down with the bees. Into the box...
and lid on.
Unfortunately, many bees were still in the tree, but with the queen bee now gone, these stragglers will probably be gone tomorrow.

Why were they here? Apparently a hive somewhere not too far away had built a new queen cell, which had hatched. The bees liked their new lady and left with her to find a new home. They chose the tree by the library. Not a great place unless you're an urban bee.

That's the quick explanation. Beekeepers reading this, can you offer more information? It was quite a sight, and made for a very buzzy day at work.