Beautiful bees

On Friday my friend Sarah (pictured) asked if I was available to help with the bees. I jumped at the opportunity.  I am not quite ready for the responsibility and equipment for my own bees. Therefore, I take every opportunity that Sarah provides.  I want to learn the lingo and understand what I see in the hive, but most of all I just want to be with the beautiful bees and with Sarah who is filled with kindness, wisdom, and ease.
There is something magical about the hum of the bees. I go into a bit of a dreamy trance.  Sarah asked me which hive we had taken supers out of.  I had to pull myself out of the trance with no sure answer. Hence the reason I don't have bees yet, I have a lot to learn.
In the first hive there were many queen cells found but no queen. We removed any queen cells we found, removing one in tact in case another hive was queen less. Sarah planned to add a marked queen to the first, because it is the county observation hive which needs to be ready for the fair.
The first hive was a little worked up due to no queen.  I was given the task of recharging the smoker. I didn't do a great job with the smoker and I ended up surrounded by upset bees with a sting  in my thigh.  Looking for something flat to scrape the stinger out, Sarah suggested the hive tool. A little scrape and we were back to work. We moved down the line getting through 4 hives before a break for lunch.
By some miracle, mostly the help of another adult friend, the children played nicely through the afternoon in the yard and I was able to help Sarah with the last two hives.
I got a lesson called smoker 101, which was very helpful and came in handy in the depths of the hives.
I somehow overcame the trance state late in the day and was able to follow through with directions and put a hive back together by myself.  A few times I did a little shake of the bees giving them back to their home before closing it up.  That was indeed a very beautiful moment for me.  There is a rush, a hum, an intensity, that runs through you when you move so many bees at one time, but especially when you see them drop unharmed into their home.  I am trying to describe it but words fail me.
All I can say is BEAUTIFUL AND MAGICAL. 
Sarah's eldest, my former student, had the task of cutting the comb honey in the kitchen and extracting the honey from the supers in the basement extractor. At one point he had an audience of 7 children. They watched him cut the caps off the wax of the supers and place them in the extractor. He very patiently answered the 20 questions from my youngest sons lips.
I had to extract my boys from the hum, much like the bees. They were filled, not with honey, but joy.  They needed a little brushing off, like I swept the bees from the supers intended for extraction.  They were finally tucked into the car with the help of Sarah's sweet daughters and I could see for the rest of the evening they could feel the magic and anticipated tasting a bit of it with goat cheese for desert.

My boys watching us for a moment before heading off to play in the chicken yard, sand box, and with play mates.

Sarah searching for the queen.

Me in the spring.

Comb honey on goat cheese.  Our favorite desert.

Comb honey with butter on Toast takes me back to my grandparents kitchen.

Overnight oats warm weather breakfast

Here is my recipe for Overnight oats.

1 1/2 cups boiling water.

Add one tablespoon coconut oil and dissolve.

Then add 1 cup oats, 1tbls. Chia seeds, and 1/4 raspberries or strawberries optional.

Stir well, cover, refrigerate over night.

Enjoy with a topping of yogurt and maple syrup and more fruit.

In the eyes of the beholder

My garden is much like my life.

I want to do so much, learn lots, and eat really good food, but there is not always enough time.

Sometimes I get plants in ground when intended. Sometimes I get time to weed. We always eat and sometimes really well from the garden.

I think this years garden is beautiful. My first chicken manure compost made a few plants extra healthy and beautiful and maybe a bit chaotic. To some I think it looks like a mess. 

This bothers me not. I say to myself it is "all in the eyes of the beholder" = my littles and I.