Busy Bees

Busy bees – or was that bumbly bees? This photographer was both, busy and bumbling, as well as forced to be extremely patient. I was sitting in front of the foxgloves in my garden, waiting for the bumble bees to emerge from the blossoms. By the time I had focussed the camera, they were, of course, long gone. Most of the time, anyways.

I had more luck in another beautiful garden where a huge variety of plants attracted a variety of bees, so many of them that I could practically shoot a picture wherever I had the camera pointed.

The phrase “busy as a bee” can be found as far back as in 13th century Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. They should add “smart as a bee” when you look at recent scientific experiments that reveal how these insects are able to perform complex cognitive tasks like, for example, discriminating between different art styles.

Have bees rewarded with sugar water when landing to feed on one of four different paintings by an Australian aborigine artist or put off by some bitter solution when landing on any one of four Monet reproductions and voila: if you now show them new paintings of each of these masters, they immediately pick the Australian art – and all it takes is one afternoon to have them figure it out. Now why did I have to take years of art education in high school?????

Not that it did much good. At least I didn’t end up like this: Dancing, covered in bees, with meditating comrades drifting off into La la land….

Here is something less funny but more interesting: a short clip on bumble bee life and social structure. And with this I wish you a busy Tuesday filled with sweetness in one form or another.