Honeybees!

“What do you like doing best in the world, Pooh?”

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best-“
and then he had to stop and think.

Because although Eating Honey
was a very good thing to do,
there was a moment just before you began to eat it
which was better than when you were,
but he didn’t know what it was called.

-A.A.Milne

I signed up for a bee tracking program earlier this summer and I haven’t seen any honeybees, and I was beginning to despair a bit. After learning about Colony Collapse Disorder, I wanted some first-hand reassurance that we still had honeybees in the area.

Hoorah, I think this is a honeybee! They are smaller than the bees I normally see, so it’s quite possible they’ve been around all summer and I hadn’t noticed them.

And there are lots of them! I’m so happy to be able to contribute something meaningful to the bee research in spite of the deer eating all my sunflowers.

(Lots of good bee information here if you are interested in learning more about the importance of honeybees and developments in CCD research.)

Now. Turning my attention to the Pooh quote.

I’m not a Winnie the Pooh fan, really; but I’ve never read any A.A. Milne, so perhaps it is unfair to say that. After all, the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland is nice, but nowhere in the league of Lewis Carroll’s wonderful story.

What do you think? Should I read the story- stories? Is there more than one? I’m woefully uninformed on the whole culture of the Hundred Acre Woods, outside what I overhear on the Disney Channel.

I do love the character of Eeyore.

And I relish this quote, its portrayal of anticipation. Like those moments as a child when you wake and you realize it’s Christmas morning, but not quite time to wake your parents… and your heart races, and you tremble all over, and you can’t wait…can’t wait…

You know, thinking on it, I don’t remember any of the actual opening of presents! I remember the agonizing excitement of waiting for it to be time, (I can feel it as I write about it, a sort of involuntary muscle memory), and I remember the sigh of satisfied relief, sitting back and looking over the chaos of opened presents and masses of wrapping paper.

This makes me rethink a bit. Why do we as parents stress so much about the presents themselves? Evidently, to me at least, Christmas has never really been about the gifts at all.

What is your most vivid memory of Christmas as a child?

And- getting back to the quote-
what do you like doing best in the world?