Short Stories - Honey Bees and Serendipities

Transcript

Nobody gave me sin for this That’s reason why I try both This is all that’s old, I can see a thousand times of this This is all that’s old, I can see a thousand times of this Out against mental illness I’ve got some audio that I recorded that is just a total mess That was on the second recording I’m currently deciding whether I need to record it all again or there’s some way I can clean it up It’s a horror show and it’s measurable I don’t know how long that’s going to take I wanted to get something out since I’ve got a little bit of time off work So instead of that I think I’m going to use this as to kick off a new type of episode that I can produce a little bit more quickly and are a bit shorter which is essentially me just talking about whatever’s on my mind or what I’ve discovered in the intervening days or weeks and just keep it short and reduce the amount of overall effort that I need to put in because my life is suddenly extremely busy and conflicted I don’t know what I’m going to call these yet but by the time this is published you’ll know But really I’m just going to talk about stuff that interests me and I think is relevant to y’all Without further ado, here’s my first little story So I wanted to talk a little bit about an experience I had a few weeks ago which I just thought was just quite magical on so many different levels and speaks to why just keeping on showing up and doing your thing sometimes yields unexpected synchronicities and serendipities that give you a bit of delight and a bit of joy and a bit of a boost So what happened was, so anyone who’s a long time listener of this podcast will know I live next to a derelict cinema that we use as an art space There’s usually artworks of mine up on the wall, it gets used for all sorts of things There’s activities going on in there all the time And so one or the other, the artist or several of us have generally got artworks up on the wall in one place or another in the building And so I had some of my work up in the main foyer The guy who owns it, Peter, if you want to hear more about the cinema and Peter, there’s an episode from a few episodes back that tells all of that story so I won’t repeat it But he and his wife own a homeware shop just down the road Just nice things for your house and furniture and that type of thing And they have regular warehouse sales which they’ve been conducting in the cinema in the foyer this time So they had all of that set up for a weekend And my art just stayed on the wall, they just left it there and it had price tags and stuff on it And there was someone else, one of the other artists from the group had some of their art up there And they just left it there if someone wanted to buy that as well, they’d sell it to them Anyway, I didn’t think much of this because I don’t, there’s always something going on And there’s more often than not one or more of my artworks lurking around on the walls in that place So I was vaguely aware that that was going on Anyway, one Friday a few weeks ago I walked out of the back of my house And we share a sort of back garden, back lot space with Peter and his wife And there’s some garages and stuff and that’s where my current workshop is So I walked out the back there and noticed something weird out of the corner of my eye And it caught my attention and I walked over to it, it was like a plant pot It’s like one of those big ornate plant pot things that’s just sitting there with some plants or flowers of some sort in it And it was just completely enveloped by a swarm of bees I didn’t know that when I first saw it, I was like what the hell is that, I’m sure that wasn’t there before So I walked over to it, somewhat gingerly And there it was, it was a swarm of bees And that was just, wow that was crazy, why is there a swarm of bees there Now I’m going to pause actually because I did a little bit of research on this And I think it’s interesting in its own right if you ever come across one of these things And so I had a little bit of a conversation with my AI agent Ada Who if you’ve listened to prior episodes turns up sometimes to help me with things And so I’m going to cut in that conversation here so that you can learn what I learned about this stuff Hi Ada, is there a name for it when honey bees move hive to a different location Forming a protective barrier around the queen when they stop for a rest Right, you’re talking about the classic bee road trip scenario When honey bees relocate their hive, the entire swarm bunches up around the queen Often clinging to a tree branch or something similar while scouting for new digs This mid relocation cluster isn’t just random hanging about It’s a protective barrier formed to guard her majesty until they find a fresh castle The name you’re after is simply called a bee swarm or more specifically a swarming cluster During the swarm, the bees create that dense ball-like mass around the queen They’re solid and ready to snipe anyone or anything daft enough to get close So, no fancy whimsical term beyond swarming cluster But that covers the instinctive protective glomming they do on their way to the next, hopefully less shit place Oh cool, so why do they move in the first place? Usually, bee colonies move for a few reasons One, overcrowding The original hive gets too cramped, like a dodgy London flat with ten people sharing one loo Little digs can’t handle the numbers, so it’s eviction time Two, resource depletion If the local nectar and pollen run dry, bees get twitchy and bugger off in search of greener pastures Foods the prime motivator, not some astral whim Three, protection from shit conditions Damaged or disease-ridden hives can’t keep the colony going Better to bugger off and start fresh than stick around and meet an early demise Four, reproductive strategy When the hives matured, the colony naturally decides to split That’s swarming The old queen legs it, with a bunch of workers to establish a new home Leaving the younger queens to boss the old place In short, bees move when life at home is a bloody disaster or they want to multiply the empire No daft romantic reasons, just cold, hard biological pragmatism Is there any particular time of the year that they do this? You bet your arse there is, it’s a strictly seasonal getaway Most honey bee swarming fun happens in spring and early summer Typically from April to June Why then? A few reasons Floral bonanza, that’s when flowers are in full swing, nectar gushing like a bartender on payday Warm weather, bees need decent warmth to travel comfortably and scout new real estate No one’s queuing for a snowstorm expedition Population surge, their numbers peak in spring, early summer Thanks to ideal brood rearing conditions So when the hive gets too rammed, the eviction notice goes out So, generally, the bee swarming season dresses itself in spring sunshine and stretches into early summer The prime and proper moving period for buzzing aristocrats Well that makes sense since this happened in June So, all very interesting Anyway, I left it there meaning to have a chat with Peter about it at some point as to what we might do with that And sort of swiftly forgot about it until I walked out again And thought I’d need to talk to Peter about it when I saw them again and then forgot about it again Told my wife about it and the kids and made them have a look And all of this didn’t result in me having a chat with Peter about it Anyway, later that day, or maybe it was the next day, Peter pings me a message saying I just sold one of your artworks in this warehouse sale that they were doing A good one, like quite a lot of money I didn’t even know what one it was at that point But he was really sort of pleased about it And he sold some of this other artist’s work as well So, four artworks in total have been bought And I thought, well that’s just marvellous, right? I was so pleased I haven’t sold an artwork in ages, let alone one that was that expensive And so, later on I sort of popped in to see and found out which one had sold and who’d bought it And what the circumstances were And here’s what he told me Somehow, via a set of fortuitous exchanges Peter was talking to someone about the bees Which he’d already noticed himself, or rather his wife had Who got in touch with someone else And then got back to him shortly after saying Well, there’s some guys who own their own beehives Who are always on the lookout for straight bee colonies And would be very, very keen to come and try and rescue this particular swarm I think, obviously, everyone was very pleased about that I was particularly worried that perhaps they would decide to move into my workshop Which would be, I would welcome them for sure, but it would not make my life very easy And everyone wants to see how any bees looked after And especially in a rural, heavily farming area like this How bees and other pollinators are absolutely essential So Peter agreed And a couple of hours later they turned up with this box thing I was completely unaware of any of this Although I had spotted that there was a box there suddenly that wasn’t there before And they coaxed the queen into a box Which was interesting in its own right And here’s what Ada had to say on that particular subject Basically, they tempt the swarm into a specially prepared box That acts like temporary lodging Often the box smells like bees’ favorite perfume Leftover beeswax and propolis So they’re more willing buggers to hop in Sometimes they use bee buzzer boxes, or just call it baiting a swarm It’s a neat little hack beekeepers do to keep the swarm from setting up camp somewhere no one wants them Like your shed, or nana’s garden gnome And instead relocate them to a proper hive Efficient, sanity saving, and respectful And so the bees had all moved into that And they were just sitting there, they left them there Because if they moved the box immediately the bees might freak out Move out and go somewhere else and then the whole enterprise would be lost And so just before they left And they were going to come back on the Monday to pick up the box They popped in to say hello to Peter and tell him what had they done And they spotted all the stuff that was there Plenty of homewares and stuff And all the other things, in the art on the walls And it turns out that these guys were, they’re in a restaurant And that restaurant was a sort of a bar in pub, gastric pub thing In a sort of next village along, a place called Mythil I’m not even very good at saying it It’s built M-U-T-H-I-L And it’s actually quite a renowned eatery We later googled it and found it in a Guardian article Like one of the top 20 places to eat in the UK It’s not been there for that long as I understand it It’s called The Curry in Mythil So yes, if you’re in the area, pop in and have a pint or awesome food I’ve yet to eat there or even go in there In fact, I didn’t really even know it existed And so these guys, they own that pub and they have beehives And they were looking to kit out their pub with some more homewares Hooray for Peter and his wife And also, they’ve already got a selection of sort of diverse art on their walls And always looking for more And so they sort of looked around and pointed a bunch of stuff for the homeware stuff And then pointed at a bunch of paintings and said, alright, we’ll have that, that, that and that And just paid the ticket price And that was it They took a bunch of stuff that got delivered to them later on that week And everyone was sort of really pleased by this And it turns out they put my, I think the other artist paintings have gone up in the rooms They were, I think, local landscapes if memory serves And mine was a very, quite a big two by one ratio Ultra close up of a woman’s face in hyperrealism It’s quite an odd piece, but one of my favourites, it took me a very, very long time to do But I absolutely adore, so I’m almost sort of sad to see it go But it’s gone to a good home because it’s gone on the wall in their restaurant And this is a type of restaurant, okay, it’s not ridiculously expensive and high end But it is a restaurant of repute People come from a long way around to go there And people eat there, have got a bit of money And it’s just a nice place, well, as I’m told I’ll go and have a look at it someday very soon And introduce myself because I haven’t met these guys But they’ve got my artwork up in a very prominent place in their pub, in their bar area And I’m just bowled over by this And I’ve got artworks out and about in the wide world But they’re almost all, in fact, probably, I think, all in private houses And this is the first one that I’m aware of that’s in a public place And in a place where, I mean, it’s just great advertising And so when I sort of thought back for all of this I mean, that’s a brilliant outcome regardless But when I sort of traced back in my mind, I was like, well, this happened because of the bees This queen bee and all her little worker bee girlfriends Decided to take up residence just outside my studio I don’t know why they chose that I don’t know where they were potentially heading But they decided to take a rest, the weather was quite cool It had been, you know, starting to rain And so I think they probably needed to conserve energy and try and stay warm And so they picked my back garden And for a whole bunch of serendipitous events I ended up making quite a decent amount of money Through selling an artwork that now is going to be advertising me In certainly one of the most respected eateries in the local area And perhaps in Scotland And just what a bizarre sequence of events that was And how brilliant it was And also for the other artist and for Peter and his wife And it’s just been, everyone wins As I assume do the guys that own the restaurant Who now have a new hive of bees and some wonderful artworks and homewares And it just came out of the blue It was just something totally unexpected And it was so brilliant to discover the bees and to learn about all of this And to have that there if nothing else had happened And I had a swarm of bees in my back garden I would have been mega pleased And then all this other stuff happened And all because really I just have my artwork out there There’s always some around I don’t expect to sell any at any given point But it’s nice if it happens And I think some of the lessons here is that You can get quite jaded Especially when you’re going for a bit of a fallow period In terms of things like sales or people seeing your art And it can feel a little bit thankless But you don’t know when something’s going to turn out Almost literally out of the woodwork When a swarm of bees or a queen bee decides to take up residence in your back garden And suddenly you’ve sold some artwork Or some other amazing thing has happened So I’m so thankful to that queen bee And her swarm Who has now gone and have been relocated I assume they took the box away The bees did not re-emerge And they still seem to be flying in and out I think as far as I’m aware they’ve been successfully relocated So I’ll at some point pop up to the curry And introduce myself to those guys Find out what happened to my wonderful bee friends And drop a few business cards in there In case someone else wants to buy my artwork And everything’s good I mean after a really horrendous year For something like that to turn up is just such a boost And it made me really happy So I thought I’d share that with you And I’ve got other stories and some other things And bits and pieces I’m going to share in these shorter episodes So I’ll wrap that one up for now Thank you Ada for your help in researching this Ada will no doubt be making more appearances in the future But in the meantime keep an eye out for bees because they’re awesome See you soon, bye So I can see a thousand times away All’s against mental illness