The year she is a-turnin’.
I know this because I see purple asters in some places - they’re not in bloom in my garden yet, but they will be soon. I know this because the honey has been harvested, and there are chestnuts hidden in their spiney cases under the trees.
Not many, but they’re there, if you look.
Around this time of year, honeybees start turning too. I wanted to call them ‘my bees’, but they aren’t.
Bees, like cats, belong to nobody but themselves.
Yes, I’m their keeper, but they can leave (and do!) if they don’t like how they’re being kept.
Anyway, so it’s August.
The honeybees’ temperament, en masse, goes from one of docile productivity, with a kind of ‘get outta my way, fool!’ feeling to it, to testy, defensive, and, well, a little desperate.
Got any honey residue on anything you own? Don’t put it in your garden right now, that’s all I can say.
Or, hey, yeah, why not: put it outside and stand back to watch the frenzy. Bees of all kinds will come from all over the place at the chance of wrestling some extra winter food away from the others.
Because that’s what honey is, and I don’t think a lot of people really think about that, or even know that.
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Honey is the food that bees make and set aside to help nurture them through the cold winter months.
How humankind came to steal it, and so efficiently, so that the bees don’t feed the want of it: that’s a subject for another email.
I feel I’m turning too. I will be present and selling my wares at The Jonge Makers Markt during the Antwerp Festival of Architecture (the young makers’ market: apparently ‘young’ in this case is subjective), and the blurb for it goes like this:
THE SINGEL is buzzing with creative bubbles on Friday and Saturday during the Young Makers Festival. Buy your fill of wild zines, posters, artwork, textiles, stickers, comics and more at the Young Makers Market.
I’ll be selling linocut prints in 2 categories: ‘witchy’ and ‘climate’. The ‘climate’ part will tie in with my jellyfish bloom project.
I’ll also be selling zines (which is why I was invited), and maybe doing some playful ‘on the spot’ art creation of some kind.
Let me tell you a secret though:
I’ve only ever made 1 linocut in my life, and so my days from now until then will be filled with cutting and tracing and making, making, making. It’s the kind of pressure that’s glorious. Yay!
I feel that being at this event, with a whole table to fill by myself, is making a statement both in the real world and in my mind that this is a direction I’m following.
And not only that, but opportunities are also opening up too, if I keep following the stream.
Questions for you, dear reader:
How are signs showing up in your lives as to where you’re going?
Are there any warning you away from a certain path?
Are you ignoring signs, perhaps, on purpose? If so, why? And if you are, don’t feel bad: I’m a prime self-sabotage engineer.
Food for thought.
Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to share this post with the entire world and everyone in it, and to be kind to yourself and others. And dogs. Especially dogs.
This week I did something really brave and walked through an open door. Or maybe peaked my head in a bit. I contacted a new art center opening in my home town about teaching some classes and perhaps selling my art. Just trying to stay open to opportunity. Sending you positive energy for the upcoming market!
Thanks for that reminder! We were watching the bees on our lavender and I told my daughter they were gathering nectar to make honey. She replied "so they can put more honey in our jar". I will tell her next time that bees make honey for themselves.