Water for Bees

There's been a lot said and written about the terrible collapse in bee colonies and the reduction in bee numbers that threatens to disrupt human food supplies. About forty per cent of what we consume relies on bees for pollination. Farmers are reduced to importing bees from foreign countries to make up the numbers. This practice has its own implications for native populations.

Nothing to do with me, I hear you say. What can I do about it?

You can help provide them with food and water.

Food can be some flowers in a window box. There's lots of information on which flowers are best but I would suggest something that blooms either early or late, in other words when the bees are scratting about looking for food.

Water isn't something that is talked about much but bees need to drink. They can't even consume their own honey stores in the winter, unless they have water for dilution they can starve. Water is also important for keeping the hive cool in summer.

Bees will collect water wherever they can find it. Ponds and large tanks of water drown lots of bees because their perception of polarised light is poor and they fly into them. They need a shallow water source with no ripples to wash them away. They have to drink and will put themselves at risk to do so.

A simple sloping ramp, floating wood or pond weed can let the bees land safely and walk to the edge to drink. Take a look at the water around where you are and see if you can make it a bit easier for bees to access.

You can make a difference!



Image Primo Masotti  maso101@libero.it

Point of View

People ask me what changed between the unpublishable Technical Difficulties and the very successful Due Diligence.

Two things.

First, me. I changed. By the time I'd finished Due Diligence I'd written four complete novels. I'd also attended weeks of writing retreats, attended regular writers circle meetings and been on plenty of writing courses.

The second big change is point of view.

The 'hero' in TD was offhand, jokey, unaware and didn't develop with the story. He was exactly the same at the end of his epic 250,000 word adventure as he was on the first page. I wrote in third person and past tense, keeping a fair distance away. This meant there was less chance of a reader to making an emotional attachment.

I decided to change point of view into one much closer and more challenging. If I'm not feeling emotionally engaged with what's happening, a reader can't be expected to be either. I wrote Due Diligence in first person and, to make it even more immediate, present tense. This is a very close viewpoint and not an easy one for a thriller. Everything has to be seen through the eyes of the one protagonist, there's no opportunity to fill in the back story or bring in another pair of eyes to broaden the scene.

To make it even more challenging, I chose a female protagonist.

Writing Due Diligence didn't come easy. There's no opportunity for automatic pilot, no chance of an easy run. And it shows. Readers are engaged by Jenny's plight, they want to see what happens next because they care about her. The plot unfolds with breathless speed courtesy of the point of view from which it's written.

So those are the changes. They've worked for me and reader response has shown they also work well for them.

Maybe, I'll write something a little more comfortable after I finish Limited Liability which will be my third Jenny Parker novel.

Perhaps I'll go back to Technical Difficulties.

On the other hand...

Hospital Food

The word hospital has the same root as hospitable. This implies that you're welcome, stay as long as you like, it's what we're here for.

Hospitals don't want you to ever leave, it's their job to keep you for ever. Or at least until you die.

It seems to me that the economic difficulties that this approach of free hospitalisation brings are being dealt with by the cunning device of hospital food.

They're not allowed to kill you with medicines but they can certainly speed up your departure using food.

Of course, the whole of our society eats really badly. We're stuffing rubbish into our bodies on a daily basis. But that's our choice, if we want to kill ourselves that's fine. My problem is with medical care that fails to recognise the correlation between what we eat and how we feel.

I've had a sneaking feeling about this for a long time but only recently received evidence that supports my misgivings.

Here are two plates of food:

Pick the one you think might aid patient recovery. No, not the one you might prefer to eat! Just because there are chips on the plate doesn't mean its tasty.

Try these two:

Now compare with this:

I believe that hospitals have a duty to administer a bodily intake that's appropriate and conducive to our well being. They have an opportunity to demonstrate a healthy diet that will help prevent further illness. From the reports I'm getting, they don't seem interested.
If hospitals feed their patients stodgy crap, any patients lucky enough to leave without being dead are going to think that's what they ought to be eating.
It's a crazy world.

Bees

I'm on week ten of a ten week beekeeping course. After the classroom stuff, I'll be getting hands on experience in the spring. Or getting stung, as the experienced beekeepers so delicately put it.

Bees are important, they are needed to pollinate our food crops and they are massively under threat.

This lady explains it much better than I can:

http://www.ted.com/talks/marla_spivak_why_bees_are_disappearing.html

It's just one of the many things going wrong with the world, I suppose. Like I said previously, it's easy to get discouraged and give up.

There is another way, though. Pick something you can do and do it. Even if it's as simple as being more mindful about what you consume. And plant some bee-friendly flowers.