June 16-22, 2014 is National Pollinator Week, and we are celebrating the beloved honeybee here at the studio. In conjunction with Gallery MAR in Park City, Utah Carol is offering an opportunity drawing for some lucky someone to give home to a Nature’s Bounty vessel. Place a recommended donation of $20 (or more), during the month of June 2014, to either Pollinator Partnership (www.pollinator.org) or Park City’s Swaner Eco Center (www.swanerecocenter.org) via Gallery MAR to be entered into this opportunity drawing.
Nature’s Bounty is an appeal for renewed appreciation and active conservation efforts regarding the miraculous honeybee. Presented within twenty-five blooms of white clover this small jewel offers a radiant energy of divine, balanced Power in the repeated “3″ of the foliage (3 leafed clovers and one 4 leafed one too). Three is a Divine Power number suggesting oneness and harmony. The honeybee population is declining at an alarming rate – these amazingly intelligent insects are responsible for pollinating nearly one-third of the fruits, vegetables and nuts we eat on a daily basis. Love almonds? Well, thank these little industrious workers for all of their miraculous pollination efforts.
The world’s honeybee population has been in an alarming decline for the past decade; and continues to decline today. In the mid 2000’s a virus threatened the vibrancy of the life of the honeybee; and today Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) presents the greatest challenge yet with its unique set of lethal symptoms; along with numerous other virus’. I hold a very deep and growing concern regarding the alarming rate of the honeybees continual disappearance (along with other bees and insects); and the yet inconclusive –or at least ineffective – results of the massive research completed surrounding CCD. One author, Michael Schacker, in A Spring Without Bees (2008), suggests we have the answers, for the most part, to their disappearance yet we have been unable, as a society, to accept the evidence which would strongly indicate a critical need to change many of our ways of living to insure their future with us. Schacker believes a major culprit to be our increased use of pesticides and our ever-increasing potency of them. His book presents an absolutely alarming, and very well documented collection of the history of their disappearance along with the research efforts and results. He also highlights the role of the EPA and its regulations and practices; as well as the role of major manufacturing companies of the many pesticides we use so freely today. It is clearly a book worthy of one’s time and deepest reflection.
The honeybee pollinates about one third of the food we eat today – including fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Without these foods, our dietary intake would need to change dramatically leaving grave deficiencies. The honeybee truly feeds us through its relentless work as an amazingly intelligent and organized colony. I hope we are, collectively, able to wake up to the alarming cry of the honeybee and see in its disappearance the grandest of requests for us to re-evaluate, with very new eyes, our way of tending our natural world and our changing farming practices. We can truly no longer afford to make decisions based primarily upon financial gain or ease of labor over the value of a healthy and sustainable source of nutrition and a balanced, non-toxic and sustainable ecosystem. In addition to the honeybee other bees, beetles, moths, butterflies and other insects also are responsible for pollinating our foods.
Join the focused efforts this year to dedicate your practices to exclusively organic, sustainable gardening including many plants inviting our pollinators. Each of us can do our part and make an enormous difference – and, each of us will always needs healthy food for our bodies.
Read more here…. http://allemanstudios.com/bronze-works-companion-writings/vessels-by-size/6-inches-and-under/natures-bounty/.
Listen and watch Dave Hackenburg talk about bees and beekeeping and the weather on this short promo for the Weather Channel. Thanks weather folks for the opportunity. Thanks Dave for taking the time.
http://www.weather.com/video/weather-really-matters-to-bees-49164?collid=/news/staff-picks
