Minding my own beeswax....

April 4th, 2009

Saturday morning…I’ve already lost track of time. I had to check my iphone to see what day it was. Seven-thirty am and I’m rarin’ to go. I love the market in Sommiere for the food, the colour and the fresh air and sometimes just the walk. Its beautiful town and today was already bright, sunny and warm. A perfect day!

And Bonus! There was an antique market going on at the same time. I don’t know if its been there before and I’d just missed it but it was such a treat to do a couple of my favourite things in one trip. I didn’t find anything but I did get some ideas on the pricing of a variety of stuff.

I did buy a Wisteria plant as is my custom, that is to buy at least one plant for the farm every trip to the market. I haven’t yet decided where it should go. If anyone knows what kind of conditions it likes let me know. I have several possibilities.

I could also hear Cash Converters calling as well. I’d seen a weed whacker and an old electric lawn mower there before and was sure I could get them for a pittance. Sure enough they were still there and I happily loaded them into the car after paying just 25 Euros for both. Now I could cut the grass and trim things up so they looked good.

I was just into that about 45 minutes when Christian and Corinne dropped around and offered to take me with them on their hive servicing afternoon. Ok, that sounds a little strange…they keep bees and they had to check on all the hives and make sure that the Queen’s were in good shape. Not so strange after all! They found me some gear and advised me on how to don all this odd apparel. “Make sure you tuck this in, and tape that up, two layers of clothing, hook this around your thumb to keep the sleeve from riding up.“ So many directions I felt like I was preparing for a beauty pageant!

But I found out why they needed to be so careful. Pretty obvious I guess but I was not prepared for the intensity of it. There were tens of thousands of bees in each hive and all of them angry, trying to protect the queen, and intent on kamikaze action to do so. I was virtually pelted by wave after wave of bees. The only relief was in the small smoke generator that Christian periodically waved around. I was very glad for the extra dressing instructions as I couldn’t imagine how I would have reacted had the bees made their way through my clothing and started to sting me from inside my suit. I remained very quiet and assisted in the effort to service the hives as best I could. I even got to paint the back of one of the queens with a little red paint dobber so it could be easy to find her.

After that bit of excitement I went home to finish cutting the grass and get ready for dinner with Christian and Corinne. I spent the evening teaching her two boys a little English and trying my best to utilize the little French that I do know so they would be inspired by my example….needless to say they went to watch a French movie and my idea of teaching them English was put aside.

I made my way home at about 11:00, very tired and ready for bed. The farm was comfortable and warm after a few days of heating and I curled up with Travels with Charlie. Steinbeck was going on and on about mobile homes and how wonderful they were….it seems something has been lost in translation since his time. It was like I was in a time warp listening to a mobile home salesman talk about the advantages of mobile home parks….I don’t think they knew then that they attracted tornadoes.