Writing from Agape and Kwao Adams' beeyard in Strawberry Fields, Jamaica near Annotto Bay and a cold front has hit!
With ocean breezes and a high around 27 degrees Celsius, my wonderful honey bee mentors and their visitors and neighbours are layering up with hats and long sleeves.
It's a bit chilly for the bees as well, though we have been able to check on them and give them some sugar water during the January dearth. (I just checked what it's like in Canmore and it's -19 degrees, but feels like -28. <3 I hope the bees are staying cozy there too!!).
Two interns, Mary and Bryan, left this morning after handing Lucy (a lovely little lady studying photography in Boston and my roommate) and I the bee torch.
Six dread-locked boys between the ages of 2 and 17 buzz about the Yerba Buena yard as well as two cats, three dogs, and a white-bearded goat.
A few nights ago, we distilled Sea Mint, or Lantana involucrata an aromatic herb we collected in the forest with a few of the boys and girls from town.
It smells amazing, like an indescribable root, and I'm looking forward to distilling more essential oils with Lucy and Agape.
Lantana involucrata - Sea Mint
We'll miss Bryan and Mary's energy around here, but it's great to have new people and neighbours visiting, like the couple who just arrived here from Austria.
Today we're fixing some hives and cleaning up after the wind storm.
Like the layers of the forest that surround me in complex green swaths, the bees building their comb and filling it with brood, pollen, and honey, my experiences are also compiling and I hope to share some of them here on this blog, as well as some of the diverse flora and fauna that I'm learning about!!
Love,
Kate xoxoxo
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