Today I luxuriate in a perfumed front door area, sitting in a chair in rare winter sun. The glorious aroma is from fresh flower starts in the clay pots by the door, thanks to needing to decorate quickly for special guests.
The bees notice it right away. Hungry honey bees climb all over the newfound sudden spring garden, with two or three bees on some blooms. I enjoy the happy hum.
Suddenly I panic. Not all of those starts are organically grown. Some are, but I needed certain other colors for my scheme, don'cha know, and bees these days have been having so much trouble, and now I am to blame! I get a bad feeling...
But wait! My town banned bee killing neonicintioids last year! I bought all my flower starts in my town. What a relief.
Europe led the way getting rid of these bee killing chemicals, and after some local bee disasters involving massive bee die offs following spraying, our town followed suit. I am happy to feel like my flowers that make me so happy are not hurting the bees here.
"Not a single bee has ever sent you an invoice. And that is part of the problem - because most of what comes to us from nature is free, because it is not invoiced, because it is not priced, because it is not traded in markets, we tend to ignore it."
- Pavan Sukhdev, United Nations report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.
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