While cleaning the boat today, I happened to glance out of the side hatch, I spotted a bumble bee floundering about in the canal, it was desperately trying to escape it’s watery trap to no avail. I decided to put my sweeping brush out in to the water and let the bee clamber on board, it did so immediately, no doubt relieved it was free from the water!
Now, I, as well as a lot of other people are not overly fond of wasps, they spoil are picnics and BBQ’s! They also tend to give you a nasty sting just for the hell of it, as I found to my cost a few summers ago. I was out on the boat and my bag was on the roof, I put my hand in to get something, only to be stung by a wasp that was lurking in the depths! Boy did it hurt, it stung me on my thumb!
I didn’t fully understand the importance of the humble bumble bee, or other insects that pollinate, until I heard snippets on a programme about them. If it were not for them, pollination would cease and flowers and crops would no longer exist, we therefore would not have grown produce that we all take for granted. Not to mention the glorious honey they produce!
So the next time you see a Bumble bee in trouble please help it out, as without it, and it’s many colleagues we wouldn’t have lovely flowers and fruit and veg!
This lovely picture was painted by the very talented Eva Cassidy, famous for her wonderful rendition of, “Somewhere over the Rainbow” amongst other songs.
I for one didn’t know she was an artist too, and this picture just proves to me that she did indeed appreciate just what Bee’s do for us. What do we do to thank them, scream, run and swat them with a news paper!
