This morning I have been out in the barn hammering together twenty new frames for a new beehive as well as refurbishing my one available old hive. I have two colonies of honeybees with queens coming early next week. They will need new quarters as soon as they arrive.

More honeybees arriving! Honeybees already here alive and well! These are both sweet surprises.

Honeybees arriving is a sweet surprise because bees are in such short supply right now that it is an amazing thing that the bees I ordered last fall aren’t dead. The company in Georgia where we have gotten our bees for many years was spared the mysterious honeybee deaths plaguing so much of the country.

Honeybees already in residence is surprising because for the past decade I haven’t needed to make new hives for arriving bees. Usually, come spring, there are no bees in my old hives. Usually all our bees have died over the winter.

This year, we begin our growing season with two living hives and two more coming next Tuesday.

What with all the problems honeybees are having with tracheal mites, viruses, pesticides, GMOs, cold winters, and whatever is behind the new mysterious die off, it is an incredibly sweet surprise to have bees that survived all these difficulties.

Late last fall we had four hives of bees. Two were large hives up against the south side of the Flower Essence building, tucked in a warm nook that is well sheltered from winter winds. Two were new hives from swarms that occurred last summer, set down under our oak tree. I spent a lot of time with the honeybees last summer. I tried to listen to them more carefully so that I could give them exactly what they needed to survive our winter.

I offered all the hives sugar syrup into the fall. One of the swarm hives had a good fifty or sixty pounds of honey by the time the Goldenrod was gone and things got too cold for them to partake of the syrup. I felt that might be enough honey to get this new bee colony through the winter. I was aware that the fourth hive, the other hive from a late summer swarm, went into the winter with virtually no honey store. I did not expect it to live.

The Mama and Papa hives, nestled as close to the Flower Essences as we could get them, were hives boxes filled with full combs of honey. I knew these bees would have enough food. One hive in particular seemed particularly vibrant and healthy. I was hopeful the combination of enough honey and placement right up against the helpful vibration of all the Flower Essences in the most sheltered spot on our farm would be enough to get these hives through.

The swarm hives did not make it, but both of the bigger hives next to the Flower Essence building are alive and well. This morning these bees are out and about, collecting pollen from early Flowers and Tree blossoms.

When the two new colonies of bees arrive early next week, I am going to put them next to the Flower Essence building along side the surviving hives because I think that placement is one of the x factors helping the bees to survive.

Many of you have sent me clippings about the honeybee crisis in the US, Europe, and Asia. Thank you! I find myself thinking a lot about this crisis. My theory is that it is an electrical problem. This is one reason why I think hive placement close to the Flower Essence building helps our bees. Living next to the Essences, they get exposed to information that will help them deal with the dissonance of our modern world. It also gives them an oasis of vibrational harmony in which to live.

For many bees moving out into the modern world, our massive communication network appears to be fatally disorienting. Since 911, the Angels have kept us focused on supporting animals and people to deal with the difficulties posed by our dissonant technology. They encourage us to share Golden Armor with as many people and animals as possible, explaining that our dissonant technology is negatively affecting ALL of us, even if only some of us have symptoms of this.

We continue to see a profound need for this remedy with its information about helping us learn how to handle and buffer out this electrical dissonance, a vibrational disorder that our electrical systems have no built in capacity to handle.

The bees that are dying from this mystery situation leave their hives and don’t come back. This disappearing act is different than bee deaths from pesticides, mites, viruses, or other disease. I think mankind’s electrical dissonance messes with the bees’ radar system. I suspect that the bees go out to collect nectar or pollen and simply can’t find their way home. Much like trying to tune into a radio station in the face of static and other louder frequencies, the bees can’t follow the bead of their own electrical navigational system because of our dissonance.

Yesterday CNN said that bees are responsible for pollinating a third of the food on the planet. Will this be a compelling enough reason for us to back off our passion for vibrational chaos. Will we choose to quiet the electrical grid of our planet and give all of us, two footed, four footed, and winged a break?

During the 1980’s I was part of a local group called the Meriden Peace Trust. We sent folks from our town to the Soviet Union, hoping to create friendships that would break down the illusion of otherness between our two countries. We also hosted folks from the Soviet Union here in our town. Sometimes our visitors would be communist party big shots, but even these guys had grandchildren and vegetable gardens. The women that came would ask to go to JC Penneys the moment they got off the plane. Apparently Soviet bras were terrible and they loved the chance to stock up on American made undergarments. Supporting these precious new friendships was our village’s effort to make nuclear war less likely, one better built bra at a time.

Here was a postcard from this era that spoke to my heart.

Don’t these darling ladies look like they need a trip to JCPenneys?

We came to love a small group of Soviet citizens who had as little say in the nuclear arms race as we did. Their concerns and their joys were so like our own. I will never know if our efforts made any difference in the arms race, but it made our lives sweeter to know these Soviet friends.

I remember the moment when I first felt that we were not going to pursue this arms race until nuclear war happened. An economist spoke at one of our Peace Trust conferences. He said that the economies all the countries on Earth were going to get radically interconnected with each other. He explained that it would be this global economy that would prevent us from destroying each other, because there would no longer be an economic “other” to nuke and destroy. This was the early 1980’s and it was a new idea that made sense. And of course, it is what happened. The main road south out of Moscow now has an IKEA and no doubt a Sears as well. Bombs were always bad for people, but it was when they became bad for business that the arms race slowed.

Now that the economy of the country is severely threatened by the death of the honeybees, I hope that bees also will be spared annihilation. I don’t really care if it is a basically self interested agribusiness agenda that spare the bees. I just want them spared.

Perhaps in the righting of this situation and in the turning off the bee killing technologies, all of us will have less dissonance to deal with. This will be a sweet gift from the bees. Perhaps the strange bedfellows of bees and agribusiness leaders will become real friends. These bees, so in need of protection, have such a capacity to enchant with their vibration of loving harmony Maybe in the silence necessary for pollination to keep occurring, the bees will transform us more deeply with their song because we will finally all be listening. Life is certainly full of the most unexpected sweet surprises. I hope this will be one of them.

Mid week, just when we were all about to jump ship for warmer climes, the weather turned on a dime. The last four days of seventy degrees and sunshine broke our world open into glorious Flower!

Chionodoxa

Crocuses in the Arbor Garden


Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica)

Forsythia just beginning to strut its stuff

Within a few minutes of the weather shift, the spring peepers were chorusing with reckless abandon in the pond across the street. We celebrated with badminton and garden projects. I cleaned up the gardens and spread compost and other soil amendments in all the beds. As I worked, piles of brush accumulated where piles of snow had been just moments before.

There were lots of branches to rake up from the big storm. Here Jim loads the truck with one of many loads of small twigs blown down by the high winds.

Of course, mulch was involved in the weekend’s projects. If you read this blog before, you probably know how passionately I feel about MULCH.

Jim and I made an executive decision to mulch between the rows of blueberries. The grass between rows is hard to mow ( Jim’s input) and the thin rows of blueberries and mulch are hard to keep weeded because the grass grows into them so fast ( my input). So, we covered the ground with the cardboard boxes that our various bottles and boxes arrive in and then covered this layer of cardboard with native bark mulch.

We have found this system of mulching works so much better than commercial landscape cloth. We save all the boxes during the winter and then have a big stash for projects like this in the spring.

Is it any wonder that when one of us walks into the garden center where we get our mulch, whomever is at the service desk just picks up their walkie talkie without missing a beat to alert the person out back with the heavy machinery ” One load native bark for a gold pick up.”

One of our Plum trees blew over in the storm last week. The Elementals suggested we use a come along to pull it upright. Here it is anchored after its been straightened as far as it wanted to go. Since then, the Elementals have had me take a five gallon bucket of Essence water down to the tree once a day. I thought that they would want me just to water the tree with this mix, but instead they have had me scoop the water up into branches and air around the tree, bathing the aura of the tree in the energy of Recovery, Grounding, Golden Armor, Healthy Coat, Emergency Care, Anxiety and of course Green & Tonic. I am hopeful that the tree will recover from its traumatic experience. We hope the greening world and the Essences will set this tree free to flourish again. All this green is make us dizzy with JOY!

All in all, what a difference from last Monday!

Snow. April snow. One storm piling into another, day after day.

I try and think of these storms as a chance to keep on with winter crafts. I finished knitting the border for the third of the fifth grade afghans, modeled here by William.

We keep feeding the birds. There are so many unusual ones at the feeder, looking like the rest of us, a bit bewildered by this spring.

On Sunday, our fifth day in a row of falling snow, William stayed in bed reading books with a couple of cats to keep him company. This was a good model for the rest of us who had hopeless aspirations of fighting the high winds and pelting snow for some fresh air.

Late Sunday, the sky turned that awful strange black and green color I have seen before with microbursts and tornadoes. I did the land clearing process for the farm grid and hoped for the best as relentless winds with some serious gusts of sixty to seventy miles an hour pounded us all night. Today, it is still extremely windy, though fortunately the precipitation has become sleet and rain. None of us have ever heard such whistling and roaring noises in this building. Branches and sleet beating against the windows and roof add to the cacaphony.

At the bottom of our hill, about half a mile from here, the storm damage was extensive. The shots below are of a formerly dense forest.

We seem to be the only house on the road with power. I am going to post this while we still have power. And bring in another load of wood to keep the home fires burning.

Each day’s email brings a lot of interesting questions and stories about Flower Essences.

Here was feedback and a question from yesterday, “I have a four year old Doberman Pinscher female…who I have been competing in agility for two years. We have had great success using Showcats and Anxiety. I will not trial here without them! Although they have worked wonders for her ring stress ( 99%better than previously ) something is still “missing”. In trial, she doesn’t run as fast as she can and does in practice because she constantly has to take in her surroundings. She used to bark and get her hackles up about the judge and ring crew, which she doesn’t anymore, but she still will wander off course to make sure they meet her approval. She is overly suspicious of people, even for the breed, and bossy with other dogs, not in an aggressive way. I like to say she is full of attitude. Any little hint from me that she id something wrong stresses her immediately. She is extremely sensitive to me and my emotions. I guess what I am looking for is for her to be more carefree, able to enjoy playing with me and focus on me without worrying about her surroundings so much. I need her to know that she is safe with me and she doesn’t always have to be on guard. What are your recommendations? I have considered Run & Play or Fairy Rose for her.”

As I was reading the email I thought of both Run & Play and the Fairy Rose for this dog even before I got to the end of the email where this dog’s caretaker had thought of these herself. This is so typical of conversations about Flower Essences. You know what is calling to you and have excellent insights into what might help you or the animals in your life.

I also suggested Neediness and Golden Armor for this dog.

As I explained, Neediness helps animals find their right relationship with other humans and their right relationship with themselves. It helps them feel anchored in an experience of their own self worth so that they are neither too demanding or too anxious about what other people think of them. I mentioned that I thought an animal that felt special was really dealing with the same issue as an animal that didn’t feel special at all. Animals and for that matter people as well, have worth just because they are, and once they get into a situation of feeling better than or worse than others, they have begun to lose sight of this essential truth. The Flowers in Neediness help us or our animals to know that being ourselves is enough and no feedback from other humans or any other experience can alter our value.

I suggested Golden Armor to help this dog to buffer out this data of what others are thinking about her. It will also help her to buffer out all the extraneous stimulus in the ring, and of course it will help her buffer out the dissonant sound vibrations that exist in and out of the ring in this modern world of ours. To experience the pure joy of doing an agility course, it has to be an experience of just self and the course. For a sensitive, empathic dog like this Doberman, Golden Armor offers supportive information on just being the experience of doing the agility course, free of the burdens of all other intruding vibrations. I think this is when the purest joy occurs, when we have lost ourselves in the experience of what we are doing.

In a subsequent email back and forth we discussed whether Neediness would make a dog more indifferent to her humans. I tried to explain why I thought having this Doberman work with Neediness would only make the relationship more loving. Clinginess and aloofness are really the same response, one of insecurity about the relationship as well as insecurity about one’s own value. When one finds right relationship with self and knows one’s own self worth, then one is free to be one’s essential self. And let’s face it, we are such lucky humans to have the example of dogs whose essential self is so often such pure love and devotion. In most dogs, Neediness helps the pure strands of love to be better known and felt. It only dismantles patterns of behavior obscuring this love not the love itself.

So thank you for every email sharing your experiences and asking your questions. I learn something from every email!

As I type, it is snowing outside here at the farm North Pole. It reminds me of the holiday weekend we had. A fresh brisk bitter arctic wind rejuvenated chilled us to the bone as we took walks force marches with the dogs. Being an intrepid New Hampshire native a native wanna be ever the recovering flatlander that I am, I did not gather the clan for some festive April snowmobiling. I did not organize some hair raising telemark skiing through a maple sugar bush, doubling our skiing pleasure by dodging plastic piping as we merrily sped down a mountain slope. No, I got the group organized with some old fashioned indoor craft activities.

If the only green we were going to see all weekend was the fake grass in the Easter egg baskets, then I was going to make sure we had gorgeous eggs on top of that crappy plastic stuff. I got out our Ukranian egg kit and made up some new dyes and set everyone loose with a couple dozen white eggs.

On Saturday, as chill winds blew, we started our heaping pile of decorated eggs.

And since Sunday was as charming a spring day as Saturday, we gathered around the kitchen table for a second afternoon of crafts and then had a late day but glorious indoor Easter egg hunt with a serious pile of gorgeous eggs.

However, even with these eggs to enjoy, I don’t want to hear from all of you who were frollicking on green lawns for your hunts. Jim has just arrived home from school to report that the weathermen say were going to have another storm on Thursday bringing six to twelve inches of new snow.

Ukranian eggs anyone?