what's all the BUZZ about ??

Bees, that's what!

Okay, so the photo I posted as my "photo of the day" - today - 9/18/08 - "where did THAT come from?", you ask.

OUR YARD. And we don't raise bees, nor did we know we had healthy, active bees MAKING HONEY on our property. That is, until Mark needed to turn off the water to our property a few months ago and when he went to lift the weighs-a-ton (kidding, sort of) CEMENT LID off where the meter is -- he couldn't get near it, 'cuz there was such a BUZZ going on. Many bees were in the 'hood, and he figured he'd come back to it. Somehow, he got that task complete w/o needing to go in there -- so it sat as it was, forgotten.

Until a couple of weeks ago, when he REALLY REALLY needed to turn off our water for a task, and this time, no bees - so in he went - and LO & BEHOLD, the space was filled - side to side, top to bottom, from one end to the other -- with HONEYCOMBS. For real!

Aren't they a work of natural art?! I was blown away --

Mark had to lift them out, and the bees had abandoned their mission -- so no harm done.

But here they sit, near our garage, these magnificent "sculptures", crafted by bees.

SO - what's all the BUZZ about? As Rachael Ray put it recently in her magazine:

"Not to be a buzz kill, but honeybees are in danger of extinction. And that's a big deal since they pollinate one-third of the crops we eat." HELP SAVE THE BEES !!!

100 = the number of US crops that depend on honeybees for pollination. Apples, almonds, avocados, blueberries, broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower are just some of the produce varieties that would suffer without bees. WHO KNEW?!

1/12 teaspoon = how much honey the average worker bee makes in its lifetime. WHOA! The honeybee decline means the sticky stuff's prices have risen 14 percent since 2005.

25% = the percentage of the honeybee population that VANISHED in 2007. Scientists are calling the problem Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). No one cause has been identified, though viruses, malnutrition, and pesticides are all suspects.

2035 = the year that the world's population of honeybees will CEASE to exist if they continue to decline at the present rate.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Oh, the myriad of ways!

BUY A PINT of Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Honey Bee ICE CREAM ($4.20; http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/ for stores) - and a portion of the price will go to university programs for CCD and sustainable pollination research. Look out for BURT'S BEES MOBILE TOUR - the company's tour bus is visiting 35 citites through September ( http://www.burtsbees.com/ for locations). It'll be loaded with brochures about honeybees and free beauty samples. PLANT a bee-friendly garden - include BLACK-EYED SUSANS, LAVENDER, and CLOVER to attract bees.

(photos posted here are NOT from our honeycomb ... the only one from OUR yard is the photo posted to the LEFT, on 9-18-08, as my "photo of the day" - which I will LEAVE on the sidebar)