(A modernized version of The Old Vicarage Grantchester by Rupert Brooke, 1912 )
Close your eyes and think of spring :
Swallows swooping on the wing,
Cherry blossom pink and white,
Nesting birds a cheerful sight.
Mountain mint in hedge’s shade,
Bluebells carpet woodland glade,
Dappled sunlight warms and cheers,
Fresh green leaves with dew-drop tears.
Picture balmy summer day :
Buzz of bees and smell of hay,
Apples ripening on the trees,
Butterflies flutter on the breeze.
Poppies nodding in the corn,
Bright red jewels to greet the morn,
Tiny field mice scamper here …
Kestrel gives them cause for fear
Now let autumn come to mind
And all around you you will find
Berries, fruit on bush and tree,
Feasts for creatures wild and free.
Squirrel seeks the nuts she’ll need
When winter comes with icy speed.
Snuffling ground hog cannot stay,
He seeks a winter hideaway
Ope’ your eyes and change the scene :
No sign of things which once had been.
There is a pallor in the air,
The fruit trees everywhere are bare.
No bluebird’s song, no blackbird's trill,
The woods and fields are sad and still.
The flowers are gone, the grass is bare,
There’s desolation everywhere.
In vain small hungry creatures search
For food, where starving sparrows perch
No nuts or berries as before;
Gone is Nature’s lavish store.
Our tables too hold Spartan fare
Without the bees’ industrious care;
We did not save the little bee…
Can there be honey still for tea ?
I have spent some 75 years living and working in England,Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, South Africa and the USA, with many opportunities to learn from beekeepers in a v variety of African and European countries in between . An educator by profession, with a focus on history and group dynamics, the honey bees chose me in 2002, despite which, like many beekeepers, I lost my first two hives over winter. In 2009 I was asked by the editor of the PSBA to write a column for the monthly newsletter, which she labelled "Jeremy's Corner"; 14 years later is still continues. A rather eclectic style of content and vision developed, and these posts are based mostly on those essays. Meanwhile I was fortunate to be honored as York County's Beekeeper of there Year in 2013, and similarly for Pennsylvania in 2018.
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Our Green Cathedral 