Didn’t you post this lovely and evocative photo a while back? I’m pretty sure as I wrote whole little post about my wonderful antique Singer sewing machine that I scrimped and saved for when I was 14. It was even vintage then.

MaryJane et al,
You don’t know this but these photos-of-the-day as they arrive in my inbox daily have been a lifeline to me for months now. On Dec., 12th 2013, my hubby collapsed from a gran mal seizure, quite out of the blue- he’d never had anything like this ever in his 50 years of life- landing him in the hospital. Tests showed that this perfectly healthy looking guy had two masses; one in his brain and one in his lung. Instead of a biopsy to determine what the masses were/are, instead, on Dec., 14th he had brain surgery and the whole brain tumor was removed and used for all the pathology needed. Several days later we learned he has stage4 melanoma and we have been on a rollercoaster of emotions and treatments since then trying to beat his aggressive disease. He has completed radiation, both to the brain and the lung. His brain is healing from surgery and radiation well and on this coming Wednesday he starts 6 straight weeks of chemo. I’m telling you this because I need to tell you what a comfort the darling, lovely, wonderful photos-of-the-day are to me. My life is all cattywampus, maybe to never be righted again, but each day I hear from you in a charming, sweet, consistent way. I gaze at the gorgeous photos seeing things I would otherwise miss right now because my life, my spirit, is so wholly consumed with the enormous job of dealing with cancer, dealing with life with cancer. Nonetheless, I am hopeful. The prognosis is good.
MaryJane and co., Keep up the great work with the daily photos and know they mean much, maybe more then you can imagine, to me and, I’m guessing, it is the same with others. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Karen farmgirl #89

I am new to learning the real plight of the honey bee and bees in general and what I have found out started with my subscription to MaryJane’s Farm. Currently, I am in the middle of the recommended book Bees in
America:How the Honey Bee shaped a Nation. Fascinating! I had no idea. What is amazing to me is how the bees have survived all sorts of “insults” over the years from one problem or another. We must do better and raise consciousness. I do believe that supporting organic agriculture is one important way each person can help. The more demand for pesticide free products means fewer chemicals in food production. But that will not be enough, most likely. We have to include education to our children in science curriculums at schools. We need more teachers to have the opportunity to conduct organic school gardens that produce food for the cafeteria and community gardens in our inner cities. The Beez Kneez are key to helping communities make changes.

How will I help bees this year? This is on my goal list for 2014. For starters, I am planning on getting a hive of Mason Bees for our little corner of the world. It will be a learning process to hopefully work up to Honey Bees, which are more complicated. My little organic yard of flowers and teeny, tiny garden are sort of a working laboratory for me to learn what it takes to make it organic and successful. Florida has tons of pests in the soil!! I am happy to report at this time my little winter garden of Buttercrunch lettuce, curly parsley and Red Leaf Kale is thriving in our colder days and giving me great salads and kale for hearty soups. February is the month that Spring arrives and daytime temps warm to the low 70s. The bees are already waking up and coming out on warm days for the flowering trees and shrubs. The learning lab is open!

In 2011, a swarm appeared in my garden. Beekeeping friends helped me capture it, and a neighbor gave me a beehive. I became a backyard beekeeper, and had the colony for two and a half years. Last fall I harvested a gallon of honey. When I went out on New Year’s Day to “tell the bees”, my suspicions were confirmed. They were dead, probably from tracheal mites and severe cold. I am still sad, but as an organic beekeeper, I won’t use antibiotics to treat for mites. I plan to install new bees in the spring and learn more about natural methods to keep them healthy. My bees roamed the neighborhood, and surprisingly the neighbors liked them. I’ve had the opportunity to show bees to kids and talk about how gentle they are and how they pollinate food crops. And I love how they enliven my garden as they single-mindedly go about their work. A lot of bumblebees come to my flowers too. I always want to have flowers and bees where I live, and continue to learn about those fascinating bugs.