Day #522 How I Surprised the Fire Chief

Gwinnett County Fire Chief Bill Myers greeted our Citizen Fire Academy class Thursday evening with a little talk about the Values that are important to the Fire Department.

“Our Mission,” he said (and there was a handout, too), “is to Save Lives and Protect Property. Our Vision is to Deliver the Highest Quality of Service to all Customers, and the Values we hold as vital to our department are Truth, Trust, Respect, and Unity.” He pointed overhead, where four flags hung from the classroom ceiling.

A blue one to our left said TRUTH, a green one said TRUST, an orange flag said RESPECT, and  a red one carried the word UNITY. He gave a little speech about how those particular colors were chosen. I don’t recall why blue was chosen for Truth, but Trust was on a green flag because in the deepest, coldest part of winter, we trust that spring (green) will come. Orange represented the school colors of the number 1 school in Gwinnett County, which has an excellent school system, and Unity was on a red flag, because fire trucks (the symbol that unifies the whole department) are red.

I raised my hand and said, “Did you know that you inadvertently chose chakra colors that were appropriate?”

He didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.

I explained that the ancient system of explaining the energy of the body assigns red as the color of the first chakra, which represents community, foundation, unity. The second chakra (orange) is where creativity is centered in our bodies (and certainly where we must have respect for ourselves). The green chakra is number four, the heart chakra--and it is in our hearts that we must feel trust; when we’re open-hearted, trust flows out. Finally, the fifth chakra, represented by the color blue, is the throat chakra, the place in the body from which we speak our truth.

Isn’t it amazing that a department with a budget of $76 million a year, which employs 845 men and women, and serves a county of over 800,000 people, from 30 strategically placed fire stations, subconsciously built its value statement on an ancient tradition for health and healing?

I think it’s wonderful indeed.

BEEattitude for Day #522:

       Blessed are those who tap into ancient wisdom, for they shall be whole.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #521 Bees and Firefighters

Two meetings this week -- and both were packed full of information. Tuesday evening was the monthly Gwinnett Beekeepers meeting, and the speaker was Dave Arnold, who’s an expert in landscape management with wildlife in mind.

Here are the plants he recommended for bees (and some for butterflies, too):

• Button Bush
• Snapdragons
• Goldenrod
• Aster
• Alfalfa (let it bloom)
• Anise Hyssop
• Borage
• Mint
• Spanish Needle

I’d never heard of several of them, but I’m going to get out my books and catalogs.

How many of these are found in your yard?

Speaking of yards, Dave said that there are more than 45 million acres of lawn in the United States. Lawn -- pesticide and fertilizer-ridden, a veritable dessert for bees and other pollinators.

If you have that kind of dessert around your house, how about considering a change to a pollinator-friendly lot?

And then, Thursday evening, the Gwinnett County Citizens Fire Academy. Whew! This is going to be a busy twelve weeks. I’ll share some pictures with you when I do the ride-along, and when I try crawling through a “burning” building (fake smoke). That’s won’t be for another few weeks, though. We have to learn a lot of skills before they put us into those yellow suits.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about how I surprised the Fire Chief.

BEEattitude for Day #521:

       Blessed are those who do what they can to make the world a better place, for they shall benefit from a feeling of accomplishment.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #520 The Ideas of March & BumbleBees

A couple of days ago, Petie Ogg, one of the regular commenters on this blog, asked if I had a photo of a bumblebee sitting on her eggs. I haven't been able to find one, but I’m going to keep on looking. 

I've read, though, that the bumblebee queen lays only about six eggs at a time. When they hatch, they help her with caring for the next set of eggs, and so on. She gradually builds a little colony (never bigger than the size of half a grapefruit) and at the end of the season, she creates queen and drone eggs. Then she and all her workers who’ve helped her over the summer die off. 

The baby bumblebee queens and drones hibernate through the winter. Come Spring, they start the cycle all over again.

And, in the true spirit of the Ideas of March, here’s a warning:

If you find a comatose bee

nestled in the dead leaves

during the winter,

leave it alone.

Don’t assume it’s dead.

It may very well be

a hibernating

bumblebee queen. 

BEEattitude for Day #521:

       Blessed are those who leave us BEE (we said that already, didn’t we?), for they shall encourage the next bee-generation.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #519 How Loud is a Raven?

Would you believe Dr. Bernd Heinrich has heard ravens gathering around a wolf-killed moose carcass from a mile away?

That’s all he had to say about that.

I’ve told you before that I have ravens that visit my yard, but Dr. H said he’d never heard of ravens in the Atlanta area. So now, I have to figure out how to get a picture of those big black birds. A birder who attended the same lecture I did spoke with me afterwards and said if I could get photos, she’d be happy to try to identify them. “And if they ARE ravens,” she said, “I want to see them!”

I always thought that crows hopped and ravens walked. I even taught that to my grandchildren.

“No,” Dr. H told me, “Some crows can walk.”

Phooey. Guess I was wrong.

Of course, now that I think about it, why would meat-eating ravens be interested in the ground around the bottom of my bird feeder?

Unless they’re after the earthworms.

BEEattitude for Day #519:

       Blessed are those who get their facts straight, for they shall have to apologize less often.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #518 Wolf Birds

Dr. Bernd Heinrich calls the raven a “wolf-bird.”

The reason?

I’m glad you asked.

In the wild, ravens tend to follow wolves around the forest, knowing that the wolves will eventually make a kill, and the ravens will be ready for clean-up detail. Ravens are incapable of killing for themselves; they have to depend on another carnivore for that job.

Dr. H said that in his research on the communication among ravens, he tried to lure them to his study area with freshly dead calf carcasses. Unfortunately, the ravens were smart enough not to approach anything he left out. But as soon as the wolves made a kill -- ahh! Raven-feast-time!

Coming up tomorrow: How loud is a raven?

BEEattitude for Day #518:

       Blessed are those who strive to understand others, for they shall have better conversations.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #517 How Bumblebees Hatch Their Eggs

I’m so used to reading about honey bees, I sometimes forget about the Bumblebees. They’re a native pollinator. They were here to greet every set of people that have wandered to this land, and if we don’t kill them all off with pesticides and herbicides, they’ll still be around to greet our twenty-times-great-grandchildren.

You know, I’m sure, that the honey-bee queen lays her eggs (up to 2,500 a day) in the honeycomb, one egg in the bottom of each cell. The worker bees then care for the larvae.

Bumblebees are different. Each female bumblebee lays her eggs in a little clump and SITS on them, to warm them with the heat in the bottom of her abdomen. Remember, I told you a few days ago that the bee heart pushed the blood up into the thorax where it’s warmed by muscle movement. When the warm blood leaves the thorax, it passes along the bottom of the abdomen. That’s why the mommy bumblebee can warm her eggs. The heat passes from her heated blood through the layers of her body and onto/into the eggs.

Isn’t that magnificent?

Tomorrow: Ravens.

In the meantime, 

Happy Birthday Darlene ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Is that enough exclamation points for you?

BEEattitude for Day #517:

       Blessed are those who avoid stepping on us bees, for they shall have a brighter Springtime.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #516 Aftermath of the Tsunami

I know I said I’d be talking about Bumblebee eggs today, but I found this beautiful message from the people of Japan in the aftermath of the Tsunami that hit last year on March 11^th  It moved me to tears. I’d like to share it with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=SS-sWdAQsYg&vq=medium

This is the way the world is supposed to work.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the Bumblebees.

BEEattitude for Day #516:

       Blessed are those who go out of their way to help others, for their own lives shall brim over with love. 

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #515 How Bees and Moths Beat Their Wings

Here’s another goody I wouldn’t have expected.

Dr. Heinrich explained in his lecture that the muscles bees use for wing movement don’t move the wings directly. Instead, they compress and expand the thorax in micro-movements. It is those tiny expansions and contractions that push the wings up and down.

I do wonder if hummingbird wings work the same way. Maybe by the time I’ve read Dr. H’s books, I’ll know the answer to that.

Tomorrow: How Bumblebees hatch their eggs.

BEEattitude for Day #515:

       Blessed are those who open their windows in the spring, for they shall feel more connected to those of us who live outside always.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #514 Bee Hearts

Yesterday I told you I was going to highlight some of the information from Dr. Bernd Heinrich’s lecture at Georgia Tech. Here’s the first amazing (to me) bit of information that I had never heard before.

Bees and other sorts of six-legged critters  such as moths and dragonflies don’t have a heart in their thorax, the way we humans would expect. In fact, their heart looks more like a fat blood vessel. It runs the length of their abdomen on the dorsal (top) side. The bee’s heart pumps cool blood, which it has collected from the abdomen, up the body, down through the “waist,” and into the thorax, where the contraction of the muscles there warms the blood before it goes into the head. Once it’s warm, it circulates through the tissues and down the body, gradually dumping its heat. By the time the blood gets toward the bottom of the abdomen, it’s as cool as the outside temperature.

Bees never worry about warming their rear ends. It’s the thorax that is the important part. If they get too hot while they’re out foraging, they can dump out the contents of their honey crop (where they store the nectar and begin its transformation into honey). Seems like quite a waste to me, but then I suppose the alternative would be the death of the bee. So it’s better just to lose that load of nectar.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you how bees beat their wings.

BEEattitude for Day #514:

       Blessed are those who let us BEE, for they shall hear our song every warm day.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #513 Poe, a Vermont Raven

Years ago my family spent our summers at a little cottage (which Vermonters call a “camp”) on Lake Iroquois.

One day a raven showed up on our deck, walked around, nodded at us, and flew off. He became a regular visitor. We called him Poe. The neighbors down the road－a lovely gravel road overhung with interlacing tree branches－called him “The Judge.” Other folks along the road－he visited ALL of us－had different names for him. But he seemed to spend more time with us than with them. Maybe it was because of the cactus on our deck that he liked to peck at.

We read the numbers off the band on one of his legs, called the University of Vermont, and were referred to Dr. Bernd Heinrich, whose studies of communication in ravens was world famous (among raven-folks, that is). He told us that he was studying the homing instincts of the ravens, wanting to know if they would keep his yard as their home territory, or if they would fly off and never return. “Just let him be,” he advised.

At any rate, one day Poe showed up with his legs horribly tangled in fishing line. He could fly, but because his legs were bound together, he couldn’t walk, and his hopping was impeded because his balance was off. If I’ve ever seen a cry for help, Poe was giving one. I called Dr. Heinrich immediately, and he said he’d be there as quickly as he could drive the back roads.

When he arrived and walked down our gravel path toward the camp, Poe began ducking his head and spreading his wings. Dr. H mimicked the action, and the two of them carried on what looked like a conversation of ducks and bows and wing(arm) flapping.

I handed Dr. H a big bath towel. He wrapped Poe in it, and I was astonished that Poe immediately settled down. “When he can’t move his wings,” Dr. H told us, “he just relaxes.” I think it also helped that Poe knew who was holding him.

I brought out my nail scissors and, while Dr. H held Poe, I snipped the fishing line. The skin around the multiple tangles of line was horribly swollen, so each individual length of plastic wrapped around his leg had to be cut separately, working down through the layers of line.

As I worked, Dr. Heinrich explained that ravens frequently get caught in cast-off fishing line when they grab up fish that were once hooked and somehow broke the line, trailing it through the water after them as they swim. Ravens use their feet to manipulate a fish as they eat it, so when a raven catches a fish that has fishing line attached to it, the raven can easily get the line wound around first one foot, and then as it tries to disentangle itself, around the second foot as well. 

It wasn’t a simple operation. It took me about 20 minutes to get it all off, although it seemed like hours. I was drenched in sweat by the time I finished.

Dr. H checked Poe carefully and announced that once the swelling  was gone, Poe would most likely be fine. “A few more days, though,” he said, “and Poe wouldn’t have made it.” He took Poe home with him for recuperation.

Last night, my son and I drove to Georgia Tech to hear Dr. Heinrich speak about his research “From the Bees to the Birds: Animal Communication.” He changed the title on us, though, and said he rather talk about bees and moths.

I took copious notes, and I’ll be sharing some of what he said over the next few days.

And, by the way, before the lecture, my son and I had a chance to speak with Dr. H. We mentioned Poe and the fishing line, but he didn't remember it at all. What was the adventure of a lifetime for us was just all in a day's work for him. 

BEEattitude for Day #513:

       Blessed are those who question “why,” for they shall be surprised by some of the answers.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #512 Blatant Promo - A Great Workshop

I’m writing this Tuesday evening after a 3:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Election Day. 

           3:30 is when I got up; 

         10:30 is when I got home; 

so I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m brief, indeed. I just want to share something fun with you--

On May 5^th, I’ll be conducting a writers workshop at the Harris Arts Center in Calhoun, Georgia.

Here’s the blurb about it. I hope you’ll consider signing up -- or at least let your writing friends know about it.

BEEattitude for Day #512:

       Blessed are those who provide water for us bees, for they shall have a happier yard as a result.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #511 Super Tuesday in Georgia

Here’s my prediction for Georgia's Super Tuesday:

Regardless of who wins, we’re going to be swamped at my precinct. Maybe at yours, too.

Did you remember that poll workers set up the polls on Monday afternoon or evening, finish setting up Tuesday morning, power up the machines and set out all the signs before the polls open at 7:00? Once they are sworn in at 6 am, they can't leave the polling place until the very end of the evening. If we want meals, we have to bring them ourselves. I still bless the man who brought 5 large pizzas to us during the last presidential election.

Poll officials help people through the voting process all day long, deal with any questions or disputes, and take hourly counts to be sure the number of votes on the machines tally with the number of voters who have checked in.

After the polls close, they verify the voter-count, close the machines, pack up all the supplies, lock the bags that contain the critical paperwork, and clean up the precinct space.

After that the precinct manager and an assistant manager return the bags of supplies to the elections office.

They may, if they’re lucky, get home by 9:30 or 10:00.

When you vote, whatever day your state holds elections, be sure to thank your poll workers. I promise you, it will mean a lot to them.

BEEattitude for Day #511:

       Blessed are those who volunteer to help their neighborhood, their county, their state. They shall have the satisfaction of a job well done.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #510 PHC Joke Show

Saturday evening I listened to the Prairie Home Companion show on Public Radio. You’ve probably heard of Garrison Keillor, even if you’ve never listened to him. Once or twice a year they have a Joke Show. The entire show -- the whole two hours -- is chock full of the silliest jokes imaginable. The jokes are usually grouped:

• knock-knock jokes

Knock-knock. Who’s there? 

Sanctuary

Sanctuary?

Sanctuary much!

• change-a-light-bulb jokes

How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?

A penguin.

• animal jokes

Why was the cow crying?

Because she had a moo disorder.

• chicken jokes

Why did the chicken cross the Moibus strip?

To get to the same side.

And then there are the miscellaneous jokes, such as

• What do you call an existentialist breakfast cereal?

       Raisin d’Etre

• Why didn’t the oyster give up her pearl?

       She was shellfish.

You gotta love the folks who come up with these. 

BEEattitude for Day #510:

       Blessed are those who laugh hard every day, for they shall spread joy and it will bounce back at them.

         “Hey, bees, I think you used that attitude before, or something a lot like it.”

         “Buzz off, Frannie. we like that one.”

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #509 March Forth Again

Here it is again, the only day of the year that tells us what to do:

March Forth !

Today I plan to march forth by buying p.m.terrell’s newest book Vicki’s Key. It promises to be as exciting as her previous 12 books. She’s a dear friend as well as a professional colleague, and you might want to check her out at www.pmterrell.com

Then I’d better get busy writing my own next book. I still haven’t decided whether the title should be Brown as Dirt or Brown as Fudge. 

I’m leaning toward the fudge. Why does that not surprise me?

BEEattitude for Day #509:

       Blessed are those who eat with joy, for their tummies shall be filled with goodness.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #508 Writers Boot Camp

This week I’ve been going to Woodward Mill Elementary School to speak to the 5^th-grade classes. They have a “Writer’s Boot Camp” each year, and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to each of the classes last year. This year, I’m doing to same thing again.

We’re talking about verbs, and the importance of using effective ones when they revise their compositions.

One of the exercises I use allows them to fill in the blanks with either nickel words or dollar words.

1. The lion __________ across the grassland.
2. I _____________ my grandfather’s paintings.
3. My grandmother love to _____________.

And so on. You could use nickel verbs: 

1. walked
2. like
3. smile 

But think how much more interesting, exciting, compelling these sentences would be with dollar verbs such as:

1. stalked
2. abandoned
3. sky-dive 

We had quite a discussion about the story that’s implied when we say I abandoned my grandfather’s paintings. Don’t you want to know why?

Let’s see...another sentence could be 

1. Honey bees _____ (fly/buzz/sting/pollinate…)

BEEattitude for Day #508:

       Blessed are those who stretch their minds, for they shall find more room in their brains.

Day #507 Another iPhone Joke

Okay, I can’t resist this.

Yesterday I needed to remind myself to do something, and I wasn’t next to a piece of paper, so I whipped out my phone and held the button down. Siri came on and said, “What can I help you with?”

“Remind me to call that agent tomorrow morning at nine,” I said.

She thought about it and came back with, “Here’s your appointment; should I confirm it?”

Ordinarily I say yes, but what she’d come up with was “Call be engine.” 

I decided to delete this one and try again, speaking more clearly, so I told her, “No.”

“That’s okay,” she said. “You’re way too busy anyway.”

And, by the way, my new website should be up and running soon. I’ll let you know when.

BEEattitude for Day #507:

       Blessed are those who use humor when it’s appropriate, for they shall delight in the laughter.

Day #506 WMES Walls

For more than a year I've been watching the walls of the library in Woodward Mill Elementary School take shape as professional muralist Kristie Chamlee works her magic on them.

She started by simply painting the top blue. Since the walls are 14 feet tall, it was a bit of a challenge.

Then she progressed through various stages, and I watched them all develop. 

You can see she's added clouds and land here...

And then trees and a barn.

She had great fun drawing a red birdhouse around the fire alarm you can see in the picture to the right, changing it from this:

 to this:

If you'd like to see the evolution in more complete form, this link is to her blog post about it. Of course, that was all last year. This year, she's painting the remaining walls of that huge room, and it's spectacular. Just yesterday I dropped in and took this picture of the waterfall over in the back corner.


And then there's the picture of the Woodward Mill water wheel in the reading alcove.

One question: how do you fill up bean bag chairs that have gone flat?

BEEattitude for Day #506:

       Blessed are those who make the world a more beautiful place, for their names shall be sung in thanks.  

Day #505 Beach Report

Happy Leap Year Day. I thought you might enjoy seeing a little bit of my vacation.

I didn’t see a single honey bee at the beach. Of course, I do wonder if bees like the Atlantic shore. The wind was pretty stiff most of the time.

I didn’t see any bees in Karen and Dan’s yard either. 

This yellow flower bloomed on the sand dune beside the shore, just at the base of an observation platform. I spotted it after the sun came up.

Even though there were no bees, I did see a couple of little critters that I’d like to share with you. 

The closed shell you see on the left contained a live animal, and I had to give it a little kiss before I eased it back into the receding tide. 

This other little guy was as perky as they come. Too bad s/he was empty. Of course, if there had been anyone home, the shell wouldn’t have looked like a face.

Looks rather like Chewbacca, doesn't it?

I found this announcement, from a lighthouse commission report in 1868.   

It still has a good message today.

My shins are still sore from the miles we walked along the beach at daybreak (and midday and sunset) -- but it was worth it.

Thanks, Karen and Dan.

BEEattitude for Day #505:

       Blessed are those who watch where they’re flying [or walking], for they shall see wonders.

 And, of course, Polly found a box while I was gone...