Day #558 Mrs. Miniver

I wonder if bees buzz around in the evening after dark, recounting tales of what they did during the day, of how they found a new nectar source or drove a mouse from the hive, how they battled raindrops and survived by hiding under a Hosta leaf, or how they capped the latest batch of honey.

Chances are slim that they’d spend time telling war stories. That seems to be reserved for humans.

As I write this blog post, at 10:30 on Saturday evening, I just finished watching Mrs. Miniver, a 1942 movie starring Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon.

It’s a story of the power of common people to rise above the horrors of war. It was written while a war still raged throughout Europe and the Pacific. I could remember my mother talking about it and what an inspiring movie it was. That alone (my mother’s recommendation, that is) was enough to keep me from watching it for many years.

But then I got curious and ordered it from Netflix. I’m glad I did. For once, I can say my mama was right. I’m not sure how calm I’d be in a bomb shelter. I’m not sure how I’d face up to the loss of a family member. I’m not sure how I’d respond if my boat were required for another rescue at Dunkirk. 

The value of a good movie is that it gives us a chance to ask those questions. And to pray that the need never arises to answer them.

BEEattitude for Day #558:

       Blessed are those who protect the hive, for they shall help a new generation of bees grow and flourish.

Earth Day - Help Our Mother

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Day #387 Scary Movies

Do bees ever get scared? Not that I’d have any way of knowing for sure, but I rather think they don’t. People, on the other hand, do. Maybe not every person, but the one who’s typing this blog post at 2:30 in the morning, certainly.

I have a dear friend who, from the very first episode, was addicted to the X-Files.  For years I’ve heard her raving about that show. I finally decided to get my old Netflix in gear and order the first X-Files movie.

Darlene had told me, of course, the general idea of the X-Files being a fight against horrible extraterrestrials who want to take over the Earth. “How bad can that be?” I thought, forgetting that I still get the willies thinking about that old sci-fi movie I saw in the 1950s. Them, it was called. Shiver, shiver! 

I took a break from editing about 5:00 yesterday, walked to the mailbox, and pulled out a familiar red envelope. I cranked up the old computer on which I watch my Netflix movies. I made it until about 5:25, when Scully was poking at a gelatinous corpse. Hit the stop button, ejected the DVD, called Darlene, and said, “How on earth did you talk me into watching an X-Files movie?”

“How far did you get?”

I told her.

“I’m surprised you made it that far. It’s a good thing it’s still light outside!”

Even as we spoke, I slid the stupid DVD back in its little red envelope, and decided to cancel the 2^nd X-Files movie, which I was dumb enough to have put on my Netflix queue.

I own very few DVDs, but I just happen to have a copy of Pride and Prejudice. The book has always been a favorite of mine, and even though the movie simplified the story a great deal, I found out last night that P & P is a great antidote to X.

Now I’m going to have to pull out my print copy of P&P and read it again, for the umpteenth time.

Beats X any day.

Bees are lucky. They don’t ever have to worry about such stuff.

 

BEEattitude for Day # 387:

       Blessed are those who use their imagination rather than letting their imagination use them, for they shall sleep peacefully.

Day #347 Cindy's Weight Loss Idea

It’s time for a laugh or two, folks. This post has nothing to do with bees.

My dear friend, Cindy Pitts Gilbert, owns The Singin’ Bean, a coffee house and eatery in Lawrenceville GA. They do karaoke, too, which is where the Singin’ part of the name comes in. The Bean is where I go when I’m stuck on a chapter. I get a big Crock-o’-Choc, sit overlooking the intersection of Pike and Perry Streets, and somehow or other the writing begins to flow. Maybe it’s all that hot chocolate! I’ve composed a few of my blog posts there, too.

At any rate, Cindy came up with the best weight-loss idea I’ve ever heard. She said to feel free to forward it. This blog is about as forward a place as one can get.

Here it is, in Cindy’s own words:

I always wondered what my problem was. Just found out why I am overweight!  The shampoo I use in the shower that runs down my body says "For extra volume and body."

I'm going to start using dish washing liquid. It says "Dissolves fat that is otherwise difficult to remove!"

Thanks, Cindy.

BEEattitude for Day # 347:

       Blessed are those who disseminate vital information, for they shall feel good about themselves.

p.s. from Fran – I finally got around to watching (and crying my way through) Tuesdays with Morrie. I love Netflix! I’m always about 2 years behind everybody else in what movies I watch, but if I find one I like, I can simply watch it twice.

__________________________

Green as a Garden Hose, the 3^rd Biscuit McKee Mystery,

is now available in mass market paperback

from World Wide Mystery, a division of Harlequin.

Harlequin.com

 _______________________________

Get Your Dog in My Next Book!

From now through the end of September, anyone who donates $10 to WAG, also known as the Walton Animal Guild, will be automatically entered in a drawing.

If you win, your dog will be in my next Biscuit McKee mystery!

http://www.wagwalton.com/News.php

The donate button is right on their home page

Every $10 donation is automatically entered in the drawing

See Blog #324 for the details.

Day #342 No More Night Netflix

I’ve made a decision. From now on, when I watch a Netflizx movie, it’s going to be when it’s light outside. Thank goodness I don’t have a 9 to 5 job! I’d hate to miss my movies.

Why am I doing this? I thought you’d never ask.

Yesterday evening, in the middle of Les Choristes/The Chorus, a delightful French film (with English subtitles, of course), I had two interruptions. The first one was great fun—a neighbor to whom I’d loaned Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander stopped by to return it and to tell me that she’d stayed up till 4 a.m. finishing it. A person after my own heart!

The next interruption, though, was not appreciated. Another bee got through my sliding glass door somehow or other. I think there must be a teeny hole down at the bottom where the door rests on the metal slider-thing. I stuffed in a piece of paper towel just in case as a temporary stop-gap measure, hit the pause button with my mouse, and scooted to the kitchen to grab the plastic container I use for trapping bees inside the house.

By the time I got back to the family room, the bee was not only NOT on the sliding glass door where had been, but she was NOT buzzing. A quiet bee is a bee that can easily be sat on or stepped on or brushed against. With this bee-sting allergy I’ve developed, I can no longer afford a casual encounter like that.

I kept the container in my hand, checked out my chair VERY CAREFULLY, and resumed the movie, ears attuned to any faint buzzing sounds. Just as the action was escalating in The Chorus, there went the bee, buzzling away inside the ceiling light fixture.

I managed to corral her and get her outside without any problems, but I’m faced with this problem of bees at night, attracted to the light from my family room shining through the curtain on the slider. If another one finds the hole (wherever it is), I might not be so fortunate next time. The last thing I want is to sit on a bee!

So—the logical conclusion is that I keep the light in that room turned off at night. This isn’t a problem, since the room is relatively unused -- except for my old Netflix movies!!!!! I can’t give them up!!!!! Not having a TV set, or anything even vaguely appraoching a home entertainment center, I put on old, outdated computer off to one side in the family room, and use it to play the DVDs once a week or so.

From now on, I plan to switch writing in the morning and watching a movie at night. Not a big deal.

And if it keeps the bees outside where they belong, it’s a darn good solution, wouldn’t you say?

BEEattitude for Day # 343:
       Blessed are those who help keep us bees from getting confused, for they shall learn how to adapt happily to an ever-changing environment.

p.s. I know I keep putting in this blurb about getting your dog in  my book, but I’d like you to know you have a very good chance of winning – but only if you enter. Remember, it can be a dog you had a child or a beloved dog who’s already gone across the rainbow bridge.

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Get Your Dog in My Next Book!

From now through the end of September, anyone who donates $10 to WAG, also known as the Walton Animal Guild, will be automatically entered in a drawing.

If you win, your dog will be in my next Biscuit McKee mystery!

http://www.wagwalton.com/News.php

The donate button is right on their home page

Every $10 donation is automatically entered in the drawing

See Blog #324 for the details.

Day #331 The Termites vs. the Bees

Termites and Bees—those sound like opposing football teams, don’t they?

All along, since I decided eleven months ago to get a couple of bee hives, I’ve thought those queen bees were pretty productive--they can lay up to 2,500 eggs per day for weeks or even months at a time.

I’m afraid the termite team is going to win this particular game, though. The other evening I watched a documentary I’d found on Netflix that said a termite queen can lay up to 30,000 eggs per day. You read it right – thirty thousand. That leaves my queen bee looking like a slacker.

On the other hand, if a queen bee could lay that many eggs in a day, the hives would have to be ten times bigger than they are. My whole deck would be one enormous hive.

I’ll stay with the slow team, thank you.

BEEattitude for Day # 331:

       Blessed are those who take life at a (comparatively) leisurely pace, for they still get much accomplished and shall be happier as they do it.

__________________________

Green as a Garden Hose, the 3^rd Biscuit McKee Mystery,

is now available in mass market paperback

from World Wide Mystery, a division of Harlequin.

(Go to www.eHarlequin.com and search for Fran Stewart)

_______________________________

Get Your Dog in My Next Book!

From now through the end of September, anyone who donates $10 to WAG, also known as the Walton Animal Guild, will be automatically entered in a drawing.

If you win, your dog will be in my next Biscuit McKee mystery!

http://www.wagwalton.com

The donate button is right on their home page

Every $10 donation is automatically entered in the drawing

See Blog #324 for the details.

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #326 An Evening with Frannie

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know I don’t have a TV set. No entertainment center. No fancy furniture.

Ah! But I have Netflix, and I play the DVDs on an old outdated computer with a monitor that’s only about that wide – if I sit close enough I can see what’s going on.

I also have a sliding glass door that goes out onto my deck where the beehives are. When I watch a movie in the evening, the light from the room (I always have the overhead lights on while I’m watching a movie – can’t stand a darkened room with a glaring screen, even if it is only a little one), that light attracts stray bees to the sliding glass door.

And somehow or other a few of them are getting inside. This evening (Friday night), this is how it went:

About thirty minutes into the movie I heard a bzzz-bzzz-bzzz. A bee, about four feet from my head, was walking up the curtain. I hit pause, picked up the plastic container I keep on the coffee table for just this purpose, placed it over the bee, and slid a piece of paper underneath the jar, being careful not to trap the bee’s little feet in the process.

“Bzzz-bzzzz-bzzzzzz,” she said.

“I know, I know, I’ll get you back outside.”

I went to the door, slid the curtain back, and saw about forty bees on the outside. Hmmm. If I open this door to put this ONE bee OUTSIDE, about TWENTY of these other bees will get INSIDE.

 
So, balancing the bee container, being careful to keep the paper firmly over it, I went to the FRONT door, slipped on my wellington boots (I am not going outside in the middle of the dark night in sandals!), and walked the bee all the way around the house to the back deck, up the stairs and over to the hives. Not knowing which hive the bee came from, I lifted the paper off right between the two hives. I figured she could find her way home from there.

Back around the house and inside. Take off boots. Resume movie.

“Bzzz-bzzz-bzzz.”

This time, the bee was walking across the floor. Jar, paper, boots, around, let go, back around, boots off, movie.

“Bzzz-bzzz-bzzz.” This time, before I went out the front door I turned off the overhead light in the family room. I finished the movie (Freedom Writers – very good story, by the way) with no further inter-bzzz-ruptions.

Wish me luck figuring out how they’re getting inside…

BEEattitude for Day # 326:

       Blessed are those who avoid toxic poisons in their yards, for they shall have their plants pollinated by us.

_______________________________

Get Your Dog in My Next Book!

From now through the end of September, anyone who donates $10 to WAG, also known as the Walton Animal Guild, will be automatically entered in a raffle.

If you win, your dog will be in my next Biscuit McKee mystery!

http://www.wagwalton.com

The donate button is right on their home page

Every $10 donation is automatically entered in the drawing.

See Blog #324 for the details.

Day #52 The third bee joke...

Okay. We tried How can you tell if a bee is hyper (day #21) and Why did the bee cross the road (day #37).

Now it's time for:

A bee's favorite musician is _____
                               (fill in the blank)

 Email your answer(s) to fran@franstewart.com

Be thankful I didn't ask:
Who's a bee's favorite astronaut?  [groan]

BEEattitude for Day # 52:

       Blessed are the folks at Netflix, for their work is appreciated. 

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

      The movie "Ladies in Lavender"

      [Can you tell what I was doing Tuesday evening?]