Lest you think that I am still saddened, I want you to know that all is well today. The day dawned bright and sunny and quiet and peaceful, restoring my faith in humanity and the natural world. I still am sad when I think of some of the events lately, but there are so many positive things in the world, I am truly grateful for everything. I have some really good neighbors - Kyle and Jeff down the road, Jenny and Phillip, Kristin and Josh Hickey, Mr. Craddick (who just lost his wife of many years), neighbors on German Road who ride horses, ride their bikes through my land, bring me strawberries and sweet corn...I could go on and on. There are always bad apples but its time to focus on the sweetness of good neighbors.
I accomplished a lot today - weeding the strawberry patch, mowing at the front of the land, discovering a swarm of bees (not from my own bee hives), buying a nice pot of flowering plants for my dear Mom (she will be 94 in June!), receiving a call from Jeff (who remembers the kitten incident in Paw Paw very well and was upset about my day yesterday), and a few minutes ago I received two photos from Angela which warmed my heart!
So all is well! First I must tell you about the bees. I talked with Dave Feltes, my expert on all bee related problems, who told me to get two supers and put them on the extra bottom board I have. Then try to get the swarm in the supers by spraying them with lots of sugar water and gently brushing them into the supers. Gentle I was not, but I did manage to get a lot of bees in the makeshift bee hive. But then they re-amassed on the tree AND on a raspberry bush. So I captured more of the bees, and finally gave up. I looked a few minutes ago at the tree and there was only a small group of bees still swarming there, so I think I did get the queen in the new "hive." What a job! (The first and second photos above show the remainder of the swarms on the tree and in the raspberry bush. The third photo shows my makeshift bee hive where most of the swarm is now, and the 4th photo shows my regular two bee hives.)
As I mentioned, Jeff called to give me moral support and tell me the triplets are just fine. Jack is doing well with his oxygen and is down to 1/8th. Sometimes at night he pulls it off and the monitor never sounds because he's still at 95% even after a half hour or hour. So they think he will be coming off the oxygen one of these days. Hopefully before or around his 1st birthday (like his pediatrician said), which is in about a month.
Angela sent the two photos above with the caption, "First trip to the library." When you are a reader like me, nothing warms the heart more than thinking your grandchildren are being introduced to the library and all the wonderful stories and knowledge a library holds! So that was the perfect way to end the evening for me (and sharing it with you, dear Reader). The second to the last photo is of the girls and Angela and quite frankly I can't tell which is Chloe and which is Katie! They both look so much alike in this picture. Angela has the most beautiful smile! The last photo is of Jack, of course, and holding him is Lynette, their nanny, who is fantastic with them. It looks to me that Jack would rather step on his books than read them!
I am catching on to the fact that I have several readers or maybe lots of readers, because everytime I publish my blog, there is an immediate spike on my computer which says "High Computer Use." In fact, I just got on my blog to write tonight, and I had the same thing happen.
So, dear Reader, thank you for being a part of my blog and for caring about life here on the Land. Even though there is sadness in every life and sad things happen here, it still - for the most part - is truly a beautiful paradise. As I mentioned earlier, I am so grateful for all that I have - including YOU!
Sleep tight, dear Reader, and know that all is well.