"Busy, busy as a bee" — My Bees and Me: Canterbury Tales in my Terrace Garden

As you can see, the bees that are in all of the photographs featured within this blog post are, as the saying goes,"busy as a bee". The origin of the common simile "busy as a bee" is thought to be from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, (specifically The Merchant's Tale) written in the late 1380s. 

The following is the text, in Middle English and Modern English respectively, from Canterbury Tales:

"Ey! Goddes mercy!" seyde oure Hooste tho,

"Now swich a wyf I pray God kepe me fro!
Lo, whiche sleightes and subtilitees
In wommen been! for ay as bisy as bees
Been they, us sely men for to deceyve,
And from the soothe evere wol they weyve;
By this marchauntes tale it preveth weel."

"Eh! By God's mercy!" cried our host. Said he:
"Now such a wife I pray God keep from me!
Behold what tricks, and lo, what subtleties
In women are. For always busy as bees
Are they, us simple men thus to deceive,
And from the truth they turn aside and leave;
By this same merchant's tale it's proved, I feel."

This ancient comparison of women to busy bees is actually rather apt since every single worker Honeybee that you see out busily gathering nectar and pollen from flowers is a female. In the instances captured in the images posted here, the bees are loving the Hyssop in my urban terrace garden, and they are very busy gathering "ingredients" for honey.

Hyssop is a plant that has beautiful purple flowers that bees love to visit for its "pollens and nectar" according to an article by Donna Daniels. Whatever the reason is for the busy bees in my garden, these "girls" are not the only ones in my urban terrace garden who are busy. As a matter of fact, yours truly has been pretty busy tending to the herbs, flowers, vines, shrubs and trees which I grow there, and I have also been busy with redesigning my on-line brochure.

This brochure not only features links to view my limited edition of photographic prints as well as my line of cards that are about more than communication, invitations that preserve a moment in time, and event program covers that enhance any occasion; it also features links to view my virtual stories and unique presentations, a fairly new service which I now provide to clients.

I hope while the bees in my garden are busy gathering "ingredients" for honey from my hyssop that their "buzz" will encourage you, dear reader, to visit my updated on-line brochure and avail yourself of my products and services. Moreover, I am happy to provide you with a set of my cards for any referral that you make which leads to a booking.

That's it for now, however, as always, dear reader, I appreciate it when you weigh in with your comments, thoughts, ideas and reactions. If you are new to posting this type of thing, you may click here for directions.