Purple Petals

G'Day, All,

This morning, while out walking T with the huge harmonies of Prince's, "7" floating above the heaviness of his passing, a massive, booming sound faded into my thoughts and brought me back to the walk.

I looked up to see a youngish grandma-type across the street walking with a stroller, brow furrowed slightly into the hazy sun--somehow surrounded by enough decibels to impersonate a distant tornado.

For a spit second, my amused brain bought that it was she and her wee stroller making the thunderous rumble, her scrunched-up brow now looking more like a seasoned Walmart warrior's behind a loaded cart.

I actually laughed out loud, when from behind the hedge she was flanking, emerged a building super, pushing a large, empty plastic trash bin.

Still grinning, I thought, perhaps Prince woulda dug that too...

I took notice of so many purple flowers today.

 Rest in peace and play, Prince and thanks for every perfect note.

+++vibes to all left longing,

J

A Free Bee

G'Day, Readers, 

So yesterday, with the weather finally warming up around here, I decided to spring clean our lovely sun room.

After a winter on its own, it had gotten pretty--not pretty.

I dusted and windex'd everything, stripped the couch of it's cover and washed that and then began the mega-sweep, which of course meant loads of bug cadavers and jurassic-sized dust bunnies along with the usual mud clumps and foliage courtesy of our friendly neighborhood Labrador-man.

In mid-sweep, I noticed that amongst the many casualties of winter, there was a live one.  A wee bee that was fighting with the fuzz, struggling to free himself.

I had sent him on quite a tumble with the sweeping but when I noticed how very much alive the lil guy was, I started sweeping in a wide berth, niiiiiice and slow in his vicinity.  

I went in to prepare a soapy bucket and when I returned, he had managed to clean himself off and was slowly heading for the sliding door.  I left him be, haha, and started mopping at the other end.

Upon returning from a bucket-change, I couldn't see him anymore, so I inspected further and saw him trapped in the grate of the sliding doors, now covered again in debris and having a helluva time trying to pull himself out.

I tried putting the broom bristles near him so he might grab on for me to lift him to safety, but he was having none of it, preferring to struggle and get nowhere.

So I figured I needed to win more of his trust and placed the broom head further away from him, holding it perfectly still, then moved it even further, trying to convey zero-threat.


At that point, he was either just resting or perhaps also contemplating the situation and stopped fussing about, so I slowly moved the broom closer, but he still wasn't going for it.

So again, I moved the broom farther from him and left it like that for a bit.

 He was wiggling only a little now and then, so I moved the broom maybe a few cm's from his fuzzy bee body and it was then that my heart rather lept to see him crawling TOWARDS the broom.

He crawled right under it, so I gingerly lifted it and to my utter delight, HE WAS HANGING ON!

Up he went with the broom and out the window onto the lavender plant outside, where he sat, re-cleaning himself and looking pretty bee-zen.

The whole  exchange left my heart humming, so touched by this small creature's intelligence, tenacity, patience and dare I say, trust.  A trust that is even more impressive considering that our whole interaction started with me basically, attacking the lil guy.

Bravo, wee, free bee.

++++Spring vibes,

: J

The bee pic here is a still from a kid-video of mine called, "A Small Bee", you can check it out here.