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Marjorie McLellan, the “older” beekeeper in Sister Bee, passed away on Friday, July 16th.

“You know, you reach a time in your life when you’re not trying to impress. You just want to get along.” – Marge McLellan

The above quote is one of my favorites from Sister Bee. It’s a tricky one that I didn’t quite get at first. I remember it seeming important when Marge said it because her tone shifted from lighthearted self-deprecation to solemnity which grabbed my attention. At first, I thought it had something to do with resignation and the giving up or softening of ones opinions/principles/stridency with age. Today it seems to have more to do with an opening or generosity that comes with maturity. When we’re young we have so much to prove! Marge helped me see that age can bring the confidence it takes to take a break from trying to ourselves to listen and appreciate what others have to say.

Marge McLellan using the uncapping knife on a frame of honey

Marge McLellan modeled graceful aging for me. She was a dear friend and mentor to many. I miss her already.

Marge McLellan walking with her garden cart

It’s an honor and pleasure to let you know about a FREE screening of
SISTER BEE happening at the Loveland Museum on Saturday, April 10th at 1:00pm.

It’s an honor and a pleasure to announce that Sister Bee is screening in St Louis, Missouri tonight, January 26th as part of the Slow Food St. Louis Urban Homesteading Series.

The Sister Bee trailer is now available on YouTube. You’re warmly invited to share.

It’s been a long time coming, but Sister Bee finally has a new website all her own. You can check it out here. The site includes biographies of the Sister Bee beekeepers, information about the soundtrack and She Said, a retrospective blog about the making of Sister Bee including quotes and outtakes like these:

It’s wonderful to see… life!

- Mery Molenaar

I’m a beekeeper. Um hmm… The bees keep me.

– Marge McLellan

Some of the hardest lessons, the best lessons, have come from making dumb mistakes.

- Patricia Butler

It’s an honor and a pleasure to announce that Sister Bee is screening at the Belfast Free Library on June 23rd as part of a series of bee events hosted by the Maine Farmland Trust.

Included in the festivities will be a showing of encaustic work by Belfast sculptor Beth Henderson, photographs by Michelle Olson from Caribou, and various educational displays. For more information about these events please contact the MFT Gallery Coordinator Anna Witholt Abaldo.

It’s an honor and a pleasure to announce that Sister Bee is screening at the Denver Botanic Gardens on Thursday.

SISTER BEE at the Denver Botanic Gardens
Denver, Colorado
Thursday, February 19th at 7:00 PM
Tickets are $8 for members and $10 for the general public. Panel to follow. Panelists are myself, Sister Bee beekeepers Suzanne Connolly-Howes and Julie Finley and honorary Boulder County Beekeepers’ Association President, Tom Theobald.

Hope to see you there! If you come, please say hello after the show.

Don’t you just love road trips? I had the pleasure of tripping it up to Nebraska for a Sister Bee screening at the Chemical Free Beekeeping Conference right before Thanksgiving. Here are some images from the road.

I’m a nature girl so it’s usually grass and trees that ensnare me. But on this particular trip, trucks ruled. Their primary logos read like emblems from a distant kingdom. My favorites had a map or puzzle-like quality to them. But I enjoyed the simple ones too. And the cattle trucks were exquisite. From a distance they look like simple metal grids. But get close and you can see eyes, noses & hides peeking through.

Great food for painting.

Special thanks to Michael Bush of Bush Farms for hosting such a thought provoking show. I learned some interesting new/old things about beeswax & look forward to posting them soon.

SISTER BEE at the Koehnline Museum of Art
Feminist Ecology Exhibition
Oakton Community College
Des Plaines, Illinois
Opening reception Tuesday, October 28 from 5-8 PM
Free and open to the public.

SISTER BEE at the Chemical Free Beekeeping Conference
Southeast Community College
Lincoln, Nebraska
Conference runs from Friday, November 21st through Sunday the 23rd
Open to conference registrants
More info at Bush Farms.

SISTER BEE at the Denver Botanic Gardens
Sustainability Film Series
Denver, Colorado
Thursday, February 19th at 7:00 PM
Tickets are $8 for members and $10 for the general public. Panel to follow.

I’ll be at the Denver and Lincoln events. Hope to see you there!

I read the news today, oh boy… The financial institution, Lehman Brothers, has declared bankruptcy and the financial markets are tumbling. Does anyone know how this’ll affect regular people like you and me?

It’s times like this, when the human world feels unsteady, that I take comfort in the abundance made by honeybees. Here’s a picture of our garden from this morning. There’s a zucchini, some carrots and chard in the front with some just-ripening tomatoes, peppers and a few spent okra plants bringing up the rear.

And it’s honey season! Flowing. Flowering. We extracted our 2008 crop over Labor Day weekend with the help of family and friends. Maybe I’m being naive… But it’s hard to work up too much world-news anxiety at harvest time. As Marge McClellan said rightly in Sister Bee… “It’s all just so… BEAUTIFUL!”

Honey lovers in Colorado are invited to taste our honey at the Boulder Farmers’ Market on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings now through the end of September.

May your cupboards be blessed with abundance this fall.

Sister Bee was just one of sixty-plus events offered at HAS this year. I wish I could have attended all of them! Alas… time and space limited me to the few. Thought you’d enjoy hearing about these standout honeybee projects.

LOST MOUNTAIN HONEY PROJECT
Tammy Horn who authored “Bees in America” has begun an ambitious new project. The Lost Mountain Honey Project is opening new space for forests and honeybees by linking beekeepers with coal companies and private donors. They’re turning defunct mining sites into productive apiary forests and training grounds for new beekeepers. Beautiful, eh?

BEEKEEPING SAFARI
Second generation beekeeper and Ntaba Tours owner & guide Robin Mountain is offering a Beekeeping Safari to South Africa this December. Robin is one one of the first people I met a HAS. He’s a great storyteller. The itinerary looks fantastical. (I love the idea of a tour that makes time for picnics, penguin colonies, leopard gazing and honeybees.)

A STUDY ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND HONEYBEES
Curious about climate change and honeybees? NASA scientist and beekeeper Dr. Wayne Esaias is gathering information about “how climate change is affecting flowering plants and their pollinators” by observing honey flows. He’s actively seeking volunteers. A big ol’ scale and honeybees required. Get involved at HoneyBeeNet.

Big thanks to Dan O’Hanlon and Gabe Blatt of the Cabell Wayne Beekeepers Association in West Virginia for inviting me to screen Sister Bee at HAS last week. What a wonderful experience! The people, the setting, the workshops… all beautiful. I feel blessed to have participated. Will write more later this week…

It’s an honor and a pleasure to announce the following events.

SISTER BEE at the Montserrat Encaustic Conference
Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusetts
Saturday, June 7th, 3:30 PM
Sunday, June 8th, 3:30 PM
Open to conference registrants. Wax-centric Q & A to follow.

SISTER BEE at Colorado’s Chautauqua Association
Chautauqua Community House, Boulder, Colorado
Monday, June 23rd, 7:00 PM
Open to the general public. Tickets $10. Panel discussion to follow.

SISTER BEE at the Heartland Apiculture Society’s annual meeting
Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia
Thursday, July 10th, 9:45 AM
Open to conference registrants. Q & A to follow.

Great news for the bee-interested in the Boulder-Denver area! Julie Finley of Sister Bee and Garden Director at Growing Gardens in Boulder is offering a hands-on beekeeping class. The curriculum looks fabulous. Julie is a gifted teacher. Highly, highly recommended.

For more info please email Julie@growinggardens.org. Here’s a printable registration form. And a brochure.

Class 1 – Introduction
Date March 8, 2008 Time 9:00 am to 12:00
Meet the instructor, share expectations and goals for the course. We will explain the top bar method and the basics of beekeeping. There will be a demonstration hive available for inspection and plans for building your own Top Bar Hive and information for purchasing supplies and bees.

Class II – Meeting the Bees
Date April 5, 2008 Time 9:00 am to 1:00
We will meet the caste of bees that live in a colony and cover the ecology of honey bees. In the lab we will learn about hive preparation, how to install packaged bees or swarms, and what to look for in your new colony.

Class III – Colony Care I
May 3, 2008 Time 9:00 am to 1:00
You will learn how to handle combs, trouble-shoot problems, manage build-up, and maintain the overall health of the hive. The lab will apply the knowledge gained from the class through hands-on beekeeping.

Class IV – Colony Care II
June 7, 2008 Time 9:00 am to 1:00
We will review how to maintain healthy colonies and discuss sustainable agriculture practices and methodologies. In the lab we will review proper handling of the combs, assessing queen vitality and brood development and we will learn how to observe honey flow and colony strength through the seasons.

Class V – Practical Lab I
July 12, 2008 Time 9:00 am to 1:00
In this three hour lab you will have the opportunity to gain confidence and familiarity with honeybees and learn how to work a top-bar hive successfully. You will gain knowledge in how to manage hives for optimum honey production and colony health. We will begin the harvest of Cultiva honeycomb for Farmer’s Market sales.

Class VI – Practical Lab II
August 2, 2008 Time 9:00 am to 1:00
This class will give you a chance to improve your skills and gain more experience handling combs and bees. We will continue to harvest honey. We will discuss and practice sustainable techniques for monitoring and preventing diseases and parasites.

Class VII – Fall Preparations
September 6, 2008 Time 9:00 am to 1:00
In this class we will review the use and application of Formic acid, Oxalic acid, herbal bee calm and other preparations for maintaining a healthy hive. We will also learn alternative honey processing techniques.

Class VIII – Winter Care
October 4, 2008 Time 9:00 am to 1:00
This class will focus on the steps needed to prepare the hives for winter. The lab will demonstrate a variety of winterization techniques unique to top bar hive management.

Class IX – Honeybees Give Us More than Honey
November 1, 2008 Time 9:00 am to 1:00
Here we will learn how to process wax and how to make mold candles, ornaments, salves and lip balms. This 4 hour practical lab will be devoted to making samples of these various products and enjoying the fruits of your labor.

“Class materials and methods will focus on the Top Bar Hive, and a natural means of raising bees. Thank you, for your interest in honeybees, Growing Gardens, and our relationship to community.”

- Julie Finley
Growing Gardens
3198 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80304
303 413 7248 x 1
303 413 7201 fax

Exciting news! Joanne Mattera – esteemed painter and author of “The Art of Encaustic Painting” has invited me to screen SISTER BEE at the second annual Montserrat Encaustic Conference in June. Yay! This is a rare opportunity to join in an event that holds all three of my professional interests – beekeeping, filmmaking and painting.

As you may know – beeswax is a beautiful, mythic substance. What’s less known is the science behind its symbolism and how it’s made by honeybees. Artists who take the time to learn about these things are in for a treat. Honeybees are fascinating creatures. They provide a wealth of inspiration. And knowledge about them deepens our comprehension of beeswax as a medium. I look forward to talking about these things with artists at the conference in June.

You’re invited to stop by Joanne Mattera’s conference page for more info – dates, schedule, etc…