22 Comments
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Tessa Broad's avatar

Simply a lovely piece to read, thank you & thanks as ever to India Knight for leading me here.

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Susie Middleton's avatar

So glad you’re enjoying, Tessa! Glad you’re here.

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Jessica Bard's avatar

Moving thoughts on our largely unsung heroes! Fantastic photos!🐝🌻

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Jan Burch's avatar

I have been mesmerized by the bumblebees in my Cassia tree every morning It’s so beautiful to watch them go from one blossom to the next. So I enjoyed your post very much. 🐝

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Susie Middleton's avatar

They are mesmerizing, aren't they? We love watching and listening to them when the lavender blooms - they just go nuts! Glad you are enjoying them Jan!

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Leslie Senevey's avatar

This read was like enjoying a lovely glass of iced mint tea in the spring garden. Refreshing, invigorating and softly sweet.

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Susie Middleton's avatar

So glad!

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Lila Gault's avatar

Your penchant for seeing beyond the obvious, then describing it for mere mortals, is always wonderful to read. Thanks for bringing such joy to your readers - and especially to me!

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Susie Middleton's avatar

Aw, Lila, it makes me happy to bring you joy - yay!

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Lorene Edwards Forkner's avatar

Ah Susie, I understand your pull to the hoop house. The garden is the only time my mind goes quiet these days. Enduring natural rhythms — the bearded irises are glorious and I cut the first rose! —in the face of cruelty and fear. It’s all I can do to bring myself away.

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Susie Middleton's avatar

We are really lucky, Lorene, to have the garden to dwell in, to get peace for a time.

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Diane's avatar

What David said! And may I say how much I like the fact that your missives arrive on Sunday mornings? I look forward to starting my “Sabbath” with them each week🙏❤️

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Susie Middleton's avatar

Well Diane I am happy to be in your inbox on Sunday morning - thank you!

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David R. Anderson's avatar

I liked the insight that we don’t see bees or people fully when they live, but only when they die. It’s so true—as you say—that when people die we find out they were players in so many different dramas on different stages with people we didn’t know or hardly knew. How you got there from a dead bumblebee is real artistry—thanks for that.

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Susie Middleton's avatar

Ha! How my mind works - just veers off in these directions and it is sometimes hard to get back…but usually there’s a reason the thoughts come out so I kept that. I wish I had taken a picture of this bee, because he wasn’t curled up or rolled over. He had his wings spread, and against the black floor of the hoop house looked like a plane that had just landed on a runway or was about to take off.

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Kathryn Surchek's avatar

Flapping my wings furiously here in VA.

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Susie Middleton's avatar

🐝🐝🐝

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Carolyn's avatar

This is one of the best pieces you've written! I love bumblebees myself. The first one I ever rescued was on the steps of a building in Boston, which Rachel and I came across while we were waiting for her test results at Dana-Farber. I gently picked it up and put it in a grassy area so it wouldn't get stepped on.

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Susie Middleton's avatar

And forgot to say thank you!

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Susie Middleton's avatar

Oh my gosh I love that you did thar. Apparently sometimes they just get tired!

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Heather's avatar

I think that’s beautiful - your anthropomorphizing. If anything, a deeper and more thorough understanding of how we humans are just another living being is a big part of the solution. And it includes not just animals, but insects too. And plants. Flowers. Trees. Fungus. It feels good to feel a part of it. ❤️

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Susie Middleton's avatar

It does Heather, you’re right. The more time I spend feeling a part of their world (which is our world too), the better I feel.

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