Bee to the blossom

Though each season has its beauty and I am a big fan of winter, as the cool of winter freshens the air and the days shorten I do like to remember the beauty of summers past. And what is more reminiscent of summertime than vibrantly blooming flowers and the busy buzzing bees they attract.

Here, then, is a blog to brighten up those brief, grey and frequently wet days of approaching winter.

Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; Each to his passion; what's in a name? ~ Helen Hunt Jackson, ‘Vanity of Vanities’

How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour, / And gather honey all the day / From every opening flower! ~ Isaac Watts, Divine Songs for Children, XX, ‘Against Idleness and Mischief’

A swarm of bees in May / Is worth a load of hay; / A swarm of bees in June / Is worth a silver spoon; / A swarm of bees in July / Is not worth a fly. ~ Anonymous, An old rhyme

The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams. ~ Henry David Thoreau

One can no more approach people without love than one can approach bees without care. Such is the quality of bees.… ~ Leo Tolstoy

Such bees! Bilbo had never seen anything like them. "If one were to sting me," he thought, "I should swell up as big as I am!” ~ J. R. R. Tolkein, The Hobbit

Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway. ~ Mary Kay Ash

They all seemed hungry, happy, and healthy enough in their buzzing – oh the days were hot, and the noise of bees filled the air that was dusty with pollen and sun haze.… ~ Janet Frame, Scented Gardens for the Blind

The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use. But the bee ... gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

The only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee ... The only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey ... and the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it. ~ Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes. ~ Mark Nepo