the first bumblebee
an envoy from under stone,
sun salutation
Copyright 2018 Brenda Davis Harsham
Notes: Early one morning, my daughter and I spotted a bumblebee flying hither and yon. It crawled under a paving stone and disappeared into an underground nest. Have you ever seen a bee crawling underground?
Happy Poetry Friday and thanks to Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup for hosting!
57 thoughts on “Spring Blue”
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Friendly Fairy Tales 
No, but a bee stung one of my big toes, once. Perhaps that’s where it cam from?
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Could be. Although they hang out down there on the clover, too.
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Great piece.
Yes, I have seen that before and I remember it surprised me a bit. The world is such an interesting place.
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Yes, such delicious variety.
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Love your bumblebee haiku. It’s lovely.
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Thanks!
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You captured all the fresh newness of spring in your photo — the blue sky, the new leaves, the blossoms — GORGEOUS!
Yes, I knew bumblebees made underground nests. Always good to see one go under so you know to avoid it!!
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Yes, I’ll be careful near that stone. Fortunately, it’s not my yard.
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There’s something about that first glimpse of spring’s chartreusean green against a blue sky. Nothing like it! We have a bit of grass that has always been plagued with ground bees. I’m not sure why they like this particular spot. Here’s a bit of info I dug up (bad intentional pun!) on Cornell’s useful website. https://entomology.cals.cornell.edu/extension/wild-pollinators/native-bees-your-backyard
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Maybe if you give them appealing alternates, they will leave that bit of grass alone. In general, I like bees. They are the hardest workers.
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Yes, indeed they are. We must ignore temporary inconveniences as a result of their presence, a lesson I am trying to pass on to my Kindergarten naturalists!
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If the turkeys can eat my lettuce, then the bees can nest under a stone. 🙂
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Nope, I can’t say as I have noticed a bumblebee crawling underground. It’s a darn good thing I have you to introduce me to such things, Brenda!
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LOL I have a long memory for avoiding hives, even the underground variety. 🙂
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Lovely photo and poem and how special to notice the bumblebee with your daughter. I’ve heard they do that but never seen one. However, one summer which we call the “cicada summer” because there hundreds of them (in Texas then), we had cicada killers (wasp) burrow all over our lawn. We had an underground watering system with great topsoil which they loved. We couldn’t cut our lawn because they’d come out and chase/sting whoever was mowing. We tried everything and finally had to have an exterminator spray.
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I’ve never heard of that variety of wasp. Awful! There’s no live and let live with some bugs. I can’t abide hornets or yellow jackets. Ugh! They hurt!
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I love thinking of your bee doing yoga! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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LOL Me, too.
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Be mindful of where that nest is…bumblebees won’t harm us normally, of course, but if they feel the nest is threatened, they might!
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I’ll keep that in mind. Are you a bee expert?
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Yayyyyy! The bees are back. Took long enough didn’t it? I love your salutation. It’s beautiful.
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Thanks, Linda. That was the first bee of the season. 🙂 I imagine it’s snug and warm underground.
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bee-utiful haiku Brenda, and lovely image too! Wish I had come across your link about ground bees and using tubing to redirect their entry a few years ago. We had a nest right outside our door and we all continued to get stung repeatedly throughout the summer–so my husband unfortunately took care of them. Happy Mother’s Day to come!
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Ouch! Maybe you need to offer them some enticing alternate locations. 🙂
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I didn’t know bees sometimes had hives underground! Love your little gem of a poem. “Envoy”–perfection.
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Thanks, Laura. 🙂
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There is lots of brilliant blue going around today! I have learned that some bees burrow underground, but I haven’t caught one in the act yet!
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I had never seen it before. 🙂
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The title of this post already had me smiling! Yay for BLUE! We see bumblebees around here too, but I never saw one burrow into an underground nest.
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Blue just for you! The funny part was, we were in a hurry walking my daughter to school. Yet, we were so puzzled that the bee had flown down to the stone, that we stayed to watch. I guess that curiosity about the world is why she and I are both poets. 🙂
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“Envoy” is a great word. Much nicer to see a bumblebee than a yellow jacket! We have had yellow jacket problems here. My mom actually likes the carpenter bees living in her garage, but probably not enough to write a poem about them. 🙂
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I used to have carpenter bees at my old house, but I didn’t like the way they would watch me. LOL
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I’m not sure of bumblebees, but long ago my son stepped on a hole and bees erupted. He was stung quite a lot! It hurt but thank goodness he wasn’t allergic! Yes, bees are underground, too! Your discovery & poem capture is just right, Brenda!
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I’m so sorry for that event with your son. In my case, I was pruning a lilac, and a yellow jacket felt I had done enough. That hurt like anything, and it was only one sting.
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Love the surprise of this, Brenda, and that you honored this bee with a poem!
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We were so surprised it went under the stone, as if we weren’t even there. At first, we thought it was a hibernating queen, but when I looked it up, it was a bumblebee. 🙂
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Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
THAT BEE HAS A HONEY OF AN ASSIGNMENT! BRENDA KNOWS HOW TO WRITE HAIKU AND OTHER POETIC FORMS. AWESOME!!!
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You’re the king of the limerick
And possibly of the word trick.
I just fumble
about a bumble
bee-cause it’s my schtick!
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ORT-ORT-ORT-ORT!!!! 😀
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We have a couple underground hives of bumblebees. We discovered them last year. I never knew they did that. But there they were going in and out totally ignoring the humans observing. We have lots of red ants in the ground, too. I never go barefoot outside since we moved here. Pointy rocks, bees, ants, none are friends of feet.
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Sad to not be able to be barefoot sometimes. I have a friend who believes your electricity is set correctly when you walk on the earth barefoot. I’m not sure what that means, though.
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I go barefoot as often as possible, just not in my own yard, Too many pointy things. Beaches, parks, heck, even in our dirt road the rocks aren’t as pointy. I agree with your friend. That survivalist (his name slips my mind right now) believed that it helps our DNA and mitochondria to be barefoot as often as possible. I know as a kid this yard would have been nothing to my feet. I’ve become a bit of a pansy! But they are prettier! LOL!
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I like being barefoot, too. I always assumed I was a bit of a country girl at heart. 🙂
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Me, too! Love being a country girl at heart and in truth! 🙂
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Love the quiet.
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Yes!
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I’ve seen wasps make underground nests, and yellow jackets, but not bees.
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This was the first time I’d seen a bee. Sadly, I had interfered with a yellow jacket nest.
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so springy and full of life! on our playground, we sometimes have bees who live under the wood chips on the ground –
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A tricky place for them. Better bumblebees than yellowjackets. 🙂
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Sweet. 😎🥀
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Thanks.
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Lovely spring photo and poem, Brenda!
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Thanks, Peter!
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I have not seen that. I have seen Carpenter bees go into the siding of my house, however. They are so pretty, huge and they don’t sting. Still, they need to vacate before they eat my abode.
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Oh, yes. Carpenter bees are a plague. This was a bumblebee.
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