Pools and Things

It was too hot to do anything yesterday afternoon other than write or swim, and the former having escaped me earlier, I decided to take a dip in the neighbors' pool. Probably even better than having your own pool is having neighbors who have a pool (only if they let you use it, of course), as you get all the benefits of a pool without the hassle and maintenance.

So I popped over, and not long after I got in, I noticed that it was so hot that even the bees were drowning themselves in an effort to get some respite from the heat.

To give myself something to do, I started rescuing the bees from the pool. After all, these bees have important work to do in the garden, and seeing as how I was bored, I was thankful for the distraction. Swimming as exercise? Yeah, never heard of it.

Sometimes, all you need is a second chance and maybe a small life raft to keep you afloat (or leaf, in this case). This may be in the form of an email/text/phone call or letter/postcard for a long-lost friend, or maybe something entirely different.

But never underestimate the power of the little things. They have helped me tremendously, in case you need proof.

Truly, it's the little things that make the world go 'round. Take this bee I rescued, for example. It might be responsible for pollinating the vegetable plants I harvest in the garden.

Okay now, prepare for some strange things, my friends, as you may not have seen a bee up close like this before. But it's fascinating, right? Okay, maybe that's just me; I'm a bit of a science dork.

See this thing? It's a proboscis, in case you weren't sure (but I know you kids are smart) and the bees use it to harvest nectar.

And I'm not up on all my animal behavior literature, but I do remember this from my college classes: bees guide other bees to food sources by doing a specialized dance, and they use polarized light in addition to landmarks to orient themselves, which makes sense because the sun and other orbital objects change their position in the sky throughout the day, so they can't rely on solar or stellar orientation as the sole source of information as far as nectar is concerned.

Weird and cool all at the same time; who knew? Or maybe not. Please feel free to let me know in the comments.