Denzil has invited us to share bees ‘of any species, size, sex, colour and activity’. Despite the broadness of the brief, I’m not sure he’ll have been expecting these.
Bee in the City was a free art trail, scattered with terrible puns, held in Manchester, UK several years ago. Artists decorated a standard 3D blank in their signature style, often working in association with charities or local businesses as sponsors.
I’ve seen similar events in Liverpool and Boston. The trails are memorable, family-friendly, brighten up their host cities, help highlight local causes and stories, and lure people away from following their standard routes.
I’ve restricted myself to just a few so not to try your patience and am signing off with a couple of ‘real’ bees.
Imagine this bee intently swaying on the flower spikes of my favourite basil. Try growing African Blue if you can get your hands on some. It can be perennial if sheltered inside over the winter and is well worth growing for the flowers, even if you don’t use it as a herb.
We went to a talk on bees and other pollinators last week, and the lecturer set out to dispel some of the conventional ideas we have about bees. He was particularly scathing about most commercially available bee hotels – bee cemeteries, as he calls them – suggesting that anyone who wants to help bees would be better off planting flowers.
Shared for the Nature Photo Challenge: Bees. Â
Susan Rushton 
I’ve seen some of these bee art forms, all so individually different. I’ve seen cows, too. Great street art, for sure. I’ve heard that about bee hotels. It is makes it easy for predators like woodpeckers to wipe out a large number in one visit. Better to tuck small reeds and brush around your yard.
Yikes! I guess there will be no bee hotels at our home by the woods.
We’re lucky that where we live there are still lots of natural places left for solitary bees to nest.
He also said it’s impossible to keep some of the man-made structures clean, which you need to do to keep the bees healthy.
Whether Denzil approves or not, this is a great post!
Thanks, Margaret.
“Terrible puns”?? Not so! They lifted me up and renewed my faith in our language! USBee is hilarious! Thanks for the tip on the African blue basil; I think I’ve never heard of it, but now I know to watch for it. Last winter I brought my pineapple mint into the garage, and it’s doing very well! I will now go into my day making people wonder why I’m chuckling to myself; the measure of a good pun is how long it lasts.
In that case, I dare say you’d like Buzzwig van Bee-thovan, Bee-sy Rider, To Bee or not to Bee (which claims to be an Eliza-bee-than), Gravit-Bee, Agnes Bee-den Powell (you ought to be begging for mercy by this point). My favourite name was The Sky is Not the Limit, which seems good for a bee.
What gems! I do not beg for mercy; I applaud! I agree about the sky’s being not the limit, especially for a bee, but also for the grandeur of the pun.
Bee-utiful 🙂
Thanks!
Love the bees! Our city did cows, I would prefer bees.
I think I’d like big daisies.
This is so beautiful and bees deserves special attention ! Thanks for sharing Susan. Have a lovely evening and many greets, Rudi
My pleasure, Rudi, and my best wishes in return.
Those bees are fantastic! Love ’em. And how fun to follow them on a trail. As for “real” bees…I will stick to real flowers. Yesterday, when I was sitting on the patio, I saw plenty of bees buzzing through my evening primroses. Yay!!!
A sight to cheer the heart.
Oh, they are weird and wonderful! LOL! 😃
I didn’t share some of the weirdest ones. The odd one looked sinister, although more down to the lighting and my angle than the bee.
What a wonderful collection of BEES!
I’m glad you liked them.
Great street art. I must agree about the Blue Basil, great bee attractors and also about bee houses. The exception around here is for the Australian Stingless Bees where their habitat it being destroyed. They adapt to the constructed hives in peoples properties.
It’s good the stingless bees have managed to adapt.
Stingless bees seem to have a go at any flower that comes along 🙂
There have been guitars in Austin and cows in Chicago (I think–I may be wrong), and elephants in London a few years ago, but the bees are so important. Even in my sad little Texas xeriscaped garden, I have flowers to attract pollinators like butterflies and bees. (Bees like esperanza, a brillliant yellow flowering shrub that does well here.)
It won’t be at all sad if there are bees and butterflies.
A delightful response to the challenge
I’m glad you liked them.