Summer Sunflowers and Bees

It is a rare morning walk, alone, that I engage with people as I’m out doing my thing. On this particular hot morning along some paved trails close to home I was approached by an older couple, and then again later by an older man walking his dog, about what I was doing. They remarked on the sunflowers, in full bloom then and signifying the height of the sun’s power over summer 2020 — a year that has seemed like one long, still, troubled season all its own. I told them I was actually taking pictures of the bees. This they seemed to find interesting; almost amusing. Maybe I seem a little eccentric in my big floppy trail hat. The bumblebees and honeybees were out together that morning. It was good to see such a crowd of bees. It won’t be long before the city authorities start poisoning them again in an effort to quell that other perennial disease threat, the West Nile virus.

Gather while you can, bees.