A Beekeeper's Baby Shower!

 

When a beekeeper is going to have a baby, it is important to tell the bees.

Marriage, birth, or burying,

News accross the seas,

All your sad or merrying,

You must tell the bees.

Dear Bees,

Our friend is about to pop!

Please welcome the baby into our world.

Prepare the way for the arrival of a new soul.

We promise to love the beekeeper's child and take good care of the wee one.

 Friends, neighbors and family gathered for a lovely celebration with such good food.

 

Julia made an amazing cake decorated with flowers from around the neighborhood.

 You can see the white chocolate leaves.

There were white violets, mauve violets, currant flowers, and cherry blossoms. Inside the intense chocolate cake, honey was spread between the layers.

Can anyone guess what was sprinkled at the bottom of the cake? Bee pollen!

 

 This is a beautiful quilt made by the beekeeper mom-to-be.

 

I have wonderful memories of attending wedding and baby showers when I was a child.

Madame Beespeaker at Aberthau

I was honored to be part of the 100th year celebration at Aberthau Mansion. Lucky for me, I was stationed right next to the cupcake decorating booth. My awesome assistant Maya made me a bee cupcake decorated with Oreo cookie crumbs and banana flavored saltwater taffy.

Lots of people came and made messages for the bees, in the tradition of Telling the Bees.

 There was a classic car display, live music, horse-drawn carriage rides, a tea party, BBQ and tours of the beautiful building. What a party!

 I also set up a table with a seed scavenger hunt with packages for people to take home seeds for their gardens. The weather was perfect and the conversations I had with kids and adults were really lovely.



There are more photos from the Vancouver Sun's website, including a dancing Beespeaker.

Come Tell the Bees: A Shrine for Our Ancestors

Marriage, birth or burying,
News across the seas,
All your sad or merrying,
You must tell the bees.

For several weeks our creativity circle has been working on a shrine for All Souls at Mountainview cemetery. We made a lantern in the shape of a bee skep made of handmade paper. We installed the lantern Saturday afternoon and spent the evening at the shrine inviting people to make messages that would be carried by the bees. We had some very meaningful conversations and what I liked was that people left messages about births as well as messages for their loved ones who have passed on.