Bees in the Garden

During these finally warm days of summer, bees have been actively moving through the garden; as I pass the mass of melon foliage, dotted with flowers, the bees are zipping from bloom to bloom. Looking into squash blossoms, bees are deep within their throats. After years of worrying about the declining bee population from colony collapse disorder, it's a thrill to see so many of these essential insects. Each time I see bees inside the female flowers of vegetables, I'm thrilled: ahh, that squash will be pollinated and grow.

Watching the bees crawling into lips of bee balm or across the stamens of other flowers, covered with pollen, they seem in a state of ecstasy, reveling in their harvest.