Did You Thank a Honeybee for Your Great Pumpkin?

Hats off to our honeybees for this year's hefty haul of pumpkins.

A Poem Is Like A Social Wasp

10/22/09

A vespid alights
on the latex-white puddle
of melted vanilla—
desperate for October’s stolen flower.

—Gerry Gomez Pearlberg

Artist of the Day

Been looking at a fair amount of art lately, and was especially thrilled last week by the plum blossoms, willows, and critter-renderings of 18th c. Chinese artist Luo Ping at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If you're in NYC, check it out, and while you're there do not miss the amazing Astor Court—a hidden treasure nestled deep in the quiet recesses of the museum's Asian galleries.

Meanwhile, a bit closer to home—on the desktop, in fact—I've been enjoying the paintings and drawings of Zane York, a Brooklyn-based artist whose wide-ranging interests include bugs, birds, and critters of the mammalian persuasion.

What I like about this work is its meticulous accuracy and intelligence, through which, in subtle ways, a sense of appreciation and fondness for the subject matter percolates through.

Some of my favorites are:

A dragonfly.

A squirrel.

A hapless bug stalked by two cats.

An oil painting of a dead blue jay that evokes a 19th century specimen study, but with heart.

A horned beetle rendered in all its talismanic glory.

An in-your-face blowfish.

NRDC Member Alert!

Are you a member of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)?

If you're a beekeeper AND an NRDC member, NRDC is looking for your help in gathering information on pesticide use and its effects on bees.

NRDC members who keep bees and would like to assist this great organization in going to bat for bees are encouraged to contact Levi Jones at ljones (at) nrdc (dot) org.