After the long drive home from class last night, I meant to sleep in, but woke up grabbing for my notebook — full of ideas for the studio about beetles, and diatoms, textures and forms.

This afternoon I organized my studio and recycled clay, but on a whim I decided that I should harvest some honey from the hive, and pull off the empty supers on top before the weather gets cold and they have to keep all that warm.

I was too lazy to go get my gloves, gear, and veil, so I just pulled up the hood of my black sweatshirt to keep themout of my hair.I bet I looked exactly like a bear.

It’s been rainy and chilly and they were not in a great mood to begin with, and the guard bees kind of got in my face, but I managed to get through the process without getting stung.  The sweet reward is lined up on the kitchen counter, with chunks of comb in each jar. No antibiotics, no pesticides, just good new honey. I can’t imagine anything else I would be willing to put in my mouth after watching a few hundred insects crawl all over it. Molly will even stick out a finger and shove the bees aside to poke into a comb for sweetness.

I wanted more but I’ll go back on a sunny, warm day when they are not so crabby. Now I am off to teach at the Guild, and tomorrow night the circus (my son won tickets. I hate the circus.) Then at 6 a.m. saturday the busload of grad students leaves the EMU campus for Chicago’s art museums. I’m going to be one tired puppy by midnight saturday!

Anyway, for today, I’ve got a few jars of summer blooms distilled into something good for biscuits and herbal tea.