#2946 "No Mow May Dandelions"

#2946 "No Mow May Dandelions" 
14 X 11 inches by 7/8 profile in depth.
Started at 10:00 am Friday, May 16th, 2025

Like "love songs", the world can always use more flowers, especially in spring. Emergent insects and early bird migrants desperately need these nectar and pollen sources. They are the foundation of the web of life. 

Rachel Carson was wise to be alarmed at the synthetic pesticides that were wiping out the foundation of nature.  Toxic chemicals were widely developed through the military funding of science after World War II. Carson's 1962 book "Silent Spring" was deservedly named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover magazine in 2006.

As a decade-long beekeeper, I rejoiced in seeing my bees emerge from the colonies having survived winter, eager to harvest those first crops of nectar and pollen. I used to spent some quiet, quality time with my bees, Maine Coon cat and Chesapeake Retriever laying on the grass in front of the cluster of supers watching the comings and goings of my friends. 

"Dances With Bees Chadwick" from a movie with a similar name was used on letters addressed to Watershed Farm. I hope someone laughed... I did!

The fabulous honey they produced was "pure joy" in a bottle. The produce from each frame went straight into mason jars without mixing with other honey or any more human interference. Each jar of honey was unique and different in colour and subtle flavours. Winnie the Pooh would have been thrilled. The honey and propolis crops were so special!

Canada still allows neonicotinoid chemicals that are thought to be less damaging than the organochlorines and organophosphates used in the past. All of them killed my bees as the farms expanded and changed their agricultural methods along the 12th Concession of King Township. It got so that I could not keep my bees alive through the cold season, no matter what I tried. And I just could not continue... Hammertown was becoming "Torontofied" as well. 

Sadly, we moved from Watershed Farm and the Oak Ridges Moraine to something more like Winnie the Pooh's "Hundred Acre Wood" in Eastern Ontario. The bears that share the 145 acres with us encouraged me not to restart my apiary, although I was very tempted. For me, erecting reinforced electric fences to keep the bears out of the honey supers seemed too much like fighting nature and erecting a prison. 

       "Winnie the Pooh" at Singleton with two cubs      

The other temptation is to cut the "weeds" down. "No Mow May" used in the title of this painting, is a campaign encouraging homeowners to refrain from mowing their lawns. The concept originated appropriately in the UK in 2019 I think, at the encouragement of "Winnie the Pooh". The goal is to boost pollinator populations. 

   Two palettes are used to keep my     
colours clean.

We certainly practice"No Mow May" at Singleton. Large sections of flowers are left uncut. In a system of rotation, those sections are only mowed when the flowers fade and die, leaving other blocks uncut. 

Many birds prefer the mowed sections for hunting, especially the bluebirds, robins and flickers. The fields are always alive with natural activity, although I rarely see any honey bees. 

To be clear, "weeds" are simply flowers growing where people have decided they are unwanted. Weeds can be quite beautiful, and I continue to capture them in oils whenever I get the chance. 

Fighting nature is a silly and futile battle. Life is just easier to embrace nature and "let it bee" to quasi-quote Paul McCartney and the Beatles. 

Finally, although the sentiment is wonderful, Einstein did not say "If the Bee Disappeared Off the Face of the Earth, Man Would Only Have Four Years Left To Live". Scholars have traced these thoughts instead to Charles Darwin, Maurice Maeterlinck and E. O. Wilson. The earliest evidence connecting Einstein and disastrous impacts resulting from the disappearance of bees was published in the "Canadian Bee Journal" in 1941. Quote Investigator has the complete story. 

The importance of nature must not be underestimated. Humans are just another species and not the lords of the universe. Humans must consider the others that share the Earth, the only planet we can ever know. The climate of the Earth is entering thousands of years of an interglacial period due to the uncontrolled combustion of fossil fuels that were sequestered during the last 15 million years, only to be re-released in the blink of an eye of the Industrial Age. The Pandora Box of Carbon must be slammed shut, and somehow that released carbon must be put back inside...

These are just my opinions, of course. I use these posts to continue learning and maybe share some positive thoughts.

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick