Earth Hour TONIGHT, Equinox tomorrow, full moon, eclipse Wednesday, BEES

And to think I originally started out just intending to tell you about a simple thing this week. And then I realized all these important planetary moments.  Did you hear about the General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios initiating their wildflower campaign for the honey bees? More about that at the end of this blog.

Onward!

Earth Hour

In less than 2 hours it is Earth Hour here in the Eastern Time zone.  Turning off lights out from 8:30 – 9:30 pm. Do you need encouragement to get off the grid? Join millions of people around the world!  Check it out here   Light a candle, turn off smart stuff, go for a walk under the starry sky (even in s Ontario tonight!). In other words, reclaim your evening and do something that doesn’t require electricity! Bee creative.  If you are with friends, chill out with candle light, sing songs, read poetry. Or do your own thing that brings you meaningful connection!

And if you missed the actual Earth Hour timing (apologies for this very very short notice)…just create your own little oasis tomorrow instead. All good.

March Equinox

A new season begins  in a few hours (spring or autumn depending where you live!)  So that would be 12:30 AM Sunday Eastern Time. Check here for your location.

New season, new intentions! What are yours for the next four months?  Try being precise! Record them somewhere so you will remember them.  Create some traction for yourself.

Here with the teasing of spring weather, my thoughts go to the bees.  It’s a tough time for them did you know that?  The up and down temperatures make it tough for bees to find nectar and pollen and not freeze to death. So if you do see bees on spring flowers, send them your blessings and warm thoughts.

Full Moon AND Penumbral Eclipse

Wednesday March 23.  Another reason the universe is trying to get our attention! Did you know that Easter is connected to this particular full moon?  Easter moves around our calendar right?  Ever wondered how it is determined?  In the Northern Hemisphere, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the March Equinox. At the March Equinox, the sun moves north past the celestial equator. Sort of equal days and nights twice a year.  Then Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Equinox.  The added touch is that this year the full moon is also an eclipse (although faint).  Very interesting.  See how you experience this!

Bees

I have been looking out onto my backyard a lot lately.  I can see so much of it compared to last year’s unending winter at this time. While I haven’t seen any bees myself yet, the tv news has been showing pictures of them on the spring flowers in warmer areas.

As I was mulling all this over, I heard about the General Mills Honey Nut Cereal campaign a few days ago.  See their two minute video here.

Got more time? check out a wonderful TED talk (15 min only) by Marla Spivak, a beekeeper. It was done in June of 2013 and is incredibly succinct, and still timely. It gives an excellent review by a caring experienced beekeeper.

So here’s my take on all this (I don’t actually eat cheerios):  when you start to think of your own garden, think wildflowers.  This campaign is calling on Canadians to plant 35 million wildflowers this spring! one for every person in the country (Yah I know the recent Stats Can numbers came out last week and officially we have hit 36 million).  Anyway, it is a great idea.  Even though it has garnered some criticism – to be expected, of course.  Still in a way it makes sense to me.  Give the bees more flowers they can drink deeply from (petunias have no nectar folks!) than less.  A nurturing intention sets us out on our own adventure to be practical.  Believe me I know this from last year when I dug up our whole backyard and planted it with native and nectar bearing plants. One caution Marla makes is make sure you get plants,  seeds  that have not been treated with herbicides, fungicides or pesticides!  Especially neonicontinoids or ‘neonics’ for short. That one is killing bees in their stomachs. So I can’t so easily get rid of GMO corn in the farmers’ fields but I can make sure what I plant will be good for pollinators.

Bee-friendly plants

If you want a plant list that can be adapted to most climates, check out this one I have recommended before from Spikenard Bee Sanctuary. Or check your local organic-sourced native plant place! And your friends!  They know lots of practical tips too.

Email me with your comments.  Would love to hear if anything comes up for you.  Hopefully not any tech glitches!

bee-well
Linda