Bees, Science, and Sadness • by Nancy Holmes 3

The Flowering Plum Tree: Bees, Science, and Sadness by Nancy Holmes                  Science has often been a path to wonder for me. Looking at the cosmos with Carl Sagan when I was young, adoring my biology classes in high school, reading about electricity and geology in a children’s encyclopedia when I was in elementary school, reading to my own children remarkable natural history books about snakes and oceans, marrying a mathematician, knowing I must have been a 19th century lady botanist in a past life, and realizing no real scientist would ever say that, all have primed me to be a lover and respecter of science and the scientific method. Though I am a poet and writing teacher instead of a scientist, I have long loved plants and gardens and the natural world by extension, and I started applying my own art practices to ecological issues about ten or twelve years ago.      A digger bee approaching Oregon grape. Photograph: Dr. Robert Lalonde. Most recently, I’ve begun to pay attention to bees and this year I started to work on a new art project called the Public Art Pollinator Pasture. I and a group of artists are using art to engage our communities in the understanding and stewardship of bees.  [  >>>>>  FORWARD ]   [Distillate © HA&L + Nancy Holmes {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]