In preparation for our bee visit today, we looked up the dos and don’ts of apiary life. Don’t be overly perfumed. Or be smelly. Bit of dilemma there. Don’t wear black socks, as bees sting dark things. Be calm at all times. If they start getting out of hand, blow smoke in their little furry faces. And finally don’t swat them, whatever you do. Oh and don’t run off hysterically.
Jean-Baptiste picked us up at 10am and drove us to a beautiful clearing by a lake, with a dozen hives stacked up amongst the lime trees. We donned our massively oversized suits, which worryingly seeemed to be only top halves. We were tucking our trousers into our white socks, when Debbie noticed the ripped holes in the knees of her jeans. This was a bit of a concern. Wearing surgical gloves made this procedure all the more tricky. Debbie got one of the fingers of her gloves caught in her zip as she tried to tuck her top into her jeans. Nightmare. The suits were so big, they kept falling down over our eyes. It was in this hysterical state that we gingerly approached the first hive.
Julie began recording a solitary bee at the entrance to the hive with our ridiculously over the top microphone. “It looks like cat, they will attack it!” exclaimed Jean-Baptiste. Julie was blissfully unaware that she was blocking the entrance of the hive for all the other bees who began swarming en masse in a great cloud behind her. “Maybe you should turn around Joo-lie,” offered our guide. Julie turned around in horror and bravely continued to capture the audio completely surrounded by bees, her arm shaking. The things you do for art.
To say that Jean-Baptiste is very passionate about bees is an understatement. He gave up his job at IBM to attend to the bees full time and looks after numerous hives dotted all over the area. He was telling us about the use of insecticides and pesticides by the local farmers and how this has adversely affected the bee population. Bees make up his life seven days a week and he says he doesn’t see women very often, which might explain why he has invited us out for a chinese. Don’t mind if we do.
Tonight for tea we had rhubarb from the garden cooked up with a spoonful of honey. Thank goodness for Jean-Baptiste’s honey – the rhubarb bloody needed it.
We spent the afternoon designing the catalogue for the exhibition. This involved lots of swearing and cussing (even in French!) from Debbie as she got to grips with InDesign. Here is the flyer for the private view. In case you wonder what it means, its ‘Listen well to the countryside.’ Bzzz, bzzzz.
