bees!

See that box? The one right next to my husband's hand?



There are 10,000 Italian honey bees in that box. The supplier suggests bringing them home in the trunk of your car, but the mini van doesn't have a trunk. And putting it in the back, directly behind a pair of fascinated little boys, seemed like a worse idea than having it ride home between the grownups.

It's our first year with bees... my first ride in the car with a buzzing box inches from my thigh and arm....

And then when you get them home, you shake them into the box, and bang on the box, hard, to get the stragglers out and into the hive...



I wound up much closer to those bees than I planned to get, without benefit of a nifty while suit and veil. No one was stung, which seems like a minor miracle, but makes me feel a lot kinder towards our new pets.

Today's inspiration:

I'm loving This lace shoulder shawl knit from Caron Simply Soft. Wish the pattern was charted instead of written out, but

I'm also intrigued by the Peekaboo Sweater. And look at the Papel Picado crochet chart! I've wanted to learn filet crochet -- this skull might push me over the edge. If, like me, you don't know what Papel Picadois, it's perforated paper, the same as those flags and banners I'm always drooling over when we travel to New Mexico.

I can absolutely see my daughter making a plan betta, or me making one for her.