A winter get-away
The other night, as I was painting my toenails, I was reminded of a fun little encounter I had a few years ago while on a winter vacation in the southwestern United States. Sporting ten brightly painted pink toenails for the occasion, I was sunbathing by the pool one morning when I got rather hot toasting in the sun and decided to take a dip in the water to cool off a bit. I had a short, invigorating swim and emerged dripping wet, feeling totally refreshed. I rearranged my pool towel, reclined once again on my comfy chaise lounge and was luxuriating in the warm sun once again… when along came a little bee.
Ten Pink Flowers
I’m not at all afraid of bees, so I was very curious to see what this particular bee was up to. I watched with great interest and delight as it circled my right foot a few times and hovered a moment over my big toe. Then it hovered over the next toe, and the next, systematically hovering over each toe of that foot in turn. Then it buzzed over to my other foot where it very methodically hovered over each of those five pink toes.
Upon finally concluding that none of my pink toes were flowers (which must have been surprising, because surely anything that colour ought to have been a flower of some sort), my little bee friend alighted upon my ankle, on which glistened several small droplets of pool water. She gently walked to the edge of a droplet of water and, to my great surprise and delight, began to drink, taking tiny bee sips from each of the last three droplets of water on my ankle. My little friend then lifted off once again, took one more fly-by over each of my bright pink toes (just to make sure her initial assessment was correct) and quickly buzzed off, presumably in search of some real flower blossoms.
To this day, I cannot look at pink toes and not be reminded of that delightful little memory.
Photo Credit:
Pink Toes in My Flower Garden, by madlyinlovewithlife
© 2008 madlyinlovewithlife
madlyinlovewithlife 
This reminds me of my own bee encounter when I was a teenager. I was sitting outside finishing off my sewing project which was a fabric bag that I had embroidered some flowers on. To my delight a little bee landed on one of my flowers and spent some time exploring my creations giving me his stamp of approval before flying off. It is always wonderful to interact with nature’s creatures no matter how small.
Oh, thank you so much for telling your bee story, Michelle! I really enjoyed reading about your bee encounter. I don’t know why bees make me so happy, but they do. I so agree with you: it truly is wonderful to interact with nature at any level. Thanks again for sharing your story. :)
Hello Jeannie,
What a delightful story!
I too, will never think of pink nail polish the same :)))
When my husband went on our mountain hike last month, he had some bright blue colouring on his shirt, and a bee was also circling that area – landing on it, inspecting it, flying away, and returning again – and it was so cool ;)
Thanks, Takami! It really is cool how bees are so attracted to bright colours and will come over to investigate, even if on some fabric! I find bees to be such fascinating little creatures. Thanks so much for sharing your bee story! :)
What a wonderful story Jeannie..It put a smile on my face..Have a great day :))
Thanks, Sam! :)))
Hi Jeannie. What a great story. Sounds like your story sparked a lot of memories of bee stories … mine included. When we lived in McBride we would always grow snapdragons as they and the bees would provide us with daily entertainment. During our daily watering routine, we’d always stop and wait when we got to the snapdragons. Inevitably one blossom would begin to jiggle a bit. We’d wait …. then sure enought the rump end of a bee would slowly appear and spread the snapdragon petals . The bee would back right out all smothered in pollen. It would fly to another blossom, dig its head between the petals and once again disappear into the flower as it’s petals closed in around it. Gotta love bees,
What a great little bee story, Teddy! I love it! It’s like the bee goes in through the door of a snapdragon house and into a room that’s so small it can only back out to leave! I can see myself standing in your snapdragon patch for a long time, just to watch the bees! Wonderful story.Thanks for sharing! :))
wow , this is an amazing story …!
Thanks, France! It was very fun to watch! :))
You and nature’s little creatures are right out of a child’s book…
Thank you, Koji. Sometimes when the little birdies are flying around us, I feel like I am in a Disney film.
And I don’t think it was a case of mistaken identity.
Ha! Ha! You may be right! :))