My inaugural attendance at the NYC Beekeepers Association was a treat, not just because of the invitation to attend – ‘hello lovers of sweetness and light’, but because of the energy and enthusiasm of everyone there. The room was packed with all sorts of people, young & older, men and women, gardeners, chook owners, beekeepers and proud displayers of recent honey harvests. They inspired a warm and fuzzy feeling, not just because of all the honey associations, but because these people were a group of ‘carers’, passionate about bees and therefore by connection, the environment.

The guest speaker was the Director of Horticulture and Public Programs at the Horticultural Society of New York, and he danced from latin to statistics to politics with ease. The latin was fortunately accompanied by pictures, making the bee-friendly plants more memorable. Statistics were educational – 97% of everything you put in your mouth is in some way connected to honey bees, and the politics were scary. Apparently Mayor Bloomberg is the ‘greenest’ mayor we have had for 50 years, and still trees are dying in the city because their aren’t enough Parks employees to water them.

So it was an enlightening and inspiring evening, with a good dose of Manhattan magic.  I came away knowing how to ‘winter’ bees for the coming season and that next Spring I should plant swathes of particular plants, not just pots. I have an invitation to the honey festival in Brooklyn and to the Queens County Fair. But best of all, I have a bee-pending appointment to visit a roof top hive, where I hope to catch the buzz on the sweetest views in the city…