Thursday, January 29, 2009

Perception is not always Reality

Or, how a presentation perceived as uninteresting turned out to be spellbinding . . . .

When I signed up for the January 21 Native Plant Symposium at the State Botanical Garden in Athens, I did so to learn more about "Landscape Design for Planet-Friendly Gardens" (the presenter had called in sick, and that was disappointing, but . . . read on!). The one symposium segment I had absolutely no interest in was "Inviting Bees into your Garden", by a local beekeeper; I love gardening and love having all sorts of critters in my garden, and am worried about the declining bee populations, but beekeeping? Not for me!

Then Dan Harris took the podium and told some fascinating tales of bees - all sorts of bees (his photographs did not hurt the presentation either . . .).

Did you know (I certainly did not!) that 1/3 of what we eat is directly or indirectly the result of what bees do? And do you have any idea of what we do in orchard management, the use of pesticides or in residential and commercial development contributes to the stress imposed on bees? I had no idea. We all know about the stressors of trying to find balance in our personal and professionals lives, but stressed out bees? Who knew?

Lecture notes about this presentation are still available on Dan Harris's web site, but I don't know for how long. So, check this out soon!

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