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Quiet and witty.
Today I found out bees have the best hotel on all of Broadway.
The thing about Broadway in Manhattan is that it's a very wide street - it's a broad way. Part of that means there are a lot of inter-street islands up and down its length. Nothing too big, just little strips of raised garden areas filled in with charming plants to make everything look nicer and keep the space from being a total waste. Some of these malls are sizable enough to have benches and seating areas installed along with all the flowers and shrubs and trees. And ivy arbors.
Another thing about Broadway is that the intersection right outside the building where I work - right on Broadway itself - is undergoing extensive roadwork, which means East-West traffic is shut down on that street. There are ways to get around that, like being on foot and walking just behind the ivy arbor on a path already well established. As I've taken to doing.
Today, waiting for the light to turn so I could cross through the little path, I looked down and saw a bee crawling on the sidewalk. Without thinking about it, I laid my hand down for the bee to crawl on, scooped it up, and stopped on the island to let it fly away into some apple blossoms and keep from getting accidentally stepped on.
Then I turned around and looked at the ivy arbor.
And there were bees everywhere. Big ones, little ones, black and yellow, fuzzy and smooth, all of them adorable and wonderful - solitary bees making good use of the old wood to find little holes, nooks, and crannies for their dwellings, buzzing all over the place, coming and going as they pleased. Because without humans sitting on the benches under the arbor, and without cars running right by their homes, they didn't have a care in the world and could enjoy the Upper West Side of Manhattan without anyone running through their living room.
Lucky bees. I hope that when the roadwork's all done, they stick around, or at least relocate to one of the bigger nearby parks.
But mostly I hope they stay.
The thing about Broadway in Manhattan is that it's a very wide street - it's a broad way. Part of that means there are a lot of inter-street islands up and down its length. Nothing too big, just little strips of raised garden areas filled in with charming plants to make everything look nicer and keep the space from being a total waste. Some of these malls are sizable enough to have benches and seating areas installed along with all the flowers and shrubs and trees. And ivy arbors.
Another thing about Broadway is that the intersection right outside the building where I work - right on Broadway itself - is undergoing extensive roadwork, which means East-West traffic is shut down on that street. There are ways to get around that, like being on foot and walking just behind the ivy arbor on a path already well established. As I've taken to doing.
Today, waiting for the light to turn so I could cross through the little path, I looked down and saw a bee crawling on the sidewalk. Without thinking about it, I laid my hand down for the bee to crawl on, scooped it up, and stopped on the island to let it fly away into some apple blossoms and keep from getting accidentally stepped on.
Then I turned around and looked at the ivy arbor.
And there were bees everywhere. Big ones, little ones, black and yellow, fuzzy and smooth, all of them adorable and wonderful - solitary bees making good use of the old wood to find little holes, nooks, and crannies for their dwellings, buzzing all over the place, coming and going as they pleased. Because without humans sitting on the benches under the arbor, and without cars running right by their homes, they didn't have a care in the world and could enjoy the Upper West Side of Manhattan without anyone running through their living room.
Lucky bees. I hope that when the roadwork's all done, they stick around, or at least relocate to one of the bigger nearby parks.
But mostly I hope they stay.