Can a Bee Become a Pet?

Bees are pretty much considered wild creatures.  A lot of the time a person will become nervous if a bee comes around them.  But I quite like Gerta, Lina's fostermother, and I find that I love the smell of the cookies she is always baking. I fly by her kitchen often when I am hunting for flowers.  I think I started to like her that day of the fire that killed Lina's parents, the day the fairies rescued Lina's soul.  Gerta was at the tree where our honey was stored and she was very careful to take only the extra, she muttered something about not wanting to destroy any of the young bees in the combs.  Later she had her husband, Tom Thimble,  build some hives that would let her take out the combs, spin them around to empty them and put them back to be refilled. I was nervous about the great smoke coming from Montrachet that day so that was all I focused on. But later I remembered how Gerta was so careful with us.  If a bee can be a pet I think I would like to be hers.  Now that all creatures can talk to each other at Thimble farm I suppose I should ask her about that. I wouldn't want to be a lap bee or anything.  I just like going to her kitchen. I've never talked to her.  But I think I will.  Maybe I should write about pets from time to time.  Buzz at you later.  Delbert Bee.

CAN DODGE SPOON BE CONSIDERED A SPORT?

Hi, Delbert here.  I'm still trying to report about the sporting events in Thimblewyck.  But we don't have a very well organized sports program.  Maybe that will happen some time in the future.  Today I want to tell the story of the night tiny Lina had to do a bunch of dodging, all over the supper table, of a wooden spoon her Aunt Sara was using.  It was like this.  Sara had just arrived and hadn't really met Lina yet.  She had been busy getting herself and her family to Thimble Farm before the baby, Tamara, was born.  That all happened in the nick of time.  Then Sara asked if she could cook supper for the family.  She hadn't been able to cook in a real kitchen on their whole trip.  Gerda and Tom understood that it would help Sara feel settled in at her new home if she could cook for everybody, so they agreed.  Lina was used to finding a place to sit on either Gerda's shoulder or Tom's shoulder and talk to them.  When she ran down from where she was visiting to move to the other parent she ran onto the table, where everyone was sitting.  Sara saw her, but didn't know that Lina was tiny and assumed it was a mouse.  She started screaming and hitting at her with a wooden spoon.  A mouse on the supper table was a horrible thing to Sara. Lina was startled and did a pretty good job of running this way and that, dodging the big spoon.  Tom stood up, and taking a hit on his arm, rescued Lina before she could be hit by the big spoon.  Then he told Gerda to explain things to Sara and went outside with Lina, to make sure she was not hurt.  It was decided that Lina would come back inside, but sit with the swallow Adar, on the window sill, to eat supper.  That would have let Sara get over her embarrassment and let Lina feel safe.  The only problem was that the evil frog, Croadine, jumped up on the window from outside, and kidnapped Lina.  That started a long adventuresome Fall and Winter for everyone.  I will tell you more about that later.  Let me know if any of you have ever had to dodge a spoon.  Buzz at you later.  Delbert Bee.

The Li Su Fairies versus The Petra Fairies

In regular sports teams gather and play against each other.  One team may throw more balls across a line or something.  Then that team is said to be the winner.  In the band of fairies that live in Thimblewyck there are parts of two different clans.  They are kind of different so they are sometimes against each other.  I wish they would have actual sporting events.  Then they might be better friends.  The different clans are the Li Su clan and the Petra clan.  Li Su stands for life sustaining.  That means they work to help things live.  It can be animals or plants.  That's why Binar was so good as the Prince of Flowers.  I used to ask him to enourage the flowers around the hive to be especially full of nectar.  He would help out us bees that way.  Petra is a name for rock.  The Petra fairies love rocks.  They are good at finding things like rubies and diamonds.  I think the Petras and the Li Su will eventually be able to get along.  It is better for everybody when they do.  Here's to teamwork and sportsmanship.  I'll buzz you later.  Delbert the Bee.

IS COOKIE THROWING A SPORT?

I am not always sure if the events I report would be scored as a sport or not.  The night Gerda threw a lot of cookies at a frightened cat was full of action.  Some of the cookies did hit the cat.  But we haven't had any contests since of "hit the cat with cookies" so I don't know if it would be called a real sport.  But it was interesting.  Tom and Gerda had come home from the crossroads where they had received the seed that was to get them a child.  They had planted it in a pot of good soil.  Tom was nervous at the wait so he went out to milk the cow.  A cat jumped in the open cottage window, trying to snatch Adar, the swallow.  Adar flew out of the way and the cat landed on the table where the pot was, knocking it to the floor, where it broke.  Gerda had already started throwing things at the cat to chase it away.  Most of what she could grab were cookies from a very big plate of cookies she had baked.  When Tom came back it was to a huge pile of cookie crumbs, a frightened cat streaking out the door, Gerda in a state and the pot in shambles on the floor.  He put his big farmer's hands around the soil and lifted it all gently into a wooden bucket he had.  It was not very long until a flower sprouted, bloomed and opened to show the teensy, tiny creature that was Lina.  So tiny that the fairies actually gave her a growth spurt so that it would be easier for Tom to hold her in his hand. Well, sport or not, it was an action filled night.  Lina has been a delight to us all ever since, so however things happened, we are glad they did.  I'm off now to visit more flowers.  Buzz at you later, Delbert the Bee.

The Great Chasing Dog Race

The winter that Lina spent living with the little mouse Clarissa was very adventuresome for the people she left at Thimble Farm.  I've been telling you about sporting activities so I think today I will tell you about a great race that happened then. It was in early winter, while everyone still lived at old Thimble Farm.  The fairies were worried about the way a river, that had been a small stream, was backing up near the farm.  Tom had been thinking that he might have to move the farm the following spring.  The fairies had come to the farm to tell Tom he should move the farm, and all the extra refugees as well, as quickly as possible.  Many people had been coming to live with Tom because of fires and floods in the area that had ruined their own farms. While they were talking about the move, the little baby, Tamara, who had been born the day Croadine kidnapped Lina, came by riding in a small dog cart.  She was now old enough to sit up well and it had been safe when her brother Karl had been walking by her to balance her and keep the dog walking slowly.  But suddenly Heinz, the little dog, spotted a rabbit.  Something about the yellow-green tinge on that rabbit's fur drove him wild.  He started to chase the rabbit. It was an evilly enchanted rabbit, but he didn't know that.  Little Karl was chasing for all he was worth but he couldn't stop the dog and cart.  About twenty people were now living at the farm and they all started to chase that dog and cart for all they were worth.  But the way the cart was actually stopped was by one of the swallows.  That bird had not left for the South yet.  He darted in the face of the little dog until he started going in circles and people could reach the cart and Tamara.  The cart turned over and the baby fell out.  She didn't hit her head and didn't cry.  But later she had a lot of trouble walking and that accident may have been the cause of that. It was a hard day for everyone but people did learn they were all pretty fit and could run a good race when they had to.  Stay fit and I will buzz you later.  Delbert Bee.

Frog Wrestling is Not an Approved Sport

Like I told you earlier, Lina learned a thing or two about wrestling by watching Karl try to get away from Tom. Once Karl knew Tom was a friend he wrapped his arms around his neck and let him carry him.  But later that night, while everybody was eating supper, Lina was kidnapped right off the windowsill.  She was sitting with Adar, the swallow, and all of a sudden she was snatched. Lina didn't have much chance to resist at first, it was so sudden.  But later, when Croadine, the evil frog, wanted Lina out of the way while she fixed up the muddy room she wanted Lina to live in as the bride of her son, Lina put up a good fight.  Croadine wanted to set her out in the middle of the pond on a lily pad.  She wrapped her long tongue around Lina and started to swim out to the lily pads.  Lina thought about how silly that must look and started to laugh.  That tickled the frog's throat and she started to cough.  At first Lina was scared because she thought the frog would drop her and Lina didn't think she could swim.  But Croadine just wrapped her tongue around Lina a bit more tightly and kept on swimming.  But when they reached the lily pads they got into quite a tussle.  At first Lina just wanted to reach into the water to wash off because she felt yucky from being in Croadine's mouth.  But Croadine though she was trying to swim away so she grabbed her again.  Lina did things like flipping around and changing the way she held her arms and legs.  She even tried to get Croadine's long tongue tied in a knot.  But then Croadine did something that Lina thought was super yucky.  It was unfair I think.  Croadine hacked up a bunch of sticky frog phlegm and glued Lina to the lily pad.  In sportsmanlike wrestling one of the wrestlers gets pinned to the mat.  Lina got glued to it.  But it all worked out in the end.  Croadine swam away and before she returned the fish rescued Lina.  They splashed water on Lina to loosen the goo and then chewed the stem of the lily pad so it could be a boat to carry Lina away from the pond. She had more adventures, of course, but she never had to wrestle a frog again.  Let's hear it for good sportsmanship.  Buzz you later, Delbert the bee.

The Sports Scene at Thimble Farm

Hi, it's Delbert, the inquisitive bee here.  Today I think I will call myself a sports reporter.  About the only sports bees take part in is racing.  But I've noticed that other creatures throw things, run and wrestle.  I want to talk about how Lina learned to wrestle.  This took place the day before the evening when she was kidnapped by that awful frog, Croadine. That was a very busy day.  Farmer Tom's sister-in-law, Sara and her daughter-in-law, Bettina came to live at Thimble Farm.  Bettina was in the middle of having a baby and things were hectic.  It was discovered that Karl, a very energetic boy was also with them.  When Tom tried to lift him out of the luggage where he was riding, he tried to run away.  He really had some wild wrestling moves.  Eventually Tom got hold of him, gentled him and took him in to supper.  Lina watched how he would make himself big by the way he would hold his arms, then shrink and twist to get away.  Finally Tom had to grab hold of his sturdy clothes to make sure he was safe. Karl and Lina liked each other right away.  Karl called her a doll lady, because she was so small. That was such a busy day.  I will investigate some more and share the sporting events with you. May the home team win.  I heard that's something a sportswriter might say.  I'll buzz you later.  DElbert.