Honey Fingers is In Wild Air

It's Monday, <<First Name>>.
You are sweet.

HONEY FINGERS
IS IN WILD AIR

Honey Fingers is a creative and collective project that explores the connections between beekeeping, art, food, community, urban ecology, history, design and education.

The following six images were taken over three days in November: the 10th, 11th, and 12th. The notes were written on the 12th of November. This was the week of the Presidential elections in the USA.

Photo by Lee Grant.

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FRIENDS

STRANGERS

LOVERS

THE CLOUDS IN THE SKY

Ivanhoe ✺ 10.11.16

Possibly the best definition of wild air around. The clouds in the sky belong to no-one and everyone at the same time. People look up at them with awe: altocumulus (I think that's what this phenomenon is called, could be mistaken) is a rare treat, and images of its beauty rolled out all over social media feeds this week (which made me kind of happy).

MY DESKTOP

Carlton ✺ 12.11.16

A place rather than a thing, but I suppose a desktop it is a thing too. Our desks: it's where many of us start and finish the day, catch up with distant friends, pay bills, and watch YouTube videos of celebrity cats. This is the view right behind my laptop screen: postcards from Greece (emo babe Aphrodite on the left; The Peplos Kore – Artemis?, on the right. Artemis is strongly associated with bees – but that's another story); a plywood beehive lid concept (not to scale) prototyped by René Mancuso and crowned with 'Hairy', a wonderfully disturbing ceramic piece and cacti by friend and Honey Fingers Collective member and collaborator Zhu Ohmu; and another beautiful ceramic piece by friend Dell Stewart (currently home to a Devil's Ivy cutting). I like this thing, this place – my desktop. And it's nice keeping the company of beautiful things friends have made with their hands.

NOTEPAD & PENCIL

Carlton ✺ 12.11.16

Another desktop fixture I couldn't live without – a notepad and pencil. It's full of lists, notes, ideas, daydreams, and diagrams. It's where all these things get documented and to-do lists are scribbled down and promptly forgotten (there's a big bunch of foxgloves on the table today too).

SUN FLOWER SEEDLINGS

Carlton ✺ 12.11.16

For many of us, the results of the US elections this week marked a line in the sand – the American Century, that 'great' project, is dead. That C20th ideal of a free market, liberal democracy is eating itself alive. Welcome to the complex and contradictory world of the C21st where gay marriage, the legalisation of weed, African-American Presidents and misogyny, racism and HATE™ all share the same bed. Anyway, I wasn't coping too well so planted lots of sunflower and cottage garden seeds. There's a certain optimism gained from tending to seedlings. Watching those little things pop out of the dirt is a life-affirming experience and, this week, I'll take whatever optimism I can get. What the world needs now is more sunflowers, recycling, and gelato to our cool our hot heads ;)

The pot in the background is another one by Zhu Ohmu (the rosemary smells delicious by the way).

DAD'S OLD OPINEL POCKET KNIFE

Carlton ✺ 12.11.16

OK – finally, a single 'thing'. My dad has great tools. He never throws a damn thing out, but I lighten his load every time I visit by nicking (with his permission, he's a generous guy) really nice pieces. I'm holding this the wrong way around because I wanted to show the hand-hewn cleft in the the timber handle. These days the manufacturers are either much tidier, or they are machine made. It's really old. The blade has been sharpened so many times it's about 2 or 3 cms shorter than when new. And the steel feels like it's twice as heavy as the new ones. It's a shame violent dickheads have made carrying pocket knives a taboo. The only thing this knife ever cuts into is a pear to share among friends, or maybe a stinky cheese if we're feeling fancy. I mostly use it when beekeeping though – every beekeeper should carry a pocket knife in their kit. They are perfect for cutting out burr comb and make a great substitute if you leave your hive tool at home. And the layers of beeswax, honey, and propolis that gather on the handle and blade are a perfect, if accidental, polish and restorer. Thanks dad : )

THE BEE SMOKER

Eltham ✺ 11.11.16

From a piece originally penned for Hotel Hotel:

Of all the kit we beekeepers drag around to hive inspections – suits, jackets, veils; hive tools; gauntlet gloves; bee brushes – the smoker is my best friend. It calms the bees and, in a strange way, it calms me too. Lighting the smoker marks that moment when we beekeepers transition from thinking about chores and emails and bills to entering the realm of the honeybee super organism. Lighting the smoker concentrates the mind; it brings the moment into focus and, for me at least, triggers a systems check – what is the wind doing? (Which way does the smoke blow?). And where in that big, blue sky above is the sun? I want it behind me, shining down over my shoulder, so when I’m looking at those frames every bee, every glistening larva, every tiny egg sitting at the bottom of every cell – is lit up by crisp, bright, sunshine.

✺

Many thanks to Heath for the invitation to contribute to In Wild Air. It's been a nice way to round out a tough and weird week – a week we’ll never forget. A week when every thing changed.

Here’s to the wild things, and to the air we all breathe – regardless of where we come from, the colour of our passports, our spiritual lives or political persuasions.

Peace (and I mean that),
Nic Dowse, Founder, Honey Fingers.

CLOSED SUNDAYS

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In Wild Air · 39 Abbey St · Leura, New South Wales 2780 · Australia