Monday, January 4, 2010

I mentioned that I would tell the story behind the use of the name nativebee3.
As a child, I often spent holidays in Western Queensland Australia on my grandparents property in the country. The youngest Uncle was forever teaching us about the bush. Being with him was like being with a talking encyclopaedia, he was wonderful. He showed us (me and my brother) what an Australian native bee looked like and told us that they did not sting.
This was too much of an enticement to go rob a bee hive. Problem was, the hive was high up in an ironbark tree. The wood was so hard that when I swung the axe the first time it bounced off the tree and nearly hit me on the head. But gradually through sheer determination, I finally managed to cut the tree down - I think I was about 10years old at the time, and we were able to get to the hive and take out the honey comb and put it and the honey into a billycan(a small tin can with a handle) which we had brought with us and proudly took our spoils home. So to me, the name nativebee3 not only represents bees which do not sting, but I learned that they are not defenseless either but clever to build their hive in a tree that is very difficult to access. For me cutting the tree down represents determination and resillience. I might add that I lost all the surface skin off both hands in the endeavour and yes, it was worthwhile.

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