The bee-all and tend-all
PERUSING last week’s Country & Farming, in particular your centre page photo of the bee entering a Himalayan balsam flower, I thought, hang on, I’ve seen this image up close. Then I saw it credited as ‘Internet unknown’, so I smiled and took a bow.
I am not a photographer, indeed I have no interest in photography per se, yet I always carry a little camera to capture the joy and the doolallyness of the passing parade – or indeed to catch anything that tickles my H-Spot, my HallelujahSpot.
I’ve posted many images online and I’m forever surprised where they subsequently turn up. I have no problem with that, after all, once a picture goes on the internet it’s there for the world to view, be my guest – as long, obviously, that someone doesn’t claim it as theirs, or indeed use it for direct financial gain.
A few years back I became intrigued by the spread of the Himalayan balsam and I wrote about it on my web site. I’d concluded that, on the Seventh Day, God – or Mother Nature as I call Her – poured Herself a large vino, put Her feet up and contemplated what She had learnt over the previous six days of intense evolution. Could She come up with the perfect creation?
Well, in the morning She fashioned the banana, the allpurpose, all-singing, all-dancing herb-cum-fruit; in the afternoon She raised the bar with the Himalayan balsam; and in the evening She hit the jackpot with the horse. Anyone who would like to share my take on the brilliance of the banana and the Himalayan balsam should go to www.400smilesaday.co.uk – scroll down to the 2nd October, 2010.
I haven’t posted anything online for a while because I’ve just completed writing a book, essentially about a life in the year of magic, mystery and mayhem that was 2016, but with my somewhat offbeat take on things.
That said I’m pondering whether I want to experience the frustration of finding a publisher – or should I simply self-publish a baker’s dozen for my inner circle, or perhaps a few hundred for sale locally – after all, the title ‘Make hay when the sun shines, make love when it rains’ (a gloriously smiley line borrowed from a Thirties song), should invite a few hands to reach out and wonder what comes next... Huw Beynon Llandeilo