Sherwood by Alfred Noyes

Sherwood in the twilight, is Robin Hood awake?
Grey and ghostly shadows are gliding through the brake,
Shadows of the dappled deer, dreaming of the morn, D
reaming of a shadowy man that winds a shadowy horn.

Robin Hood is here again: all his merry thieves
Hear a ghostly bugle-note shivering through the leaves,
Calling as he used to call, faint and far away,
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Merry, merry England has kissed the lips of June:
All the wings of fairyland were here beneath the moon,
Like a flight of rose-leaves fluttering in a mist
Of opal and ruby and pearl and amethyst.

Merry, merry England is waking as of old,
With eyes of blither hazel and hair of brighter gold:
For Robin Hood is here again beneath the bursting spray
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Love is in the greenwood building him a house
Of wild rose and hawthorn and honeysuckle boughs:
Love is in the greenwood, dawn is in the skies,
And Marian is waiting with a glory in her eyes.

Hark! The dazzled laverock climbs the golden steep!
Marian is waiting: is Robin Hood asleep?
Round the fairy grass-rings frolic elf and fay,
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Oberon, Oberon, rake away the gold,
Rake away the red leaves, roll away the mould,
Rake away the gold leaves, roll away the red,
And wake Will Scarlett from his leafy forest bed.

Friar Tuck and Little John are riding down together
With quarter-staff and drinking-can and grey goose-feather.
The dead are coming back again, the years are rolled away
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Softly over Sherwood the south wind blows.
All the heart of England his in every rose
Hears across the greenwood the sunny whisper leap,
Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep?

Hark, the voice of England wakes him as of old
And, shattering the silence with a cry of brighter gold
Bugles in the greenwood echo from the steep,
Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep?

Where the deer are gliding down the shadowy glen
All across the glades of fern he calls his merry men--
Doublets of the Lincoln green glancing through the May
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day--

Calls them and they answer: from aisles of oak and ash
Rings the Follow! Follow! and the boughs begin to crash,
The ferns begin to flutter and the flowers begin to fly,
And through the crimson dawning the robber band goes by.

Robin! Robin! Robin! All his merry thieves
Answer as the bugle-note shivers through the leaves,
Calling as he used to call, faint and far away,
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Cooking with Honey

This week I found a lovely book on Beekeeping by Ashley English who has a delightful blog at http://small-measure.blogspot.com/. Her book, Keeping Bees with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Tend Hives, Harvest Honey & More, has quickly become my favorite bee book. It reads well, has great personal insight's from the Author's own beekeeping experiences, and has lovely pictures throughout. I love a how-to book with good pictures.

While it will be sometime before I can afford to keep Bees, I was able to put one of her recipes to use tonight. Her roasted root vegetables with honey and herbs went along lovely with my balsamic, maple, and rosemary roast chicken. I did substitute rice wine vinegar on the vegetables with balsamic and it was still very good. For the recipe, either buy her book or look it up at your local public library like I did.

A little bit of Pooh

“Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.”

A. Milne

I love honey. I love the simplicity of it. I love the wonder of how it is created. I love the taste and aroma of it. And on top of all this, it is good for you! This said, is it any surprise that last Wednesday found me at my first Beekeepers Association meeting?

I must confess that I was very nervous about going. I timidly crept in the room, fully knowing that the website had said this meeting was open to the public, but still nervous and feeling like an outsider. As I cast about for some gatekeeper with whom I could announce myself I chanced upon a semi new beekeepers, Lenni and her husband Don, who invited me to join their table. I quickly found everyone there to be fully welcoming, one person offering me a plate of food, another bringing me a name tag.

I soon found myself involved in a discussion as to the difficulty at getting a smoker fire to last. While I have been educating myself as to the ins and outs of beekeeping, I knew I had much to learn. I quickly discovered that pine needles and cones make great fuel and many beekeepers just pick up detritus around the bee yard to fill their smoker. The challenge with smokers is that the fire has a tendency to peter out. The trick is to be patient enough with your smoker to get the fire to a nice even smolder instead of a quick hot burn.

I also learned that Re-Queening a hive is fairly difficult. The literature all makes the process sound fairly simple. When you buy a new queen, she comes in a cage with a block of sugar candy in the opening. As she gradually eats through it, her pheromones disperse through the hive. By the time she emerges, the hive is loyal to her. However, many beekeepers find that the queen has difficulty in emerging and needs a helping hand. The beekeeper is taking a chance in this, because if they leave her in she will die but if they take her out to soon the hive bees will kill her.

One beekeeper told us the tragic saga of the end of one of his hives. I found it rather amusing and am thinking of re-touching the story later in my blog.

All together I had a lovely time and hope to go again. Beekeepers know how to have a good time with their cooking competitions, honey tastings, tall tales, funny anecdotes, and friendly fellowship. Currently, beekeeping as a hobby seems to be for retirees and stay at home mom’s. I would love to see more people joining in on the fun. If you don’t have the land to place a hive, see if a good friend would let you tend to a hive on their land. I bet for the promise of free honey you can win them over in no time. Also, look into adopting a swarm. They are a little more challenging to get going, but well worth it.

Looking for the crimsons and gold in life

The blue castle is where one keeps ones dreams. I find in much of life, especially if one has old fashioned dreams and interests, it is hard to incorporate those into day to day life. For example, one cannot just casually mention to the co-worker walking by that you just discovered that Japan has a lovely obsession with Anne of Green Gables, nor is it appropriate to start belting out the song that is going through your head in the supermarket (though I must confess to doing this a couple of times). As I go day dreaming lovely dreams, I find it difficult to ask the people I casually run into the things I really want to know. I don't want to know that you are "fine" and your day is "going good". I want to know what made you laugh, want song just made your spirit soar, or what you would rather be doing right at this moment if you could be doing anything you wanted. I want to share the real me, which is my dreams, and I want to know the real you! So I am going to start this blog where I won't be filling it with the material of dull humdrum, but with the things that interest and fascinate me. I will share with you my dreams, so that they will come close to being a reality in this one place.