Well, with the international day of the book now being less than a week away, from now on you have the chance to participate in the competition which might win you a hand signed version of “A Sting in the Tale” by Dave Goulson, as announced before (At this point I would like to thank Prof. Goulson once again for contributing a signed copy of his book!).
The book is just brilliantly written, so it will be of interest not only to friends of bumblebees, but presumably to everyone who loves a great story, which simultaneously teaches you things in a way that you are craving for more! And who knows, even if you never considered bumblebees, biodiversity, nature conservation or any of these issues important, you might be surprised to find yourself planting flowers for bumblebees, seeing the mouse holes in your garden as potential nesting sites rather than a disturbance in your lawn or just being happy seeing a bumblebee and wondering what she might be up to now – or even what kind of bumblebee it is… And if you begin being thrilled, you might want to consider supporting one of your local bumblebee conservation trusts, which work for an increased compatibility between urban and agricultural spaces with nature!
So as you will be asking yourself now, how to participate:
You have to write something small in the comment section und Sunday, the 26th of April 2015, mentioning your name and a sentence/text of any length, fulfilling one of the following criteria:
Either write a short limerick about any insect or just anything small of your choice, which you consider noteworthy, interesting, important etc. despite its small size. (If you do not like writing limericks, you can alternatively write your favorite quote or tell a brief anecdote about an insect or anything small in size.
The name of the winner will be drawn randomly on the 27th of April and announced on this website, as well as being informed via email!
To give a good example, I (Karsten) have written myself a small limerick about the bumblebee:
“Once there was a bumblebee,
with pollen right down to her knee
who thought, how shall I lift my rear
with all this load, and just one gear
She once was told, she could not fly
But never got the reason why!
So thanks to vortices in the air,
she now flies home without a care”
(For explanation: Bumblebees are in public opinion often considered to be defying the laws of physics with flying but that never kept them from flying – independent what we think of what they should be able to do)
With that I wish all of you the best of luck and I am looking forward to your contributions!
P.S. People from all over the world can contribute, we will send the book anywhere!
P.P.S. Die Kommentare können auch auf Deutsch gepostet werden!
familial entropy 
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“Her wings cut through the air like the sharpest blade
Of wind and sky she is the heaven maid
She rides the storm, she rides the gale
Fast and smooth like a weightless sail
A flight so swift that you can’t follow
Behold the beauty of the nimble swallow.”
I’ve always been fascinated by the flight of swallows and martins. Flying seems so easy when you look at them. There’s a kind of perfection in the way they move into the air as if they had managed, through evolution, to even ignore gravity. And they seem so happy, so playful that whenever I see swallows dancing in the air it transports me into a state of bliss.
That’s awesome! Thank you Miko 🙂
I didn’t know my husband was so talented at creating poems! He never wrote me one…
Bee! I’m expecting you!
by Emily Dickinson
Bee! I’m expecting you!
Was saying Yesterday
To Somebody you know
That you were due—
The Frogs got Home last Week—
Are settled, and at work—
Birds, mostly back—
The Clover warm and thick—
You’ll get my Letter by
The seventeenth; Reply
Or better, be with me—
Yours, Fly.
Greetings from New York City! I was fortunate enough to get to sing this poem set to music with a lovely women’s choir here and I thought it would be sweet to share with you whether I win or not. I’ve just been enjoying the re-emergence of the bumblebees in my woods nearby. (yes, there are true woods in New York City and I spend a vast amount of time in them!)
Thank you so much for your contribution! To be honest, I haven’t read anything by Emily Dickinson so far but I just read a bit about her life online and I will certainly immerge into her poems soon – they sound very promising!! Greetings over the big pond!
Now I actually searched for the book on the internet. It sounds great! I’d be very happy to read it. I am no poet so I’ll tell you that I was bitten by a wasp once. I know that they usually don’t sting if you leave them alone. So when one landed on my hand I wasn’t worried. Somehow I must have looked or smelled like dead insect because this little beast started gnawing on me. Curious feeling! I shook it off then having seen once how perfectly wasps can cut open the cadaver of a caterpillar and worrying that the same might happen to my fingers… 😉
Thank you so much for your contribution! I am not a big fan of wasps either, mainly because I always find them rather aggresive (in contrast to bees). Once, a wasp crawled between my naked toes….it was a very unpleasant situation 🙂
Well, today was the big day and we wrote your names down and draw straws!! We happily announce Annette from New York as this years winner of the book raffle (we will contact you via email in order to get your address). Thank you so much for your participation and your great contributions and we hope to see you again next year for another raffle 🙂
Yay, lucky me! Vielen danke to you and Professor Goulson! This book is going to be passed around between myself and friends, biologists, permaculturists and avid conservationists among us!