Unique Bee Nests We Didn't Know Existed

The artful home of Osmia Avosetta

I recently made the mistake of moving a bumblebee hive that had so quietly and politely established itself in a loose pile of hay that I hadn't noticed it was there until it was too late. When the forager bees began to return to the spot where their hive used to be, I noticed what had happened, found the clump of hay that buzzed when I poked it, and tried to put it back where I'd found it. I am very much hoping that these bees will be able to set right everything that I destroyed. Bees are known for being industrious and efficient hard workers, so I think they'll be okay. However, this is not what impressed me most about my newfound backyard hive. What impresses me most is that though their home had been literally tossed aside, pulled apart and tossed again, the Bumblebees did not become at all aggressive. The only emotion I sensed from them was polite confusion. 

Their gentle demeanor and total lack of desire for revenge or retaliation almost made me cry. They are such sweet little creatures.  

I couldn't believe that I, a former beekeeper, had never noticed a bumblebee nest I walked passed every day, but it is amazing what we notice when we're tuned in to it. Walking around outside after putting my new friends back, I noticed little mason bees slipping into holes in the wood, wasps disappearing into openings in the dirt, and even a bumblebee waddling into an old rodent burrow along the side of the garage. 

Hard working bumblebee with lots of pollen on its leg

My worry for the bumblebees who had been so nice to me after I disturbed their home lead me to research bumblebee hives, which are quite different from the honeybee hives I'm familiar with. Bumble bees hives have less than 1% of the population of a honeybee hive and they are often found in abandoned burrows made by other animals, or old hay bails (like mine was). Honeybees and bumblebees are fascinating enough on their own, but there are so many types of bees, all fantastically varied in appearance and behavior.

Here's where I got sucked into the rabbit hole and couldn't get back to sleep. I'd like to share with you 5 crazy bee nests that sound like something out of a fantasy novel. 

Houses Made of Flowers

Osmia Avosetta, a solitary bee (meaning it lives on its own and not as a part of a hive), carefully cuts flower petals, then glues them together with mud, to build its home. Each nest is a unique work of art! 

The artist, Osmia Avosetta

          

Bees Who Burrow Through Solid Rock

No exaggeration. Anthophora Pueblo actually does use its mandibles to dig through sandstone and build its nest. Sandstone is soft as far as rocks go, but it's still rock. Because this bee's home is so strong, it can safely wait out unfavorable conditions for up to 4 years before emerging from the rock when the time is right. 

Anthophora Pueblo peaking its head out of it's sandstone nest. 

Australian Spiral Hive Bees

These sweet little stingless bees build beautifully intricate spiral comb propped up on stilts that look like some sort of science fiction nightmare. Tetragonula carbonaria is native to Australia. At this point, nobody knows why they build their homes this way. 

Australian native bee hive viewed from above

The Giant Bee

Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum! this is the largest bee in all the known world. Megachile Pluto is about 4 times larger than a normal honey or bumble bee. It's pretty rare, and for 38 years it was presumed extinct. It was just recently, in 2019, that it was rediscovered on an Indonesian Island. These are the only bees I've heard of who prefer room mates! They tend to make their homes within active termite nests high up in the trees.

Giant Bee outside the home it shares with thousands of termites.

The Cuckoo Bee

The cuckoo bee is an impostor. It infiltrates existing hives and lays its eggs there, to be raised by other bees. It's very difficult to identify, as 'cuckoo bee' is an umbrella term, referring to many different species of bee, each mimicking the appearance of the type of bee it targets. How strange that this bee has no home at all. 

The cuckoo bee could resemble any of these bees.

Have you encountered any unexpected insect homes?

For more information on these amazing creatures, you can check out some of the websites I sourced for this post...

Bees living in stone     Cuckoo Bees     Giant Bees     Spiral Hive Bees      Leaf Cutter Bees

Another beautiful flower nest, just for fun.

If You Love Running Up That Hill, Here Are My Top 10 Weirdest Kate Bush Songs That Could Be Your Next Obsession...

With the recent release of Stranger Things Season 4, Kate Bush's epic song, Running Up That Hill has skyrocketed in popularity. Though the song was first released in 1985, last month it hit number 1 in the UK charts, outshining even it's original popularity. 

The emotional scene.

Firstly, let me say that if you haven't seen the original music video for Running Up That Hill, do yourself a favor and watch it now. Beginning with a close up of her own hand reaching out to another dancer, followed by some truly unique dance moves, and ending with her desperately reaching out for connection, carried away in the impersonal sea of other people wearing crude paper masks of her own face, the video compliments the song perfectly. Personally, I think this song was a great choice to represent Max's struggle in Stranger Things season 4, since my interpretation of it has a lot to do with people trying and failing to connect with one another. 

A scene from the Running Up That Hill music video. 

Kate Bush really does whatever she wants to do no matter how weird it is, and it's a beautiful thing. She never lost that childlike creativity that seems to be unrestricted by expectations. In fact, she wrote the initial versions of some of her most popular songs when she was only 13 years old. 

 

So, let's get to it and take a look at Kate Bush's top 10 weirdest songs and music videos.

10 

Them Heavy People

This one is beautiful, but almost tame by Kate Bush's standards. "They arrived at an inconvenient time. I was hiding in a room in my mind... Rolling the Ball..." I can't quite put into words what this means, but still: Same, Kate. Same. Really good art communicates a feeling that can't be as purely or truly communicated in any other way, and Kate Bush does this with every song. 

Kate Bush staring you down, Them Heavy People music video.

9 

Sat In Your Lap

This one really makes us ask that all important question, "What the f***." It features demons, jesters, and (unless I'm seeing things) two guys who seem to be mixing the dunce cap and klansmen looks. Though I suppose that last part might be me mapping my American sensibilities onto things. Oh, and most of them are roller skating. But that's only number nine, so let's proceed. 

KB staring us down again.

8 

The Dreaming

An otherworldly reflection on our treatment of indigenous people, this song includes the bleating of a sheep, sounds of a car crashing, and Kate Bush literally breathing really hard instead of singing. "...erase the race that claim the place and say we dig for ore!" Way to go anti colonialist Kate Bush! 

There's an otherworldly vibe to the music and the video.

7 

Wuthering Heights

That's right, like the book. Apparently, a young Kate Bush became aware of the ghost story and obsession themes in the classic Bronte novel and just thought to herself, yeah, that's good. I could make something out of that, as if it's normal for professional musicians to just write fan songs about stories they like. Again, she really does whatever she feels like doing, and honestly it's an inspiration. This song and the strange dancing that accompanies it inspired her fans so much that huge flash mobs around the world gathered, dressed in red, to recreate the music video. This was in, like, 2018 by the way, though the song first came out in 1978.

The iconic red dress

6  

Under Ice 

I don't want to say much about this one. I just want you to discover it for yourself. All I'll say is it seems to work well as a reflection on the detachment people might start to feel from themselves when dealing with depression. 

Skating fast...

5 

Waking The Witch 

For those of you who know Kate Bush, yes... I'm falling into the trap of listing some of the songs from Hounds of Love in order. They're just really good, okay? This song connects with lots of different themes, and certainly one of them is the fear of women's power. She uses the history of witch trials to emphasize her point, and it gets pretty creepy. Take a listen, witches. 

We have a history of fearing feminine power.

4 

Cloudbusting

Here's where she starts to get funky with her choice in perspective. We'll see more of that later in this list. This song's story is told from the perspective of a young boy reminiscing about the father he's lost. She acts as the young boy in the music video. Things get even stranger with the addition of a fantastical element. Watch, listen, and see and hear for yourself. 

KB as a little boy in Cloudbusting

3 

The Big Sky

This one always makes me feel unapologetically optimistic and dreamy. It reminds me how unimportant the small stuff is when I manage to focus on the big picture. "What was the question? I was looking at the big sky." Very repetitive, but somehow never getting old, The Big Sky helps put things into perspective. 

Looking at the Big Sky 

2 

Experiment IV

Did anyone have 'science fiction story' on their Kate Bush bingo card? We often listen to music to help us work through certain feelings, or to help us feel a certain way. We listen to happy music at a party and we listen to sad music for the catharsis of fully grasping and understanding our more difficult feelings. Music often gets to the heart of us in a way that other forms of communication just can't. It does make some sense for Kate Bush, who's strength is in the music she makes, to reflect on this power. The music video also includes a surprise appearance from an actor I know you'll all recognize! Can you spot them?

 

It was music we were making here until...

  

1 

Breathing

Prepare yourself. This one is number one for a good reason. Remember how we talked about Kate Bush writing songs from different perspectives? Well, this is one of those songs.. She's telling the story of the effects of radiation poisoning after a nuclear blast. Can you guess which point of view she chose to take? It's the point of view of an unborn fetus, obviously. The music video reflects this, with Kate as the fetus and mother. Enjoy...?

Kate Bush on the dangers of nuclear war.

Kate Bush's work has always been unique. I'm inspired by her to make the types of things I feel like making, not just the types of things other people have been successful with. She is unapologetically herself, and I will be too. A quick thank you to my mom for introducing me to Kate Bush after I read Wuthering Heights. 

I'd also like to note that though I chose lots of songs from decades ago, Kate Bush is still actively creating amazing art today. As I've been writing this, I've listened to Kate Bush songs for inspiration. This made the writing process take about twice as long as it should have, because I kept getting emotional and obsessed over songs that weren't even going in the post. 

Which music have you found yourself connecting with or obsessing over? If I get recommendations in the comments, I'll be excited to check them out :)

High Heels as a Symbol of Power and a Perfect Metaphor for the Eternal Feminist Struggle

High heeled shoes confuse me. I have a practical personality, so a shoe that seems to be designed to be difficult to move in being so popular with so many people has always been a mystery to me.

There are many reasons not to wear high heels. The lack of a solid base leaves people more vulnerable to injuries. Even for experts, it can be difficult to run in heels. Many complain of aching feet after wearing them. For some, heels are reserved for special occasions, like weddings. But even at these events I've witnessed most people taking off their heels when it comes time to dance, effectively abandoning them halfway through the event. The issues with heels are not just practical. They can be medical. We know that people can suffer from back, hip, and knee pain caused by the tendons and muscles actually changing shape due to habitual heel wearing. Besides, with heels, there's more pressure to match shoes perfectly to an outfit, which just sounds like too much work to me. 

Since I don't personally wear heels, I am, in some ways, the wrong person to speak on the issue, so it's probably a good idea for others to provide their own insight in the comments below. However, with my outsider perspective I have a few ideas about how and why high heels became the power symbol they are today. 

Socialization to wear heels is strong. Even Barbie's feet were originally designed to exclusively wear heels.

It's perhaps important to acknowledge that we see high heels as essentially feminine, though they're not. So few things that we associate with gender are inherently gendered, but don't tune out yet. History backs me up on this one. Heels were originally invented to help people keep their footing in stirrups while riding horses, and first became truly popular as a fashion trend in Europe in the 17th century. Aristocrats (AKA rich men) wore them to emphasize their height and power. Originally, high heels were exclusively a part of mens' fashion.

From Hyacincinthe Rigaud's portrait of Louis the XIV wearing his signature red heeled shoes. 

So, why do so many women still wear these fancy stilts? 

True, heels accentuate aspects of the feminine figure. But this doesn't seem to be enough to explain their popularity. The key, I think, is in the challenge. Many women who make it through a day in heels seem to carry themselves just a little bit taller, their posture a little straighter (even beyond the physical effect of the heals). Heels have become a symbol for feminine strength. How strong must we be if we are able to continue on without flinching, though we've added extra challenge to our experience? The point is that it hurts, but that we are powerful enough for it not to stop us from doing our thing. 

Fred Astaire was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did... backwards and in heels.

As an extension of this, heels seem to be the perfect metaphor for the feminine experience in modern society. For example, it used to be that women were tied to the home and expected (in most cases) not to work. We've grown since then. Women have joined the workforce, and today it's almost considered odder if an adult woman doesn't work. This, of course, is counterbalanced by the fact that most workers make less money than they used to, which makes it much harder for families to function with only one working adult... but let's not let ourselves get too off topic here. The point is that women can now 'have it all.' Or, perhaps they are expected to do it all. Care for children, keep house, and work. This doesn't apply to every family, of course, but when we listen closely we'll still notice people saying things like, "Ah, it's so nice that your husband helps with the chores..." or, even worse, "How cool that Dad is willing to babysit." Women also tend to have to work harder at their places of work in order to receive the same respectful treatment that men seem to get automatically. Nowadays, many women do everything that men do, but with extra challenges. In short, women do everything that men do, but in heels. 

In a world where almost every other supposedly feminine fashion trend that was inconvenient or uncomfortable has been pushed aside or entirely forgotten, high heels persevere. Just like the women who wear them.