Honeysuckle Time

Honeysuckle time.

What more can I say? 

Only that the smell of honeysuckle brings back sweet memories that only come to me once a year... the anticipation of sucking a drop of honey from a blossom just like I did ages ago when I was a carefree kid playing in the neighborhood's vacant lots that just happened to be covered with honeysuckle vines.

Each bloom gives one drop only and a certain dexterity is needed to accomplish successful drop sucking. The stamen (if my biology lessons serve me right) collects a drop of the sweetest tasting nectar ever created as it's pulled through the long tube of the bloom. The robber (that would be me...or a bee...or a hummingbird) waits until the exact moment to nozzle in, to suck that drop and discard the bloom quickly because there was always one more, and then one more, and then one more again. What a delight for the senses.

I read a trick from an old mountaineer who was looking for a bee nest, okay, beehive, only he called it a bee nest. Easy to do. Gather a strand or two of honeysuckle in full bloom and twine it around a long stick. Hold the stick in the air to attract a bee. When the bee has had its fill, it will make a bee line home. Simply follow the bee. When it gets too far ahead and you lose track, wait. The bee will return, or will send his buddies. Repeat until the nest is in sight or in sound...in hearing distance of the excited buzzing from all that wonderful honeysuckle. My mouth is watering right now.

Some childhood memories are priceless. This is one.

Catch of the day,

Gretchen