First up, there’s the always awesome Tina Seamonster. You need to stop what you’re doing immediately and go buy some of her great We Will Miss the Bees goodies. The moleskine notebooks are going to make great solstice stocking stuffers. I’m just saying…

Next, congratulations are in order to Neil Gaiman. He deserves congratulations for the sundry literary awards he’s been racking up lately, certainly, but more importantly for his two blue ribbons from the county fair for the honey his bees have been busy producing.

We (and by we, I mean the Birdchick and Lorraine and Woodsman Hans and the Birdchick’s long-suffering husband Bill and me of course and any of our passing guests who have been persuaded to put on a white bee suit and come and hold the smoker, but most of all the amazing 60,000 bees in the Yellow Hive and the just as amazing 60,000 bees in the Green Hive) took two Blue Ribbons in the county fair, for Extracted Honey and for Comb Honey (a Ross Round). We are, of course, over the moon.

The extracted honey is from the yellow hive, and it tastes of mint and wildflowers. It’s a very light yellow (as is all our honey this time of year). The comb honey is from the green hive. I have no idea what it tastes like, but it looks beautiful.

There are other pictures of his bees throughout his blog. I trust you can find them. That Hugo award (as reported in the Guardian) following the Newbery Medal is darned cool, as well, though, no doubt about it.

Last, let me mention the lovely summer brew we found at our local wine shop. It’s Bison Brewing’s yummy Honey Basil Ale. They have an essay on their site explaining why this is a honey ale and not technically mead. I think mead deserves it’s own post on another day, though, don’t you?

To observe National Pollinator Week, Dr. Michael Ruggiero (senior scientist for the museum’s Integrated Taxonomic Information System) hosts a panel of bumblebee experts to discuss the declining numbers of these important pollinators.

I’m looking forward to this event. National Pollinator Week 2009 is June 22 - June 28.

And while not exactly enjoyable, Antomatic by Rebecca and Eric Gordon calls attention to the plight of the bumble bee. The world is losing the bees pollinate the crops that feed us. This easy-to-miss multimedia installation prompts thought. A good addition to the sensory arcade that makes Artomatic worth multiple visits. Go.

We’re honored to make the cut.

Ants dominate the small-scale world. We may seldom notice them, but ants affect their ecosystems as much as humans do.

The exhibit is made up primarily of incredible action photos of ants. There’s a nice ant colony a plant specimen and an aluminum cast of an underground Harvester ant colony that was made in Florida.

Sadly, as the reviews have pointed out, the only mention of pathbreaking entomologist Edward O. Wilson’s world is an oil portrait and a case containing his microscope and a sculpture inspired by his work. I thought it was cool to see his microscope, but few other visitors seemed especially excited.

It’s a little bit of a challenge to find the exhibit, it’s upstairs, down a hallway, past the IMAX. We felt a bit like Spinal Tap wandering about the museum looking for it when we first arrived, (”Hello, butterflies!”). We also stopped to watch the bees at work over in the insect zoo.

Here’s the review of the show from the Washington Post. It’s worth a visit, but don’t wait too long - the show closes October 10th.

The film was produced by the Meerkat Media Collective.

Thanks to Lauren Kotkin for sending me the link!