Raymond Huber's Blog

Pollination: ‘a love story that feeds the Earth.’ – Louie Schwartzberg

We can’t survive without bees and bees won’t survive unless we love them. It’s the most unique partnership between ‘wild’ creatures and humans. Honey bee pollination gives us fruit, vegetables, and pastures – let’s respect them by trying the following steps:
1. Plant a variety of flowering things – bees love them
2. Avoid pesticides – especially the new neonicotinoids.
3. Let part of your lawn grow long – it encourages diversity.
4. Buy local honey – it’s better for you (it's not heat-treated like supermarket honey).
5. Get to know bees – they aren’t aggressive, if you aren’t.

Brian Lovelock’s stunning illustrations for Flight of the Honey Bee are done in watercolor, ink and colored pencil. They combine art and biological detail with "a dusting of splattered ink that loosens the whole image and gives them the liveliness of the natural world" says Crissi Blair in Magpies Magazine.
Lovelock comments: "I found the book challenging to illustrate primarily because of the small size of Scout compared to her surroundings. At the same time this provided opportunities to use interesting perspective and points-of-view...To add excitement to the pictures I tried to create a sense of movement and drama by streaking and smearing the paint and using bold wet background washes."

Books are bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.– J.R. Lowell

Life is all one – as big as the world and as small as a honey bee. – Hattie Ellis (Sweetness and Light)

Bees … their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers. – Ray Bradbury

We have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax; thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light. – Jonathan Swift

The comb of the hive bee is absolutely perfect. – Charles Darwin

Most people know very little about honey and its healing powers… Research has shown honey deserves to move into the serious league for healing. – Honey, Nature's Golden Healer by Gloria Havenhand

For a long life, breakfast daily on honey. – Pythagoras

I was scared of bees until I got a real beehive for my 40th birthday. After watching their fascinating, intricate lives, I came to love bees (but I do still wear a protective suit). Honey bees and humans have been partners for 20,000 years: we give them homes and they pollinate our food. But the world’s bees are now endangered so I wrote this book to show how intelligent and essential (even appealing) bees are. I imagined all the challenges a bee would face out in the world – for added thrills, I Scout meets a few more dangers than an average bee on an average day! Writing a picture book is a bit like creating a poem – every word has to work hard in a confined space (like a bee) to suggest character and story, and remain true while still delighting the ear.