Hello lovely Hiveans !

As you all know, I recently finished my doctoral studies and are already jobless for quite a while. Also this seems quite unfortunate this gave me the amazing opportunity to spend a lot of time with my family 😁 .. During this time my wife and me thought and talked a lot about the future and about one aspect especially:

-- THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN AND HOW WE LIKE TO RAISE THEM --

We only have a son at the moment, who is 4 years old, but we are planning for more in the future. For us it is a fact that the behavior that we are having as adults is something that we already are learning in very young ages and also are adapting directly from out environment. As a consequence, it is obvious for us, that if we want them to develop in a certain direction, f.e. -- respect for nature and active care for environmental health , then:

-- IT IS THE TASK OF US PARENTS TO BE IDOL FOR OUR CHILDREN --

Thus we decided to change our behavior drastically and from now on are implementing the following three elemental rules in our live-style:

OUR THREE RULES:

Bee and Insect Friendly Plants
No Plastic Packing or Convenience Foods
No Processed Meat and Milk Products

We already applied the first rule yesterday, which was a lot of fun and is super easy to apply, so this post will be about the first rule of a life-changing trilogy ^^ .. We are also already keeping the other two rules, but as I want to write about my experience with these changes, especially when it comes to not use any plastic packing in an industrial and lobbyist-driven country, I want to take my time before publishing it.

Bee and Insect Friendly Plants !

Why do we apply this rule at all ?

I still remember the times when I was young and when they were bees and all kinds of insects to be found just everywhere on the widespread flower populated meadows. Unfortunately HUMANS AND THEIR BAD HABITS changed this drastically in the last decades and BROUGHT A DYSTOPIA TO LIFE, where agriculture became highly globalized and industrialized and has no place for wild flowers and blossoms, but only for mono-cultures, insecticides and genetic engineering. But what angers be the most, is that most forest were already cut down to make place for agriculture that is just used to grow food for animals that create even more problems on earth .. but this is another sad story of humankind that I will probably discuss in the last post more thoroughly, but just a quick fact: Every minute reckless companies around the world are killing forests in the size of 10 football fields 😭

.. Nowadays, APPROXIMATELY HALF OF EARTHS BEE POPULATION IS ALREDY GONE and all I see and hear from politics, is that they neglect to cut down forests or the environmental pollution. That they actively foster the use of pesticides and far more and even create the most idiotic and environmentally despising laws that one could imagine .. There are even whole governments that really dare to state that all this problematic are just lies and inventions .. I could puke every time I watch the news 🤢 .. But I find it kind of super obvious they just don't care at all and don't want to be blamed for their methods .. Big Hooray for CORRUPTION and LOBBYING !

As you know bees are our most important pollinators and responsible for pollenising plants all over the world. But what will happen if this suddenly stops one day ? The answer is simple and super frightening! ... It will be the end of the diversity of nature, fruits will become a luxury for those ignorant rich industrial moguls that were initially responsible for this mess, the beautiful colors that we still can admire in nature will be replaced by a simple green .. and our grandchildren will never ever see flowers and apple in real life. I want to end this paragraph with a quote from Albert Einstein:

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
_{ALBERT EINSTEIN in 1965, Source}

As we obviously can not rely on the leadership of our lobbyist-driven politicians, we "small" people have to take the future in our own hands. We even had this great FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE initiatives, where children went onto the streets all over the world and had to tell us adults what a mess they are creating for future generations .. Just think about it, children all over the world went protesting .. and what happened to them? Politics laughed at them and gave a shit .. really, did they balance the future of our children and the whole planet earth against a few dollars more in their pocket? .. This is probably the biggest SIGN OF MORAL DESTITUTION that I have recently seen.

Our Little Contribution

Regarding this bee-topic there is one simple thing that we all can do .. We can plant BEE FRIENDLY FLOWERS everywhere we go, on plain green meadows or even on our balconies, which are not only a benefit for bees but all insects out there. In addition, herbs like thyme, basil, coriander, chives and lemon balm are not only looking beautiful, but are also bee friendly and usable in our kitchens, thus have even benefits for us humans .. If we do not start to respect nature and its variety again and try to live in symbiosis .. and do not stop to give a shit about poor mother nature we might be the glorious generation that will FINALLY ruin our planet, just by doing nothing at all ..

It may be still a bit complicated to educate children on this topic on a bigger scale, but planting greens in general, but bee friendly plants especially are a glorious and EASY WAY TO TEACH CHILDREN HOW TO DIRECTLY CARE FOR NATURE as they will directly be able to see them growing over time, and will see how bees and insects will be attracted, collect pollen and transport it away ^^

This rule is actuality a super easy one to set to reality. My wife really loves to plant some beautiful greens and it was a highly enjoyable task for her and my son. I was actually not allowed to help here, besides cleaning all the pots 🤣 .. As we have no house and own garden, we are restricted to plant on our balcony. Here I want to show you which plants we were choosing. All of them are considered especially bee and insect friendly. In addition they are getting as high as 50 cm at least, some even higher, so that they are providing a lot of space for potential bees and insects ^^

Goldsturm -- (Rudbeckia sullivantii)
Common Yarrow -- (Achillea Millefolium)
Bulley's primrose -- (Primula x Bullesiana)
Stonecrop -- (Sedum Spectabile)
Blue Flax-- (Linum Perenne)
Purple Coneflower -- (Echinacea Purpurea)

There is another plant, that is seen as the very best when considering its properties of being bee and insect friendly .. LAVENDER !!! .. This plant does not only look so extremely beautiful, but also, in my opinion, possesses one of the most adorable smell of all ^^ .. Thus we also got us some of them and put them in our biggest pot ;)

As a little future project we are also planning to GROW OUR OWN HERBS. I already briefly mentioned that herbs like thyme, basil, coriander, chives and lemon balm are not only looking beautiful, but are bee friendly and usable in our kitchens. This will be also a great way for our children to learn something great about SUSTAINABILITY and kicks out the need to buy them pre-packed after getting shipped around the world. I will discuss this in the further posts in more detail too 😉 .. In addition, some herbs have the great side effect that they keeps away certain unwanted insects. Lavender is also known to keep away mosquitos ^^

There are many other things that can be done by people all around the world and they can all be done with just a little effort, but can have a huge impact for the amazing nature all around us. Some ideas that I gathered while reading about bee friendly environments are the following:

Public bus stops or the roofs of public buildings can be covered with little biotopes
Grow a huge amount of wild flowers on these most often plain green spaces
All agricultural lands could be surrounded by an additional layer of wild flowers
And my favorite, seed bombing ^^ Just throw flower seeds around wherever you may find a suitable place

But be careful. A PERMISSION TO DESTROY NATURE IS RELATIVELY EASY TO RECEIVE for big companies if it suits the companies interests, BUT many countries consider seed bombing as GUERILLA GARDENING and stated that it IS ILLEGAL .. Really, this is NO JOKE ! .. If you are throwing flower seed on the ground you are actually wasting your dump on public property ! .. You can get arrested by the police and sued .. Big Hooray for LOBBYING again! .. So, does this mean that seed bombers are contributing in polluting the environment and thus destroying nature? .. Complicated topic, so get to know your legal law before you dare to plant a flower somewhere ^^

Thank you ^^

Thank you for reading my post up to here ;) .. What do you think of the rules that we implemented as a family and what do you think about bee and insect friendly plants or the idea to spread them all around wherever you go? Or are you even one of these people out there that see it completely different? .. I would like to invite you all for a discussion, so if you like, leave me a comment 😁 .. OR EVEN BETTER ^^

Start Your Own "SAVE THE WORLD" Initiative !

_{All pictures were taken by myself, ©Hive account@adalger, with a Huawei P30 Mobile Phone. The pictures of the bees have been already recorded and showed back in 2019.}