“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.” ~ George Eliot

I live in South Florida. I woke up this morning so thankful that Hurricane Matthew passed by leaving little or no trace that it had been here. Hurricanes are a reminder that nature can be forceful, powerful, and unpredictable. We stayed occupied during the last few days listening to weather reports and looking at hurricane tracking models. But no one indicator was able to accurately predict what Hurricane Matthew would do.

While I was confined to my house, I had time to work on my plans for Trinity Church’s Girlfriends Conference 2017. This year’s theme is “Eden.” We will be talking about wholeness and wellness in every aspect of life. I’m going to focus on wellness by highlighting our Peacemaker Urban Garden. Our garden is about six months old now. I plan to enhance our garden by adding a honeybee hive.

So I spent my two days of pre-hurricane confinement by reading about honeybees and watching videos. One of the best resources I found online was Hilary Kearney’s informative, online introductory to beekeeping class and her blog “Beekeeping Like A Girl”.

I mentioned our beekeeping plan to my new friend Joan Monteillet at Monteillet Fromagerie. Unbeknownst to me, Joan and her husband lease a portion of their property to a beekeeper. There are 1,000 beehives on Monteillet Fromagerie’s property! I’m looking forward to seeing them when I am there taking the goat cheese making class in January after the conference.

If you live in South Florida, I hope to see you at Trinity Church’s Girlfriends Conference, January 13-15, 2017. You can register at the link below:

GIRLFRIENDS CONFERENCE 2017