Do bumblebees hold grudges?

Do bumblebees hold grudges?

Late June and the Cotswold brambles are coming into flower. 

attracting our smallest bumblebees, like this Bombus pratorum worker

and our largest, like the White-tailed bumblebees, Bombus lucorum, 

 each lucorum bee seems to linger on the bramble flower to savour every single drop of sweet nectar. Sometimes colliding with bramble thorns as they search for new flowers. Are they intoxicated? Sometimes they seem a little dizzy and poorly coordinated as they fly between the thorns.

I startled one lucorum sunning itself on the grass. It flew up into the brambles and barged a fellow lucorum bumblebee that was gorging on bramble nectar. She was taken unawares and fell like a stone onto the grass. Moments later she reappeared and smacked into the offending bee, causing it to fly off in search of another flower.

Could they be from the same colony? Or were they rivals for the food which seemed plentiful. All around, there were open bramble flowers; why pick on the bee on this one particular flower?

Intuition and intent

How much control do I really have over what goes on in my brain?

Cognitive behavioural approaches invite us to think that it is our habitual denigrating thoughts which lead us to ruminate on past mistakes and inadequacies. 

All I need to do is to set aside negative thoughts. And that can be immensely powerful. 

I need a range of responses to my dissenting inner voices: 
Stop        I changed my mind      Tell me later   I'm doing the best I can

I find two difficulties with this approach.

1. My uncosncious is at work. My brain may be presenting past failures to me for a good reason. When I find myself humming a tune, I generally find there is something in the mood of the piece or the wording of the lyrics that is immediately relevant to my predicament at that moment, usually something I've been overlooking. Also my unconscious is immensely clever at sabotaging my intent.
2. In order to be creative and open to intuition I need to let my thoughts flow in their own way. Being present is partly stepping aside to accept the mood I'm in. I might be down among the ghosts and monsters of the lower unconscious, a scary but immensely creative place where innocent trees turn into wild unknown worlds. Instead of looking for the stop tap, I want to marvel at the symphony of brain chemicals that is constantly shifting the way I see, hear and feel. 

I'm not comfortable with analogies of the brain as a computer: [reboot, default mode, delete] or as a business [executive function, CEO] I find the natural world more explanatory: [web of life, evolutionary tree]

My model of the self is like a planet and at any moment I find myself located at a ford where my conscious intent crosses the 'flow of consciousness'. 

My intent may be in a position of power or at the opposite pole of no control. The stream may be deep into sadness, in natural mindfulness, mingling with the people around me or high up at its source, in the safe place remote from the present.

All I can do is seek a path through the woods which reminds me of the wonder of life in all its forms, of patterns and healing and recovery.

I hold onto is this conflict between intent and intuition which you could call the battle between will and love.

Natural Mindful Mini safari

In   February  it can be worthwhile exploring nature with the eyes of a bumblebee 

If you use a lens or loupe to explore the smallest plants and creatures you may find strong textures in the slanting evening light. 

The tiniest natural structures are often the most beautiful. 

The mindful part comes in slowing down and focussing down on the smallest scale imaginable. Mosses are well seen in winter:

Some mosses growing on fence posts have fruiting bodies in winter.

There are at least three different lichens fruiting on this tree bark, all sharply demarcated and fighting for light and nutrients.

The orange leafy lichen in the centre has the wonderful name of Xanthoria parietana [xanthus yellow, parietal: on walls] while there are a few chocolate-coloured fruiting bodies of creamy white Lecanora chlarotera. This species colonises recently planted semi-urban trees for instance in supermarket car parks. These two lichens grow well with nutrients, such as bird droppings, implying that birds roost or perch nearby. The black dots are fruiting bodies of the green Lecidella elaeochroma   which is often surrounded by an irregular black edge.

Meanwhile this little treat is the scarlet elf cup fungus Sarcoscypha coccinea which fruits in winter and grows on twigs among leaf litter.

All identification is provisional based on appearance, correct me if I'm wrong

Mindfulness, wilderness experiences and getting lost

I 

My first mindful walk as a guide is on Friday 23rd October. When I was out preparing the way today I was wondering: Does a winderness experience help me to reach a mindful state.

Mindfulness: 

paying attention to what I'm seeing hearing and feeling in the present moment.

I have known people who deliberately get lost: they take the narrow path at every fork and are at risk of straying onto privately owned land. I can imagine that it tests their intuition, tracking skills and makes them sensitive to every clue to the route home. Some people might find this frightening and land owners can certainly object. I have lost track of a path as night descends but I've always known roughly where I was.

Exploring mindfulness has led me to pause for thirty seconds in a pine wood, for instance, to listen to the sounds though it might be a few steps off the track. Fortunately I've often seen dog owners doing the same and I don't think a small diversion is a problem for the local land owners.

But the path I was walking today was bordered on both sides as the landowner clearly wanted to keep walkers exactly on the permitted path. I felt penned in and separated from the woodland on either side.  That got me thinking about what a true wilderness experience would be like. 

There would be no signs of human activity and no one to meet on the path and no indication of the correct route. While I was thinking this a helicopter flew low overhead, a farmer was cutting hedges and gun shots were scaring the pheasants.

It's not possible to escape the sounds of human activity. There is a rarely taken path I know which climbs the hillside in the middle of the wood, but I still see feeding stations for the pheasants and cables or drains or irrigation pipes.

It's not necessary to be in a complete wilderness to be surprised by natural beauty; one of those moments you meet when you're out walking. What helps me is to ask a question like where's that sound coming from? Or to check whether I see a particular bird that I saw at this spot last time.

Strangely what is helping me most at present is being orientated. Knowing where the sun is and where the wind is coming from. As I walk my circular route I have a reason to pay attention to what I see, hear and feel; I notice if the wind swings round and lines itself up with the sun. Checking the trees, chimney smoke and the movement of the clouds has made me aware of the ever-changing present moment. 

But everyone's different maybe people have other ways to keep directing their attention back to the present moment when out walking.

The secret of Wicked's success

The Musical 'Wicked' is a massive transatlantic success. 

What's the secret of Wicked's success?

1. Wicked champions the outsider, Elphaba is picked on for her colour and refusal to conform. We see many redeeming qualities in Elphaba: she sticks up for her teacher when he loses his voice and he falls into disrepute because he's not human. Opening scenes often feature arrival at school or college but Wicked pulls it off with humour, poking fun at the apparently sincere good witch, Glinda. But later on, the wicked witch Elphaba releases flying monkeys which cause havoc.

2. Wicked has style: strong female leads, an emerald and black colour scheme, brilliant lighting and stage effects  clocks to rival Harry Potter and Philip Pullman's Dark Materials and a cross between Victorian steampunk and 1930's American costumes. There are enjoyable touches of irony and parody. The Wizard sings a song in 1920's style reminiscent of King Herod's song in Jesus Christ Superstar 'Try it and See'.

3. It even begins with a disabled character, NessaRose whose relationship with her sister Elphaba promises an emotionally intelligent sub-plot

For all its style and popularity, the plot chunters off into nowhere land with arrests, escapes, re-arrests. The most glaring travesty of Elphaba's feisty nature comes in a stick fight with Glinda over Fiyero, the self-confessed shallow male lead.

Sadly Tessa Rose is portrayed as a mistake resulting from her parents' desire to avoid having a second daughter like Elphaba. "She's my fault," says Elphaba. The disabled sister and daughter is a millstone for all to carry. [as in Sleepovers by Jacqueline Wilson] Thus reinforcing widespread perceptions.

In one powerful scene, Tessa is cured by Elphaba's spell and stands for the first time. It must be hard for anyone in a wheelchair to witness this escapist denial of the meaning of chronic illness which harks back to sanitised fairy tales. 

Tessa Rose's fate is sealed off-stage when she is later crushed by a falling windmill and we are left to imagine that her recovery may have been temporary so she was unable to get out of the way in a sudden malevolently stirred-up storm.

The victory of style over contemporary resonance is complete.

How to keep readers reading

Best advice for novel writers: READ MORE

It's vital that writers to understand the conventions that readers are familiar with, in order to avoid cliche or worse: incoherence. 

Breaking the rules invites ambiguity

So what are the rules about keeping readers motivated to read on?

Plot comes first. However convoluted the plot, it can fit into one sentence. 
Tell your friends no more than that one sentence and remind yourself of it every day.
Keeping the plot sentence in mind helps writers write a continuous story and also helps agents and readers decide whether to buy. Knowing the plot keeps you away from sub-plots and irrelevant episodes.

Beware any changes in plot after your first draft; every change will have consequences on each page which will be tiresome to correct. By all means change the characters' names, gender, dialogue as much as you like but plot is sacred from the start.
Plot provides the motivation for your main character and it changes in a special way through the story. and yes, keep to one main charcater and maintain their point of view throughout.
[established writers ignore this but for first novels a rambling point of view puts people off] 

So what is a plot?

Stories open with stasis: the kingdom is in neglect, doom-laden, or everything seems fine but the king is ageing, rumours of dragons abound. Whether you start with action or dialogue, your novel informs the reader of the characters, the place and time and underlying this: the genre [thriller, mystery, horror, historical, romance] Concentrate on your favourite examples of your favourite genre and you will have a repertoire of clever plot twists. 
You can introduce the rules of your fictional world through action, narration or dialogue. If there is magic or paranormal events they are bound by certain rules such as: having a wand made of a particular wood, or having telepathy only with those you love.
Then comes the trigger, the call to action for our hero or heroine. A significant event brings the character to life [eg a beautiful princess is entranced and sleeps for a hundred years]
Ther character sets out on a quest. The object of his quest is often a symbol rather than anything especially valuable. Readers are asked to suspend disbelief, the wrtiter and the character believe that only this one object will bring happiness, relief, safety or survival.
Surprises happen. 
A good writer constantly reaffirms and contradicts readers' expectations. Stories that are entirely predicatable are boring so plan a surprise for every chapter ending. A surprise is an unexpected plausible obstacle or help to the character's quest. She meets antagonists and protagonists, a wise woman or a cruel tyrant.
Then she is faced with a critical choice which demonstartes free will. Things could go either way. She decides to follow a path which is fraught with danger.
This leads to the climax in which she confronts her greatest adversary: time, dragons, a torturer or an arranged marriage and a tense conflict plays out resulting in a reversal: now the character has changed in some way, become more resourceful or lost the battle and accepts defeat. Finally we have the resolution: the new stasis in which the world of the novel is altered following the climax.
So what has kept the reader turning each page?

Surprises and rising stakes. As the story proceeds the character rsks more and more until she stakes her whole life on the outcome. 

I haven't made these rules up, if they sound dogmatic, they can be traced in most films and books and talked about in plot advice to authors since the time of the Greeks. 

In my view, plot awareness is the author's best friend.

Surprise at Neolithic monument

Visiting Neolithic monuments immediately before the equinox can spring surprises: 

Here's Hetty Pegler's Tump at sunset on March 19th 2015

This Hetty Pegler's Tump, a 5,000 year old burial site where 15 skeletons were discovered back inthe 19th century. It has an east facing chamber and you can go inside three of the five chambers, though you have to crawl in.

 It's at the top of Crawley Hill above Uley, near the Cotswold Way. Apparently the skeletons showed signs of having been moved for rituals. A roman burial was found on top of the barrow.

On the way back along the path to the main road this happened:

Clearly there's still life around the ancient burial mound.

Soulmates, Romance and Love at first sight: pagan myths

Where does idea of a soul mate come from? Somewhere out there is the perfect partner for me simply waiting to be discovered. Love at first sight? Lifelong commitment?
Not from Tennyson's latter day medieval romance: The Lady of Shallot or the original French courtly romans. 
   I'm guessing that love was an essential part of the first stories; certainly well-developed at the time of Classical Greece with dramatic suicides for the sake of love and lives on in sentimental and serious films. Was babyish Cupid with a bow worshipped in early times? We probably still give the little infant too much room to cause chaos. 
   So the mythology of love is pagan in origin, pre-Christian by a long way. Marriage ceremonies in church were a late invention to link choice of partner with Christian theology. And yet now the church fervently promotes marriage and is slowly getting up to speed with people changing their minds and choosing a suitable gender.
   If romance is a fiction devised by druids around a fire how come computers play such a part in dating nowadays? Can the age-old mysterious chemistry really work via binary clockwork?
   Dating is accompanied by a storm of hopes, dreams, memories and associations. The colours, smells, the setting are all capable of being aggrandised by our passionate hopes for transformation and belittled by our post-modern sarcastic cynical minds.
If there is a magic it is in how somewhere real and earthy can be both heaven and hell at different times.

How people see colours

How do cones in the retina recognise colours?  

Cones are concentrated in the fovea at the centre of the retina.  Three populations of cones have three different variations of a protein, rhodopsin, which changes shape when hit by light of a particular frequency.  Rhodopsins combine with vitamin A and subtle variations in amino acids change their sensitivity to light.  

Each population responds to several photons of light of a particular range of wavelengths.  When the protein changes shape it blocks glutamine secretion, causing a silence. Look how spread out their responses are; the 'red' cones actually peak in the yellow/green wavelength.

Dogs have only two different populations of cones so they have red/green colour blindness. WE can't detect ultraviolet light, with wavelengths of 10-400 nm but hawks can, they have a fourth population of cones which respond to ultraviolet rays. Mouse urine and hair glows ultraviolet due to the presence of certain amino acids. 

Insect eyes have a similar sensitivity beyond human vision so bees can see 'nectar guides', ultraviolet indicators in flower petals.  

Curious optical illusions: Urban Railway Photos

Curious things happen in photographs from a moving train:

 The sloping livery of the commuter train and the far from vertical window panes give a great impression of speed, though there was only about ten miles an hour difference between the two trains. 

Here's another example:

Look how the posts supporting the overhead wires are leaning over when compared to the vertical lines of the empty gasometer.  The jumbled lines of a rail between the tracks adds to the unsettling effect.
Why?
Is it an effect of perspective?
I think it's to do with the speed of the digital camera phone which seems to begin to record the image from the top and by the time it reaches the bottom of the picture, the base of the post has come closer.  The traffic light between the posts is less affected because it's further away and the gasometer doesn't appear to be affected at all.

There's a subtle affect here on the trackside lights.  These photos were all taken trackside from GWR's Hereford to London Paddington train.

Strangely the train coming towards us leans to the left of vertical.
If someone can explain these weird optical illusions, I'd be grateful.

"If you love someone you can read their mind"

"If you love someone you can read their mind" Author Meg Rosoff said in passing this evening at the #bathkidslitfest 

Leaving aside the considerable amount of selfish projection which goes on in loving, I imagine that this can sometimes be true, but how?  Is it because you build an inner image of them, a little homunculus, a 3D moving image that can speak for himself or herself, 

Here's the parts of the brain that move our muscles: the motor cortex.[Notice how your own body image is stretched out, throat at the bottom, bum and feet at the top].

Or is it because you observe the loved one so closely that you pick up transient micro-expressions that transmit distaste or anxiety as clearly as if they had spelt it out for you?

Both, I think.  When I love a woman she appears in my dreams, not only erotic dreams but ordinary night time dreams.  She just appears. I know she's been in the dream although I may not remember what she said or did. That proves to me that I've internalised their presence deep into my unconscious.  It's one of the signs that I am truly in love.  It gives her an eternal presence as my unconscious will continue to present her to me even when she's gone away.  She has acquired an eternal spiritual presence. It also enables me to talk to her when she isn't near me and I might sometimes get close to her real response to things I might say.

Sometimes when I'm getting to know a woman I find their face almost unrecognisable in certain lights.  This used to worry me, "Am I dementing?" I used to think.  I think it's because different sub-personalities, such as the mystic or the practical person are associated with widely different facial expressions, vocabulary and gestures.

Roberto Assagioli advanced the idea of subpersonalitites.  I'm not sure their location is as clear as in the image but they are separate from each other, sometimes even unaware of each other.

 It takes a while to internalise the constellation of features belonging to each fractional change in identity, taken together with position surroundings and intensity and direction of light.

So I think Meg is right but it's always going to be important to verify any intimations because it's so easy to misperceive and idolise or patronise.

Male bees, drones, a model for humans?

An allegory

You might think male bees have a charmed life [Bees].  

They are fed by female worker bees and enjoy a warm hive which is supplied with food and defended by the female workers.  The male has no sting so he can't fight off hornets or cuckoo bees and he has no pollen basket; he simply eats for himself.

Female worker bees live short lives endlessly collecting nectar and pollen and making honey.

The drone's only role is to patrol the hedgerows in the off chance of meeting a queen who is ready to mate.  He displays at  vantage points and releases a pheromone to attract a queen. 

At this time of the year, the worker bees block drones from entering the hive, causing them to die of hunger or cold.

If it's an allegory it sounds very one-sided. The drone's sperm is vital to the next generation.  Perhaps he works hard as well.  His athletic training to perform his one task, his preening and preparing himself could equate to some human activities.

Like what?  Well maybe the release of pheromones correspond to learning to iron, doing the weekly shop, baking bread and cakes, pampering, buying nice clothes and creating romantic surprises.

Just a thought.

Raymond Chandler's rules for authors

What does mystery imply?

Mystery is a factor in page turning quality.  Readers want to read on to resolve the mystery.  In the textbook: The Realist Novel  Dennis Walder quotes Raymond Chandler on the essential criteria for a detective novel. They sound a quite strict but Walder argues that part of readers' enjoyment comes from having their expectations met.  A bond of trust binds the author to the reader's expectations.  He says the rules are like the criteria which differentiate a sonnet from other poetic forms.although Chandler implies a murder, the rules could be applied to any mystery.

It must be: 

•   a credibly motivated event and quest to unravel  
• methods to unravel the mystery are technically feasible  
• Realist in character, setting and atmosphere [specific time and place]  
• A sound story as well as a mystery  
• Should baffle most intelligent readers  
• Simple enough to be explained towards the end  
• Solution seems inevitable once explained  
• cool, not passionate romance or violent adventure  
• [criminal should be punished]  
• honest with the reader [no tricks: time warps, etc]

I'm trying to keep these criteria in mind while writing a medieval medical mystery. While surprise is essential, reader expectations also need to be met.  Any comments?