June Celebrations, National Pollinator Month and Three Poems Accepted for Publication

Wild Honey at the Green Hills Butterfly Ranch, Belize, January 2026

Happy Summer Solstice, Pride Month, Juneteenth, Father's Day and National Pollinator Month! What a month of celebrations! My husband and I celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary on June 14, and our son turns 33 on the 22nd. Also, congrats to all of the graduates out there!

My neighbor who has been married for 56 years said that when she's asked the secret to her long marriage that she jokingly replies, "no sharp knives and no weapons," ha ha ha! I think that a sense of humor also goes a very very long way. My husband, aka "Mr. Honey" is a very very funny guy! He makes me laugh every day! We are blessed to have been granted so many years together.

Our pollinators are certainly enjoying the arrival of summer. A gorgeous Western Tiger Swallowtail visited the flowers on my deck this week, and I have fond memories of seeing a wide variety of these important pollinators during our recent travels in Ecuador and Belize. The photo above was taken at the Green Hills Butterfly Ranch in Belize where the common owl butterfly alit on my hat and decided to linger there for quite some time...such a blessing! It is amazing when she opens her wings to reveal the lovely blue coloring that is so rare in the natural world.

And of course, the number one pollinator on the planet is the amazing honeybee. When we visited Kew Gardens in London in April, we were stunned by the contemporary art installation there called "The Hive." It is a large structure located in the heart of a wildflower meadow that recreates life inside a beehive. The Hive reproduces different levels of vibration recorded live from inside a real living honey bee hive in Kew Gardens! The accompanying orchestral soundscape in is the key of C because honeybees have been found to buzz in the key of C! It was an extraordinary experience to stand in the structure and listen to the "bee symphony" and to see all of the various kinds of bees at work in the incredibly beautiful gardens.

I want to shout out our local Pacific Northwest native solitary bees, the Orchard Mason Bees, for their incredible pollination work too. My friend gave me a small habitat box for them and I noticed that a few moved right in! They laid their eggs in the small openings and filled them with mud and will emerge in early spring to continue their cycle. They are pretty bees with a jewel-green color on them and are often mistaken for flies! Here is a photo of the orchard mason bee box. You can see that this hotel has a few vacancies! I hope that we are filled to capacity next spring as word gets around!

I'm so excited to share that I'll have three new poems coming out in the fall issue of the Monterey Poetry Review! The titles are, "Mother's Day Flight Plan." "Incubation" and "Self-Guided Safari." The poems are set in the Florida Everglades, Africa and the Skagit Valley in Washington State. I'm particularly pleased that the first one has found a home as it is dedicated to my son, Ben, a pilot! Many thanks to editor, Dr. Jennifer Lagier Fellguth and her staff for selecting these poems; I look forward to sharing them and to reading the other contributors' work and promoting the journal.

I am wishing all the dads and dad-like figures a very happy Father's Day with a special shout out to my husband aka Mr. Honey for his dedication and devotion to our children, to my own father whose memory continues to inspire us all, and to my father-in-law who shares his love and wisdom with us at age 95!

It has been nice to hear some positive feedback about America from the visitors from other countries who are here for the World Cup. It drives home the fact that the people are not the government and illustrates the power of sporting events to bring folks together. It was wonderful to see everyone come together in New York City to celebrate the basketball championship there, to hear the fabulous speech by the mayor at the parade and to celebrate the opening of the Obama Center and hear Michelle Obama's beautiful speech as well. I am particularly pleased that there is a vegetable garden at the Obama Center in Chicago,...this compensates for the fact that the lovely rose garden at the White House was removed....a lot to celebrate despite our challenges. I continue to hold out hope for better times ahead.

Love and peace to all,

Marianne (aka Wild Honey)