Bee Lore

Mole trapping is not really a team sport and we soon became bored looking at Dad’s intensive trapping routines.  So we went round to the willow tree to see if there was anything interesting going on there.  Maybe Mum had made some cakes for tea and had put them out early.  It was nearly 4 o’clock, so it was a fairly good bet.  Then it happened.  The sky suddenly went dark.  It was as if the sun had been switched off.  I looked at my sister.  She looked at me.  It was quite extra-ordinary. Magical.  Momentarily unexplainable.  For just a instant we gazed at the sun in a sense of awe.  Just as our ancestors must have felt before the scientific age and an understanding of cosmic happenings – when mysteries happened and there was no explanation.  Just bemused wonderment, later explained-away by an “Act of God”.  Another strange thing happened whilst the sun dimmed.  Time somehow stood still.  It was similar to the experience that one gets if one is in an accident.  Time slows down and you become much more aware of everything that is going on around you.  It was as if we were in an art gallery and had been studying a painting for about twenty minutes and then had all the senses, emotions and interpretations concentrated into one second of intensive experience.