Scary!!!!

I was out running at lunchtime today, going down a country lane, when I suddenly found myself in the middle of a swarm of bees!!!!! I decided to run through it, arms flailing, then stopped and checked inside vest and shorts for bees, before carrying on!!!

Trouble was, I only really wanted to do a gentle 4 mile jog, but I wasn't going back through that, so I ended up doing a gentle 5.5 mile jog!!!

[shudder]

That's like one of my worst nightmares.


Closest I've come was a few years ago when my then b/f now husband had just bought an MX5. We were driving along with the roof down, on a lovely peaceful sunny day on the West Coast. Suddenly WHUMPH - what sounded like a very large seagull poo splattered across the windscreen. And kept splattering.

We had a "what the ****" moment - then managed to focus on one or two of the smears to see the tell-tale yellow and black stripes. I suspect one of the local bee-keepers would have experienced an unusual drop in production from one of his hives that year.

Problem with a soft-top car is that you can't use your windscreen washers with the roof down, and we weren't going to chance stopping nearby in case the dead bees' friends came for revenge. We ended up driving about 20 miles with about 500 dead bodies splattered over the front of the car, before we dared stop and start scraping them off.

So long as you didn't hit the Queen Bee, you'd have probably been ok!!!

:-)

We saw a swarm of bees on a branch the other day whilst out on the bikes, so me being my usual nosy self had to peer closely when one lazily flew out and zapped me right between they eyes - ouch! I was OK for a day and then the bridge of my nose swelled, one eye closed and I looked like I had been 10 rounds with Ricky Hatton! Next time I will just cycle past!

Bit worried now

I've told a local beekeper he can put his hives in our lower pasture for the summer.

Fortunately I wasn't stung!!

You were lucky Nick, we scarpered pretty quick once one had done it's deed, in case he told his chums in his dying breath.

There must have been thousands of them. Pretty impressive piece of nature actually.