A Bee-stly Weekly Link Round-Up

My great-grandparents had a farm a few miles outside the village where I grew up. One of the family stories involves my great-grandpa running in from the fields one morning, jumping, hollering, and wildly swatting the air all around him with his straw hat. My great-grandma Katie ran out of the house shouting, "Ed! Ed! What's wrong, Ed?"  Still running and swatting, he bellowed, "Bees, by God!" Seems he disturbed some while working out in the pasture, and they were in full sting mode.

Bees, honey & pool chemicals do mix?

I've been thinking of this story a lot lately. Last week, I mentioned that Denis came within a whisker of angering a swarm of bees that were building themselves a home underneath our shed. Thank goodness the hundreds of insects surrounding him didn't sting him!

Well... the man must be a magnet for the honey producers because when he lifted the lid on a large storage bench that he keeps pool chemicals in, he disturbed another swarm of bees building yet another home! He also remained unscathed from this second encounter, but we're both wishing that these important little creatures would choose somewhere else to live. 

This isn't the first time we've had to deal with bees. They seem to love the shed. The first time they took residence beneath that structure, it wasn't pleasant. During the broiling heat of summer, they almost took over the birdbaths, and I was stung several times just by sitting in the pool reading a book and minding my own business. (By bees drowning, finding me as a liferaft, climbing aboard, and then stinging me if I moved in a way that scared them.)

That said, I'm going to look both ways before I open the door and head out to the corral for those links I've been saving up. Head 'em up! Mooooooooooove 'em out!
  

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• What if Robert Frost wrote about food? 
• A man returned a library book after thirty-five years with an apology, a donation, and an explanation. 
• The unglamorous ordeal of recording your own audiobook. 
• In our Google era, indexers are the unsung heroes of the publishing world. 
• Translating Agatha Christie into Icelandic: "One clue took ten years." 
• What's it like to be married and write a book together?
• How regional dialects are fixing standard English.
• Have you heard of the grammar vigilante?

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A Shakespearean notepad stunned an Antiques Roadshow expert. 
• A seventeenth-century shopping list was recently discovered under the floorboards of an historic English home.
• An ancient concession stand has been found at a Roman gladiator arena.
• DNA analysis shows that a 13,000-year-old mummy girl suffered through periods of famine.
• Fly through a beautifully recreated pre-fire seventeenth-century London.
• The mystery of Roanoke endures yet another cruel twist.
• Ancient Roman treasures that were discovered during a subway dig are now on show.  

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• The great squirrel mystery of Chicago.
• After being struck by a car, this hedgehog had a very special reason to fight for her life.
• Have you ever seen a dog and a crow play fetch together?
• A wildlife photographer was able to capture the rare sight of lion cubs just a few hours old.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's grand Victorian home where he wrote Hound of the Baskervilles is brought back to life as a place of learning.
• According to science, this is a map of the most perfect U.S. road trip.
• The most amusing and rude London street names-- and yes, these are all real places.
• One of my favorite places on the planet: mountains, lochs, and art in Durness, Scotland.
• Europe's landscape is still scarred by World War I.

►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄

• On the accidental origins of beloved books. 
• The best second novels of all time. 
• Eight Russian writers and their furry friends.
• Five etiquette tips for the bookstore.
• Build a library and Buzzfeed will guess how old you are. 
• What literary character is your mental twin?  (Mine? Hermione Granger.) 

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!