It’s November 4. The sun is out, and I have laundry, drying on the line. After a wet and chilly October, there are bees and wasps in the air. (Probably more, but I haven’t seen them.) The leaves are all down, largely because of a fierce windstorm over the weekend.

I understand that, for the first time in recorded weather history, there is no ice pack forming in the arctic. Perhaps this explains our return to balmy weather, but who knows? And I mean that, who knows? Because the weather pundits make it clear that they have absolutely no idea what to expect.

Late season warm weather is not necessarily a good thing for the honeybees. There are nearly no sources of pollen or nectar. It’s dangerous to provide liquid feed at this time–because you never know when the weather will turn–and you do not want to leave liquid feed in the hive once winter returns. (Bees can do cold pretty well, but damp is NOT good.) A good rule of thumb is that you should not open the hives is the mercury dips below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. So the bees will dip into their winter reserves–at an accelerated rate–because they are active, when normally they would be in clustering mode. Since it’s so warm, we’ll be opening the hives this week, to put frames of honey in, to make sure they’ll have enough for the winter.

The election results are not yet tabulated. So that future remains uncertain as well. What can one do? My solution is busy–two loads of laundry, a loaf of bread and an apple pie. It’s not yet noon.