Hark to Your Bees

There is going to be a Project Bow Calendar for sale very soon. It may even look a little like this:

When it's available, I will post a link here, so you can get one for yourself and for any of your friends who may like chimpanzees. I am told they make great gifts for those hard-to-please people who already have everything else.

I feel a little foolish saying this, as it sounds quite a bit like a commercial. However, we must eat, and it would help.

 As Rudyard Kipling once wrote:

Bees, bees, hark to your bees, 

          Hide from your neighbors as much as you please,

          But all that has happened to us you must tell

          Or else we will give you no honey to sell.

Well, I am not a bee keeper, and Bow does not produce honey, or anything that most people would consider to be of value, so this is the best I can do.

 I did see a lot of bees buzzing about this afternoon on my walk. I do not, however, know whether these were eusocial or solitary bees.

Bees are popularly known as little collectivists, and the work ethic is said to be ingrained in their genes, but even they can end up being solitary and hiding from their neighbors, if their system becomes overloaded with non-contributors. I  wrote about all this a while back, here:

http://aya-katz.hubpages.com/hub/The-Evolution-of-Selfishness

For those who think of the bee social hierarchy as static, it seems as if bees are a good role model for social cooperation. But the fact is that if you take into consideration the cyclical dynamics of evolving bee societies, it looks more like this:

It's not just about bees or humans. Towards the middle of my article, there is something about chimpanzees. Chimpanzees tend to work for themselves. They are social, and they do submit to more dominant individuals, but only just enough to get by. They never internalize anybody else's dominance, so on the inside they stay individuals. That's why chimpanzee hierarchies never turn into eusocial caste systems.

I admire Bow's individuality and would not want him to be any other way. But it's a lucky thing for me that he rather enjoys posing for pictures. That gives us something to sell.

Winter Pictures

As a way to raise money for Project Bow, I am planning to put out a calendar with pictures of Bow next year. I am asking fans of Project Bow to help select the pictures. For instance, I was thinking that one of these six photos should be the January image on next year's calendar.

So far, out of these six pictures, the Facebook vote has been overwhelmingly for #3. The second  most popular choice is #6. But some people think a January picture in the calendar ought to include snow. This makes a lot of sense, except for one thing: when it snows, Bow does not go outside. I do have some family pictures from long ago in which I am holding a clothed and very bundled up Bow outside in the snow, but I am not sure if that would work for the calendar. In one of my old albums I found this picture, which shows Bow in the sun room with snow visible through the window behind him. 

This image is just a photo of a photo. It would take me some time to dig up the negative for this shot, and I am not sure if all people who like chimpanzees would approve of this picture of this quiet moment from our past, with Bow and my daughter together with no barriers.

That's part of the problem we have. Some people don't approve of the pens, and some people don't approve of the freedom Bow had before the pens became necessary. Some people think chimpanzees and humans should never touch, and others want absolute freedom for all chimpanzees -- or else extinction. We have taken a middle course: as much freedom and as much contact as Bow can handle at the time, with appropriate changes as the circumstances demand.

Should the calendar cover our entire past? Should it contain only recent pictures? Should Bow be in every shot, or should we also show the property where Bow lives, with an eye to getting people to help us build that five acre island for Bow, where he can have more freedom to roam?

Of course, I do have wonderful images just of snow, but  Bow is not in those pictures at all. Lately, there has been nothing but snow. This shot is from yesterday.

I like the shadows of the trees on the snow. It would not be a bad image for a January calendar illustration. But Bow is not in it. When the weather is like that, Bow does not want to go out. He naps a lot.

When he wakes up, he looks like this:

And afterwards, we spend a lot of time just sitting around together.

We sometimes read books, paint, browse through magazines and art books. But there's not much evidence in these pictures of the winter wonderland that surrounds us. 

So I need your advice: what sort of calendar should it be? One that covers all our years together or one that is more current? One that focuses on Bow, or one that also features natural beauty from our property? Should it all be portraits, or should some of it be landscapes? I wish I could feature a January picture of Bow skiing, but that's just not what we do when the snow is on the ground.  

Please comment here if you can, or if not, leave your answers on the Project Bow Fan Page. Thanks!

While Bow is Napping

There is still plenty of snow on the ground, but now the sun is shining brightly.

There is not much to do. Bow still can't go outside on account of the snow, and yesterday, Wednesday, the day Lawrence usually comes, there was no Lawrence to play with. The roads were too difficult for Lawrence to get here.

Now the sun is shining, but still Bow can't go outside.

The dogs are enjoying the great outdoors, but it is not right for Bow.

In the afternoon, there is nothing much to do but lie down for a little while with the green blanket. Just for a little while.

Once you lie down, you start getting sleepy. Your eyes start to close of their own accord.

There is nothing like a little nap to make everything all right.

While Bow naps, I work on some of my author blogs in order to promote my books. There is a new one about Theodosia and the Pirates The success of my books is important to me for many reasons, but it is also important to the continued success of Project Bow.

However, for Bow and a lot of supporters of Project Bow, the connection is not always obvious. Some people just want to read about Bow and to see pictures of him.  For those people, I am planning to market a Project Bow calendar next year with pictures from this blog.

Do you think this is a good idea? Would you buy such a calendar? Which sorts of pictures from this blog would you like to see featured? Please give me some feed back in the comments. It will help a lot. Thanks!