Liner Notes for Candlewife
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It's full fairytale time pals. A bed time story to put you to sleep. And worse still one that leaves you hanging! I haven't written The Beekeeper's Daughter And The Giant's Heart so I guess I'll just have to leave that one.
As an unmarried man without children, I note that this fictional story has some opinions on the purpose of marriage and family. Specifically I am taking The Form Of The Solemnization Of Matrimony from the Book Of Common Prayer of The Church Of England, and taking seriously it's explanation of why marriage was ordained. And then complicating it, as the Candlewife learns she cannot both be of mutual society, help and comfort and procreate children. Not at the same time! She's just a candle after all.
Anyway, that's what I was thinking about.
Bees though. Bees aren't magic. My grandfather kept bees and after he died and my nan moved out my dad took the over. So we had to moves three beehives (and some other stuff) from Warwickshire to Lincolnshire. It was January so the bees were hibernating. We were in a rented van and we had the heating turned up. Unfortunately the heating went into the back as well and somewhere on the M1 my dad realised that the vibration was not the van, but the bees waking up. The solution was simple - turn off the heating and open the windows to lower the temperature - but that was a very cold journey.
That's not the point I wanted to make. Bees aren't magic but they are a mystery. If you know the secrets of bees you can do all kinds of weird things. Handle a swarm. Open a hive. Take honey and wax. Move a hive. And all without getting stung! Mostly.
The secrets of bees won't actually teach you how to solve your own troubles. They certainly won't help you make a candlewife. This is still a fictional story.
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