I live with my mother and my father in a house called Alma del Monte. It is on the mountain, just above La Canalosa, a little village in the Alicante sierra. There are almond trees, rosemary, a lot of wind, and an enormous sky. Some nights the wild boars come past.
I started with the bees this spring, because there is a beekeeper who lives nearby and he let me come and watch. The first time I put on the suit, my gloves were too big and I laughed at myself. Now they fit a little better.
My friends in the village
Our house is up on the mountain, but La Canalosa is right there too, and I have many friends in the village. We go to school together, we play in the street, we build little hideouts, and sometimes I tell them what I am learning about the bees. Some of them love it. Some of them less so. That is fine too.
Why I am writing this
My mother says that when I am older, I will want to remember these months with the bees. So we keep this journal, with drawings, of everything I am learning. That way, other curious children can learn a little something too.
This is not a honey shop. It is a notebook. One day there will be jars, perhaps — but first, the stories.
Alma del Monte and La Canalosa
Alma del Monte is the name of the house. It stands alone in the sierra, surrounded by open country. La Canalosa, the village, is very small — fewer than three hundred people. There are olive trees, almond trees, plenty of rosemary and wild thyme, and some very beautiful stones I would like to show you, one day.
The bees do not wish to harm anyone. They only want to protect their home. If we care for them well, they will go on making honey for all of us.
How we do it
I am not alone in any of this. I keep the bees with an older beekeeper who knows a great deal, and with my parents, who help with everything and write this journal with me (I tell them, they put it in order). The important decisions are still made by the beekeeper — I am only learning.
We have twelve hives in the sierra, and other living things too: a vegetable garden, a quad bike, and a great many beautiful stones in a box under my bed. But that is another story.