When I was little, people did not treat their lawns. They simply mowed their grass with a push lawn mower. I had three pairs of shoes. School shoes, church shoes, and tennis shoes. Summer meant no shoes. That’s where the trouble lay.

We had clover in our grass and bees love clover. I got this photo at the park which doesn’t use chemicals. Almost every summer I’d step on a bee. We played a lot of badminton and watching out for bees wasn’t on my mind until I stepped on one. I still remember the swelling but the itching was worse.

My uncle was a beekeeper. He and my aunt would put bees on their hands to get stung. This is how they treated their arthritis. One of honey’s attributes is that it reduces inflammation. My aunt substituted sugar with honey in almost all recipes. She was a nutritionist and taught home economics at the local high school. I hated her chocolate syrup but everything else was good.

My mother gave us tea with honey to soothe a sore throat and to quiet a cough. I read one could put honey on a burn for healing because honey has antibacterial property. Honey helps release oxygen from the burn and that is what promotes the healing.

My lawn doesn’t have clover and I have reduced my barefoot time. It was never the honey bees’ fault because they just want pollen. Honey is now one of my favorite words because I use it when speaking to my husband. He is the best honey!