Studying honeybees has changed my focus, a bit. I knew that the bees were hunkered down in the hive all winter, waiting for the weather to warm up so that they can take some "relief" flights. But, wondering about when the bees would be coming out of their hives to start collecting pollen has gotten me much more intensely focussed on what's budding as the weather starts to warm up. It had never before occurred to me that bees would be anxiously awaiting the early blooming crocuses to collect, perhaps, their first pollen. When the crocuses pop it's usually still very cold and snowy and I'd never noticed bee activity that early. I'm more aware, this year, of the first flower buds on trees that never caught my attention, before, in the relative bleakness of early spring. Now that I have made a new connection, my awareness is expanded. I learn new things. I am learning science.

That's a deceptively simple piece of the core concept of the Down To Earth Program. If we can connect with people who are doing garden activities and point out, for example, that the relationship between the honeybees and the first spring buds is all about science, science will become, for many more people, a friend and ally... as it should be.