National Wildlife Day!!!

JENN McKINLAY: One of the takeaways of my childhood was that my parents were nature lovers. We lived on several acres of land on the Housatonic River in northwestern Connecticut and most of my childhood memories are from time spent outdoors. 

Hiking, boating, fishing, gardening, picnicking, camping--we did all of that and more. I think a deep love of nature is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me. When I'm outside and I hear the birds singing, smell the scent of the creosote after a rain, or just touch grass (as the kids say), I'm at peace. 

I hope I was successful in passing on my love of the outdoors to my sons. Given that they spend many of their weekends fishing, hiking, running, or rock climbing, I think I did.

So, today, I want to talk about National Wildlife Day. Every year on September 4th, this day invites us to pause and reflect on the incredible diversity of life that shares our planet. From the smallest pollinators to the largest mammals, wildlife plays a vital role in keeping ecosystems balanced and thriving. This day is not only about celebrating the beauty of nature but also about raising awareness of the urgent need to protect it.

Wildlife provides us with so much more than breathtaking scenery, although Mother Nature does a heck of job with that, too. Bees pollinate the crops that feed us, wetlands filter the water we drink, and predators help regulate populations keeping the balance. Yet, despite their importance, many species are at risk due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and illegal poaching. According to conservation groups, thousands of species face extinction in the coming decades if stronger protections are not put in place.

National Wildlife Day is a reminder that protecting animals is a task we can all take part in. Simple actions make a difference. Planting native flowers in your yard creates food and shelter for pollinators. Reducing single-use plastics helps keep oceans safe for sea turtles and seabirds. Even small choices, like supporting eco-friendly brands or visiting accredited wildlife sanctuaries, can have a positive impact.

On this National Wildlife Day, let's all take a moment to step outside, listen to the birds, watch the bees at work, or simply breathe in the air that forests provide. Let’s celebrate the wild and commit to protecting it. Because when wildlife thrives, so do we.

As for me, I recycle everything I can, use canvas grocery bags (when I remember to get them out of my car!!!), I try to shop second hand for everything from furniture to clothing so as not to fill up the landfills (plus, thrifting is fun!!!), and I plant lots of pollinator friendly trees. I know there is more to do so -- hit me! What do you do, Reds and Readers, to help the wildlife and save the planet? All suggestions welcome!

Take the Honey and Run by Jennie Marts

Jenn McKinlay: Today's guest knows her beesiness. Sorry, couldn't resist! But seriously, with the hum of bumble bees in the summer air, what better time to have a visit from a mystery series that has gone to the bee keepers? Here's Jennie to tell us more about it!

Jennie Marts: Thanks so much to the Jungle Red Writers for inviting me to spend a day on their blog. I’m really thrilled to be here! I’m Jennie Marts, and I write small town stories with humor and heart. My books range from cozy mystery to romantic comedies to western romance. 

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My new book, TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN, is the first in a fun new Bee Keeping Cozy Mystery series. And after having over thirty books published, I’m so excited that this will be my first hardback. Yay! 

TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN is the story of Bailey Briggs, a single mom mystery author, who returns home to her small mountain town of Humble Hills, Colorado. She and her twelve-year-old daughter, Daisy, arrive to hear her grandmother, Granny Bee, threatening to kill the town mayor. The next morning, Bailey discovers the mayor’s dead body, and Granny Bee’s Honey I’m Home Hot Spiced Honey turns out to bee the murder weapon. Now Granny’s got herself into a sticky situation, and Bailey has to use her fictional detective skills to solve a real murder and keep her grandmother from ending up bee-hind bars. 

Oh, and did I mention that upon arriving in town, she runs into Sawyer Dunn, the love of her life, whom she hasn’t seen in thirteen years, not since he got shipped off to his uncle’s farm in Montana the night they stole a tractor and accidentally drove it into a pond? And did I also mention that Sawyer now happens to be the town sheriff?

I had so much fun writing this book! My husband is a certified beekeeper, and he has always told such fascinating stories about the life and habits of bees, that I knew I had to incorporate them into a story somehow. Granny Bee is the beekeeper in this book, and her book club, affectionately known as The Hive, consists of her two spinster sisters (who live in an old purple Victorian called Lavender Manor), Rosa Delgado, and town librarian, Dottie Duffield. 

Bailey and her sidekick bestie, Evie Delgado Espinoza (Rosa’s granddaughter), have been described as a mashup of Lucy & Ethel and Thelma & Louise trying to solve a murder. 

Granny Bee loves to bake and is always offering up honey-inspired dishes, so I knew I had to add recipes to this book. When I told my mom, who is a fabulous cook, this, she insisted we spend the day in the kitchen testing out all the recipes and finding the best ones for the book. 

What a day we had! Mom came over around ten that morning, and I finally finished cleaning everything up around midnight. Whew! There were different variations of several of the recipes, and we wanted to make sure we picked the best ones, so our plan was to bake all day and create several recipes then have the family over for dinner to be our guinea pigs…um…I mean, our taste testers. 

I think we made sixteen recipes in all. We tried two variations of whipped ricotta cheese drizzled in honey, and the citrus flavor won over the cinnamon. We made honey banana bread and honey pound cake. We tried three versions of honey butter. We made honey lemonade and two versions of the specialty danish from Evie and Rosa’s bakery, Cream-Cheese Quesitos. We made a honey cake with marshmallow frosting and crispy honey cookies. And of course, we had to find our favorite of three versions of the murder weapon, Granny Bee’s Honey I’m Home Hot Spiced Honey. 

I love this picture of my mom in her apron! And I love it even more because you can see my golden retriever, Cooper, who is the inspiration for the golden retriever in the book, peeking out from behind my mom, keeping a watchful eye on things and hoping a cookie falls on the floor. 

I will admit, we had a few duds…nobody liked the honey lemonade, except for the characters in the book, of course. They loved it. 

But overall, we made some delicious creations, and I think our favorite was the cream-cheese quesitos drizzled in honey. Sooo good! They were almost to die for! …But maybe not to kill for! 

I’d love for you to check out all the recipes and find out who used the hot spiced honey to murder the mayor in Take the Honey and Run. Humble Hills and Honeybuzz Mountain Ranch are full of fun and quirky characters, and I hope you love them as much as I do. 

Do you have any favorite recipes that you use honey in? I’d love to hear about them! I’m always on the lookout for new inspiration for the next book in the series, Kill Or Bee Killed, coming out next spring. Tell me about your favorite use for honey in the comments.

Thanks for hosting me today! I so enjoy the blog and was thrilled to be part of it today! 

You can find TAKE THE HONEY AND RUN here: 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/719088/take-the-honey-and-run-by-jennie-marts/ 

Author Bio: 

Jennie Marts is the USA TODAY Best-selling author of award-winning books filled with love, laughter, and always a happily ever after. Readers call her books “laugh out loud” funny and the “perfect mix of romance, humor, and steam.” Fic Central claimed one of her books was “the most fun I’ve had reading in years.”

She is living her own happily ever after in the mountains of Colorado with her husband, two dogs, and a parakeet who loves to tweet to the oldies. She’s addicted to Diet Coke, adores Cheetos, and believes you can’t have too many books, shoes, or friends.

Her books range from western romance to cozy mysteries, but they all have the charm and appeal of quirky small-town life. She loves genre-mashups like adding romance to her Page Turners cozy mysteries and creating the hockey-playing cowboys in the Cowboys of Creedence. The same small-town community comes to life with more animal antics in her latest Creedence Horse Rescue series. And her sassy heroines and hunky heroes carry over in her heartwarming, feel good romances from Hallmark Publishing. Her newest cozy mystery, Take the Honey and Run: A Bee Keeping Mystery, debuts this July. 

Jennie loves to hear from readers. Follow her on Facebook at Jennie Marts Books, Twitter at @JennieMarts, and at @jenniemartswriter on Instagram. Visit her at www.jenniemarts.com and sign up for her newsletter to keep up with the latest news and releases.

The Reds Weekly Check-In, or, BEE Grateful

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Let’s check in on how we’re all doing, what reopening looks like in our neighborhoods, and any notable events from this past week or upcoming! Last week’s big event for me was a bee invasion upstairs - literally. My Guest Son’s room filled up with bees, much to his consternation. We could see them sort-of-swarming outside, going in and out of a crack between the main house and the addition. They were entirely peaceful honey bees, but even the most peaceable bees aren’t what you want to see inside the house - less so when you can see a hundred of them!

I contacted the Maine Beekeepers Ass’n and left a help ticket on their website, but it seems they’re more or less offline during the pandemic. Instead, we found help through Twitter! My oldest daughter, the Maine Millennial, tweeted about our...issue, and she got a DM from a beekeeper at The Honey Exchange. This led to a phone call, and within a few hours, a wonderful young woman named Thalassa Raasch was at our door, net hat and bee vacuum in hand.

With a little sleuthing, we discovered the bees were reachable via the inside wall of a kneehole closet in Guest Son’s room. We took out everything stored there (mostly old luggage, which I was happy to remove to the attic) and could see a brand new colony was trying to start itself in an uninsulated gap in the wall. (Old house - modern insulation was shoved in where workmen could reach and left off where they couldn’t. Please refer to past JRW posts where I complain incessantly about the cold.) Fortunately, we caught the bees before they were able to begin building, so it was a relatively straightforward job for Thalassa to suck them up into the bee vac. 

We got thank-you honey for saving the bees!

We opened up the windows, closed the door, and gave the room twenty-four more hours to clear out. Fortunately, when we went inside, most of the bees had escaped, leaving behind only a handful of tiny striped corpses to be swept up. Even better, Thalassa reports the bees have been successfully moved into one of her hives, meaning they, and we, can now continue to lead happy and productive lives - twenty-plus miles apart.

What’s buzzing in your life, Reds?

LUCY BURDETTE: That’s a wonderful story Julia! We are in Connecticut now, which is just opening up. I walked on the wild side and went to my favorite local bookstore, RJ Julia Booksellers. Everyone was masked up and there were markings on the floor showing us where to walk, and books! Thousands and thousands of books--definitely essential for these times! I’ve also been going to our farmer’s market on the town green. Again, masks and social distancing required. So many yummy veggies and good bread...I’m in heaven.

Bad news--we are worried about the spike in Florida and people getting crazy in Key West. Praying for everyone to stay sane and safe.

HALLIE EPHRON: The bee invasion sounds terrifying. We’ve had a swarm of thousands of bees take up residence hanging from a bush in our backyard (called the beekeepers and they were moved to safe quarters), but never IN the house. Yes, Florida looks ominous. Ditto Texas (sorry Debs). And Arizona not so good either. Time will tell.

I’ve been slowly crawling out. I went to my local grocery store for the first time, bought plants for the garden and fresh cherries and plums which, ordering for delivery, is a crap shoot.  I clipped my front hedges and the hedge clipper promptly died, so I ordered one from my local hardware store and went to pick it up. They are doing a busy busy business and had it totally under control.

Feeling like small bits of normal are creeping back. We’re in the suburbs so at least we can walk and sit out in the yard anytime we want, and I have great neighbors.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Our little air conditioning issues are very tame compared to Julia's bee story! So glad you are now happily separated, Julia--a win-win!

Yes, Texas is very worrying. I think we are just now starting to see the results of our "opening" and all the Memorial Day festivities with no masks or social distancing. I don't want to contemplate what will happen in the next couple of weeks after all the protests here.

I've had two masked trips to Trader Joe's at senior hour now--so exciting to pick out my own produce and groceries!! Also, two outings to the farmer's market. It was very busy this Saturday, but more people were wearing masks than the previous Saturday, so maybe that's an improvement. I've also had a friend (waving at you, Gigi!) over for a socially distanced happy hour on the patio, ditto morning coffee with another friend. I would really really hate to give up these small gains, but I think a lot of people here have just decided the pandemic is over, which doesn't bode well….

RHYS BOWEN: We have finally made it safely back to California after 110 degrees drove us from Arizona. The drive went amazingly smoothly. We spent the night at a Hyatt in Pasadena where they have arranged everything really well. We stopped at clean rest area bathrooms. No problems.  Now we are enjoying cooler weather and we’re back in Marin County where everyone wears masks, is polite, and only a few things have opened up… yes, and they have 17 deaths to date. None of them recently.  So I feel much safer than crazy Arizona.

We also go to Trader Joe’s for senior hour. Very well done with no stress. And I’m busy with the edits of my new Venice Stand alone. I’m also on a cleaning and weeding out jag. I’m about to Kondo my house, after my Arizona home that has no clutter. I’ll be ruthless!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh-- BEES! Oh my gosh, that is a nightmare. Just like everything else. Anyway, Massachusetts is apparently doing well, but we shall see. Reading about all of you is fascinating--truly. Jonathan and I are not budging. Not one bit. We have been home for 93 days. Not going anywhere. We have ordered groceries, ordered front porch chairs, ordered plants, planted tomatoes and basil, we have worked worked worked. Jonathan in virtual court, with the full array of personnel, I’m trying to write and be on TV (via Zoom) and it’s like--living on our own private planet. 

"Ryan could win a sixth Agatha with this one." !!!

Sometimes I actually pat the freezer to reassure it that  I am so pleased with it. My hair is awful, but I am persevering with many zooms and appearances and bookclubs, and THE FIRST TO LIE got a Publishers Weekly starred review so I am counting blessings.

I think the whole thing is horribly scary, insane, and I hope we can just all hang in.

JULIA: Check in time, dear readers! How are you doing, what are you doing, and are there any BEES involved?