A little morning buzz

The marina has a weird buzzing sound that is constant.   At first, I wondered if was powerlines (nope, checked that out), or if was somehow the sound of hundreds of halyards, shrouds, and stays vibrating at a low level (nope, the noise doesnt vary with withspeed).  There just isnt much else that the noise sounds like except buzzing bees.  It just so happens that Turkey has 5 different species of bees. These are the Anatolian bees,  Caucasian bees, Iranian bees, Syrian bees, Karniol bees.  From all those bees comes all kinds of honey.

You can find the usual flower honey or orange honey, but the variety goes much further with thyme honey, pine honey (a specialty of the Marmaris region), chestnut honey, and probably a dozen other honeys that I cant recall what they're made from. 

Honey stores are ubiquitous in town as are honey stands along the roadsides.  It seemed odd at first to see so many stores devoted exclusively to honey.  Graeme and I honey-tasted yesterday--while they all taste like honey, the varieties are subtley different, like different flavors in wines.  Turks sell honey like they're purveyors of fine wines (maybe that's because they don't have any fine wines).    The pine honey was dark colored, almost brown, but it had a delicate mossy flavor (I was expecting something more bitter, like pine resin), orange honey was bright, and flower honey was fresh and closest to what we typically find at home.  All tasted richer than your typical (even organic) honey from the US.  We didnt have a chance to try them all, but we we want to go back to the honey store, which is also seems to be unique to Turkey (I think).  They not only sell honey in all forms (from on the comb to in the jar), but they also sell bee pollen, herbs, and potions.  Honey stores are more like apothocaries, which is apropos as Turks ascribe certain health benefits for each type of honey (Thyme honey relieves asthma, treats eczema, and is good for digestion, citrus honey calms the nerves and is good for the liver, chestnut honey strenghtens the immune system).  It is a melting honey pot of goodness.

When I go out on a run, I pass cluster upon cluster of beehives, each cluster having hundreds of hives.  Sometimes there are so many bees I cover my mouth to avoid having one fly in my mouth, or they will land on me and move on, or they just bounce off my forehead.  I have never gotten stung and the bees clearly could care less about me--for them it is all about the honey. 

While it seems impossible that all that buzzing we hear is from bees, we are down in a valley surrounded by hills with probably billions of bees.  Sounds carry very well over water.  It has to be the bees.