Bees

We've had wasps and hornets living at the farm but never bees, never until now.

A small bunch of them came buzzing round the eaves the day before yesterday; these, I suppose were the scouts.

And then yesterday I was sitting out on the patio, reading a book, when I heard a droning noise. I looked up and the air was full of them. Thousands of them.  I decided I'd be better off watching developments from inside.

They were settling on the side wall, just under the guttering.  There's a hole there- leading, I think, to the space between the wall and the tile cladding- and they were queuing up in orderly fashion to go inside.

This morning they seem to  have settled in nicely. They have a few sentries posted and the workers are coming and going.

Meadowland

Matthew sent his man into the fields with a strimmer yesterday and had him cut down all the young saplings.  Woodland, he explains, is worth less than meadowland.

According to the National Trust, Britain has lost 97% of its meadowland since the war. Isn't that frightful!

I took a folding chair into the field this afternoon and sat and read a book (and took a nap) head high in grasses and buttercups.