Blogindex - Honey Bee Barn

Elm Trees

The elm tree once largely unnoticed, left gaps in our tree lines and hedgerows as they succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease. Towards the end of the 1970’s it became apparent that many of the trees that were part of the canopy of British woodlands were Elm trees. The Elm tree was fast disappearing and leaving…

Plant a Tree for the Jubilee. ‘Plant a Tree for the Jubilee’ is an initiative to mark Queen Elizabeth II platinum jubilee, when we will be celebrating her 70 years on the throne. Schools, individuals, companies and anyone who wants to join in can plant a tree and highlight Britain’s ancient woodlands and trees. Groups…

Beltane or May Day is the Celtic festival that heralds in this time of love aplenty. May Day or Beltane is celebrated on the 1st of May which, in the old calendar is today, the 11th of May. The word May comes from the Greek Goddess Maia. She was the mother of Hermes and the…

Olive Green

Olive Green, one of the most elusive of all the greens. The colour olive green always seems to be the colour of the trees in the distance but close up, the olive green seems to slip away and the greens that are left are altogether brighter and lighter. Green is the colour that most us…

British Woodlands

A walk through a British woodland is one of the most relaxing things to do. Our British woodland is a key part of the landscape that we all love and treasure. Just by standing in amongst the trees and being still can bring about a great sense of calm. All around us an unknown world…

When William Shakespeare wrote of love and despair he often turned to the language of flowers to help him. Shakespeare’s flowers lay scattered throughout some of his most notable works and they are contained in some of his most remembered lines. In Elizabethan times flowers and herbs carried with them symbolic meaning. They were used…

Daffodils

A Host of Golden Daffodils. If there is one poem that that we share as a nation then William Wordsworth ‘Daffodils’ must be high on the list. It is such an uplifting poem that begins with that opening line; ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ There are moments when we are walking out in nature…

Lambing season is on its way for many parts of the UK. It’s a busy time for farmers as lambing season gets underway. It is one of the joys of countryside living, everyone looks forward to seeing the lambs in the fields. It is a real and certain message that Winter is behind us and…

February, the shortest month of the year and the muddiest. There is a weariness to February. Inside of us a wish that just won’t go away, that Winter was over and the small warmth of Spring was here. But then there is February to contend with. It delivers the cold from the East like the…

Ash tree buds

Take a woodland walk and use tree bud identification to add spice to Winter woodland walks. Become an expert in tree bud identification. Signs of the changing season appear on each of our woodland walks at the moment. Although there doesn’t appear to be much to look at, especially when the trees are darkened by…

Through The Woods by H.E Bates Through the Woods by H.E Bates. When he was a child the writer Herbert Bates wanted to be a painter. He describes the paintings that he enthusiastically produced as being of ‘horrific badness’. So the introduction to this book, written by Laura Beatty tells us. I am so glad…

Snowdrops

The Snowdrop the symbol of hope. “The Snowdrop, in purest white array, First rears her head on Candlemas day.” The arrival of the Snowdrop is a sign that, although we might still be in the cold grasp of Winter, things are moving forward and Spring cannot be too far away. The glorious white flower always…

Wolf Moon

What is the Wolf Moon? The first full moon of 2021 will be visible tonight and it is known as the ‘Wolf Moon’. The moon, the first of the twelve full moons this year, is a point in time when the moon is reflecting the maximum amount of sunlight onto Earth. This happens when the…

An Economic History of the English Garden by Roderick Floud. I picked up ‘An Economic History of The English Garden’ as a result of discovering a whole branch of my family, who, in the C18th and C19th were estate gardeners. Dozens of them were occupied on estates from Hampshire to Ireland. I realized how little…

My first nature journal. I have wanted to keep a nature journal for a number of years but lacked confidence in drawing skills to have a go. There are some beautiful nature journals on social media, drawn by professional artists, mine will not look like theirs. However my skills at observation have improved over the…

listening to the sounds of nature

The Soundscapes Wellbeing Project is a collaboration between Exeter University and the BBC. For many of us getting out into the countryside is not an option at the moment. Living in urban areas can mean the sounds of nature are difficult to hear sometimes. Can listening to the sounds of nature digitally really improve our…

Discovering the Biodiversity Heritage Library. The amazing Biodiversity Heritage Library is one of the most astonishing resources for those with an interest in biodiversity. It is an open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives and operates globally for the benefit of all. It is a consortium of natural history, botanical, and research libraries…

Butser Hill

A Sense of Place Seeking a sense of place, a home, is something many of us strive for. When the eminent nature writer, Robert Mcfarlane wrote in his book ‘Landmarks’, that to be parochial is a good thing, he meant for us to use the term in its true sense of the word. That is…

I have never heard of a walking artist until I saw the artwork of Hamish Fulton. As soon as I saw the work of Hamish Fulton and read what had inspired him to create it, it made sense. He considers that the walking itself, taking nothing away, is art in itself. ‘walking is an artform…

The Importance of gardening. There can be no doubt that the British are a nation of gardeners. Even if we don’t have a garden of our own to attend we like to watch gardening programmes and visit open gardens. The importance of gardening in these tricky times cannot be undersetimated. In March 2020, during one…