Bit of this

I see a bee in the garden, are bees about this late on in the year, I wonder.

The hedge row seems alive with birds and chirrups. The noise floats past the earphones, I take them off and just listen. Rushing water, a donkey hollering, the call from a child. I have been so absorbed by the stories on the ipod lately, I had forgotten the pleasure of what just is.

2 silver ribbons appear nearly vertical, climbing up the hill. Rain has highlighted either side of the farm track leading to the house on the hill, that glows red on summer sunset evenings.

Bit of that

Every Autumn as the first frosts begin the mated young queens seek out a place to hibernate in safety. If you come across a live but sleepy bee in a pile of leaves in Winter don't damage it. Its not dying, just in a deep cold sleep like a hedgehog. Put it back where you found it and cover it gently against the cold.

Come the first sharp drop in temperature and frosts the old queen, her workers and the independent drones will die. Only the newly mated queens will survive in hibernation to begin the cycle again the following Spring.