This Callistemon shrub that we have in our garden has been flowering for over a month now and everyday it is crowded with bees. It is fun to watch them come out of the hive, and drop straight down from our roof on to the flowers. The children call it The Bottle Brush Tree…

The lavender in our neighbourhood has been really good this year, and there is plenty of it. We stopped to look at the bees on this bush today and spotted 5 different types of bee.

There has been sweet chestnut flowering too, which gives a very dark honey – it’ll be interesting to see if our bees found any to forage on.

Yesterday while I was inspecting our hives in Hendon, I noticed that some of the bees where coming back to the hive with a splash of white on their backs – a sign that they are foraging on Himalayan Balsam.