Back in October I wrote about planting lots of bulbs in our front lawn. It is a shady north facing patch – when we moved here a few years ago there was absolutely no spring colour at all and I was determined to change that! Over the past few years I’ve added all different types of things and I pleased to report that they are starting to flower now! Take a look:

These miniature Irises were some of the bulbs that I planted last autumn

The snowdrops were planted “in the green” a couple of years ago and are bulking up nicely. The Hellebore was a gift from my mother.

We have lots of primroses in our back garden, I often see the bees visiting them. They do self seed into the lawn, so I’ve moved the seedlings round to the front of the house – they seem happy in their new position, I hope that they spread around too.

I planted these crocus two years agao – it is lovely to see them again this year. The ones that I planted last autumn are only just showing a little colour, so my season should last for at least a month. These are a particular favourite of bees – I was very excited to see my first queen bumble bee of the year visiting them the other day.

Our Camellias have plently of buds on them this year, but I think it’ll be a while before they open as they are in such a shaded spot – I have seen plenty out already around this area.

It is only February, yet things are starting to move in the garden. The bees are out in force whenever the sun shines and warms the air a little – roll on spring!

Today is Michaelmas day and I’m happy to report that there are plenty of Michaelmas daisies out around all of our hives! Our home bees have been bringing in bright orange pollen from these flowers.

I went to have a look at our hives in Hendon today and the hive entrances were very busy – the bees are certainly making the most of the good weather we’ve been having.

The hives there are surrounded by flowering ivy – the scent is almost overpowering and the plants are buzzing with insects – ivy is such a vital source of nectar for so many insects at this time of the year.

Finally, here is a sunflower that has self seeded itself in our garden. I’m particularly amused by this because I tried to grow a whole line of them earlier in the year in a completely different area, but they all got munched by snails. Anyway, it has been visited by loads of bees – particularly bumbles. Next year I’ll try again with my row…

The ivy is about to flower around here – which for me means I need to hurry and take off any honey that we’d like from the hives. We have lots of ivy around here and it normally provides enough nectar for my bees to have enough stores to get through the winter.

The hives we use are made up of a series of boxes stacked up on each other. The bottom box is the deepest and is called the brood box – where the queen lays her eggs to raise more bees. The boxes above are called supers and this is where the bees store the honey. Over the summer we add more supers as they are needed and remove them once they are full. I know without looking when they are full because I can barely lift them.

Last weekend we were so pleased to be able to take the first honey of the year from our hives. We’d been waiting for the honey comb to be capped, which means that it has a low enough water content to prevent fermentation.

The sweet floral smell that filled our kitchen was divine… Once the honey is extracted, we let it filter through a coarse sieve and then let it stand for a few days. We then jar and label it.

We are very happy to offer some of our first honey of the season for sale in our shop – I hope that you enjoy it as much as we do!

Today I’ve written a guest post over at International Elf Service – follow this link to see it!

In our front garden we have an established Cotoneaster horizontalis which I think has to be one of the best plants that you can plant for bees. It has been flowering for about 3 weeks and is always covered in bees. Even in the evening when the honey bees have gone home the bumble bees are busy on it. It is literally coverered in flowers – must must have one of the highest flower to plant area ratios in the world! This afternoon I spent a few minutes watching it and I counted 4 sorts of bees in that short time. The added bonus is that it sets tiny red berries which the birds guzzle through the winter.

I don’t know how much nectar or pollen it yields, but the bees adore it and it is a pleasure watching them at work.

Spring is really underway here now! I’m so pleased to see different kinds of bees visiting the flowers that we’ve planted in our garden. I love this combination of primroses and grape hyacinth – I’ve been dreaming of it through the depths of winter.

Our broad beans are flowering too!

On our street these plum and greengage trees are buzzing with bees.

In our shady front garden our camellias are finally flowering – they are a whole month behind the ones across the road that enjoy full sunshine. Isn’t that white one perfection?

Last night was Burns Night, and as we are partial to a bit of haggis we decided to invite a few friends and make a traditional meal.

For the first time I made cranachan using our honey, and I have to say that it was really delicious!

I used the recipe from here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cranachan_66101

The only thing I would say is that the recipe makes enough for 8.

This morning was mild and the sun even came out! I spotted one of our kittens chasing a bee outside, so I went to have a look at our hives. It was fantastic to see bees busily zipping in and out of the hive – I haven’t seen them flying for several weeks because it has been too cold – We have to leave them in peace and not disturb the cluster that they form to keep warm, so it is always a relief to see them out and about again.