Hive of Activity

As activities in recent months have revolved around designing, printing and displaying my work, returning to the nature which has inspired so much of my work has been thoroughly enjoyable. Having missed recent developments in the garden, I decided to make the most of some beautiful weather and take the time to observe different plant species, and the insects they are attracting to the garden. I was thrilled to see a wide range of different Bumblebees frequenting the garden, including a female Cuckoo Bumblebee (my eye is not expert enough to distinguish exactly which) and honey bees. As stated in a previous post, we plant as many nectar and pollen rich plants in the garden as possible in the hopes of encouraging the growth of the bee population, however this has had an unexpected consequence. During my time in the garden I suddenly became aware of a rather noisy swarm descending upon the garden. Closer inspection revealed the swarm to be thousands of Honey Bees, whom had decided to build a hive beneath our new birdbath. Watching the vast mass of bees was utterly fascinating, I eagerly await the development of our hive and what may come next!

Garden Progress

Having lived at my current house for almost 2 years now it is interesting to observe the development of my favourite space, and how much its changed since we arrived and started making our mark.
Much of the hard work is down to the keen gardener of the house, my mother, but I have contributed with a few purchases, and the new found use of my ebay account to order seeds.

The top image was taken 2 days before we moved in. Largely lawn with small borders, largely empty. The garden became spruced up, but still rather bare. Winter turned it into a lifeless and rather bleek place, save for the Holly bush, and sadly caused the demise of our palm tree.
Beyond saving the palm tree has now been felled. Arches continue to spring into life, more borders are added and the lawn appears ever shrinking. The last image was taken in mid July. We have also taken delivery of a half sized green house, but thats yet to be snapped.

Its wonderful to finally see the garden establishing itself and becoming wild and blooming, credit due to my mother of course.