We need you Bee

Where are the bees?

Those little love-sucking honey bees?

Lots of alarm is going on about how bees appear to be disappearing – fast.

Colony Collapse Disorder, or it’s more evocative name “Marie Celeste Syndrome”, has wiped out thousands of hives in the United States and in Europe. And now it seems the UK might have it too.

There was a feature run on BBC Devon spotlight a few weeks ago;local  beekeepers were imploring the Govt to put more money into research (at the moment its a pathetic £80,00 quid) to avert a possible crisis of catastrophic proportions.

Hives deserted, left empty. And all the bees gone.

One possible cause is mobile phones. Bees can’t navigate back to hives because their internal Sat Nav is scrambled by the radiation coming off mobiles.

If we lose all our bees the countryside will be devastated. Crops will fail, agriculture will collapse, bird populations will be wiped out.

Einstein said if the earth didn’t have any more bees mankind would only have 4 years left to live (i don’t quite know how he knew that – but he was a genius, so we’ll go along with him)

So basically, bees are precious little fuckers. We need them. We need to nurture them. We need to save them (every single one)

Which is why Georgi reports every time she sees a bee in the garden.

Its like a special news event: News Flash! – bee spotted in Lust Garden… it’s landed on a bush….now it’s in the long grass….now it’s veering over to a rose…..now it’s tickling a little purple poppy with it’s feet!….

We love bees.

And all of us have to love bees.

Cus then they’ll love us.

Where’s all the birds?

More ecology and “green” stuff.

(Cus the garden is just doing its stuff at the moment. Greening like mad)

Garden birds are on the fall. Read this to find out how much.

Sparrows and starlings are falling sharply.

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch say “Birds in gardens have fallen by a fifth since 2004″.

What doesn’t suprise me tho is the rise in wood pigeons. Up by – get this – 665%! The little bleeders. A 665% increase!

They’re ubiquitous. Everywhere, “Coo coo cu, cu coo” ing their dull plaintive way into the back end of your brain at the back end of your garden.

Anyway, I’m not gonna go off on one about them. Honest George!

I’m making them my friends. Giving them names (the one that wakes me up every morning on the dot of half 7 is called Freddy – bless his little cotton socks)

I wonder what birds we’ve got visiting Lust End?

Hopefully some sparrows and starlings and siskins.

We’ll keep a look out and have digi’s at the ready.

(But those jackdaws making a racket down the chimney can get lost!)

(says George)

Flowers “wave” at insects

Time for the blog to get ecological and educational.

Include that big wide world out there too.

Been reading this on the BBC website.

Next time you see a flower wafting in the wind, it isn’t just wafting in the wind.

It’s waving at insects. Pulling in pollinators.

“Hi there Mr Bee!” it waves across the crowded stalks of field, “Come over here and tickle my stamens” (or pistils, or whatever they keep their pollen on)

It must be right cus scientists say so.

But flowers have to have the right amount of wobble. Too much wobble means insects can’t land on them and suck off their pollen.

Next time i see a wild campion waving at me I’m gonna wave hello back.