the running wave

It's World Bee Day today.  The pioneer of beekeeping, Anton Janša, was born on 20 May 1734.  So I have him to thank for my current enjoyment of learning the art of beekeeping!  The purpose today's celebration of bees is to acknowledge their role, along with other pollinators, for the wellbeing of the ecosystem.  Hooray for bees I say!  Phenomenal little creatures. This is my little pet bumble bee, which is actually a past bee but her final resting place is in amongst some pollen covered pussy willow catkins.  And an impressive beehive from one of our tutor's apiaries, which we were introduced to in our class yesterday.

I am a real addict when it comes to watching Masterchef, both the UK series and the rather more elaborate Australian version.  I have watched several seasons in Australia and then watched it all over again when it comes on British television six months later!  One of the challenges put to the contestants is to produce a restaurant quality dish by recycling from a huge pile of culinary debris - fish heads and bones, vegetable and meat trimmings, marrow bones, pigs trotters, and even a pig's head (I look away at that point).  I love pigs.  Anyway, while gardening at the weekend, when I was cutting back fading wallflower plants and the erysimum, which still had a few fresh flowers at the end of each stem, I had the idea for today's vase.  Lots of lovely colour would have been completely wasted if it had been dumped in garden recycle bin.  I find it almost impossible to discard a fresh flower.  So here are a couple of recycled vases of flowers, looking ver...

The garden seems to be betwixt and between at the moment.  The plants which have been bringing colour and vibrancy to the flowerbed over the past months, wallflowers and tulips, are now on the wane, and their successors haven't yet come into their own.  There is an awful lot of greenfly, which I am loathed to treat because I don't want to jeopardise the wellbeing of visiting bees, but the aphids are creating havoc with the lovely Ravenswing cow parsley. We have had one or two exotic visitors in the form of a male bullfinch this morning, stuffing his beak with dandelion docks, and a few handsome cinnabar moths fluttering around, with their intense colours of red and darkest blue-green. In the garden : And the outer garden :

I think the whole of the UK has been enjoying a wonderful spell of sunny weather over the past week.  We have had some glorious days.  Hot sunshine but still a cool breeze.  Perfect for walking! Yesterday the dogs and I walked along the coastal boundaries of the two links golf courses of Kilspindie and Craigielaw, just outside Aberlady, and enjoyed great views across to Edinburgh, a group of seals basking in the sun, sea thrift and birdsfoot trefoil, and shell strewn beaches.  It is always a source of wonderment to me that I can be standing on a lovely beach, looking at nearby Edinburgh.  This is such a great part of the world to live.  We have it all!!

Our walking group walk today was through the ancient woodlands of Woodhall Dean, situated between the coast at Dunbar and the tail end of the Lammermuir Hills.  A glorious place, full of birdsong, wild flowers (particularly bluebells), the sound of water as a stream runs through the bottom of the wooded valley, and the knowledge that we were walking through a place unchanged since about 1750.  There are indicators that these woodlands are indeed ancient - sessile oak, wood sorrel, ransoms (wild garlic).  Once these wooded areas covered a significant part of the United Kingdom, now they total about 2%.  Today's walk was a bit of a peach!