Bumble bees in December - again

This morning there was a bumble bee outside my bedroom window.

When I went to write about this in my perpetual diary I found that on 13 December 2006 a colleague had seen a bumble bee in his winter clematis.

As the years pass, a perpetual diary gets more and more interesting.

I also saw a kingfisher this morning when paddling up the Old River Lea between Tottenham and Waltham Forest. And there were 2 Egyptian geese grazing between the riding stable and Lea Bridge Road as I cycled home. I often see a pair of these on the side of the Lea Navigation, but their location today was a surprise.

Bee flowers not bee hives

I have thought it strange that in the face of the problems bees are facing we are often encouraged to start keeping bees. I thought this would increase the competition bees faced finding food. I thought growing more flowers that beeds liked would be a far better thing to do (and am delighted with how many bees and other insects I have feeding in my garden between the showers). In the Evening Standard today there was an article telling how "Too many hives mean not enough food and falling honey yields". So my logic was right! If you look carefully you can see a bumble bee's bottom! Apologies - there must be a trick to getting the photo to appear it the right place!