I finished watching, “Who Killed the Honey Bee?” on BBC2, this evening, and it made for some seriously sobering food for thought.

It’s funny how much you can take a creature for granted; as a fruit and vegetable fan, until this evening, I had no real idea of how vital bees are to food production. We need them to ensure we have carrots, cauliflowers, plums, apples, almond trees, and much, much more besides. I knew a very little about pollination, but had no idea of just how much gratitude is owed to bees by human beings.

Or, just how much peril, bees are in.

All kinds of possibly interlinked, and yet to be proven reasons were cited in the programme, including varroa mites, agrochemicals, and changing weather patterns caused by climate change.

Those beekeepers coming back to their hives in the Spring to find whole hives of their precious bees had not survived, or in other cases had perished away from home in their thousands and thousands. It must be devastating.

I will definitely be a lot more appreciative of honey from now on, and will try to find out more about bees. This was a good starting point for me http://www.honeyassociation.com

There was also a lady on the show, (the very aptly named, Bee Wilson!) who was talking. She wrote a book, The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us, which sounds like it would be right up my street.

The next time I enjoy some honey, I’ll try to give special thought to bees, including those living in the White House garden.

I’ve had mints before and you’re right, they grow and spread like crazy!

This was news to me, and I’m left wondering whether Washington D.C. has many bee keeping enthusiasts….

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/why-londons-beekeepers-are-a-growing-band-476750.html

Bringing things a little more up to date, the couple stayed in Winfield House, set in its own 12 acres, within Regent’s Park, which is one of our very loveliest. The park is huge, beautiful, and hosts all kinds of stuff, including to my surprise…

http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/regents_park/event.cfm?id=1491

I love what the First Lady is doing in encouraging children to learn to appreciate and enjoy gardening. It’s great to see these efforts happening on both sides of the Atlantic. The link below takes you to details of an organic community garden in Islington, North London which is where the school Michelle visited is….

http://www.culpeper.org.uk

Finally, I wonder whether the Prince of Wales and the First Lady managed to have a few words about her new organic garden and his own which has been going for a good few years now, when they met recently. According to the info. at the end of this article, there is a waiting list of 2 years for groups wishing to visit the Highgrove garden; he has really confounded the sceptics with his efforts here. He was slated in some quarters when he began, but now…..

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/england/article5982070.ece

This has served as a timely, little reminder that I need to do something about having a go at growing some sprouts, indoors; will go and seek out jam jars, etc. and get some alfalfa seeds to start….

(Kamaria, I didn’t know about this, so thanks for the heads up.)

That way you get the fresh air and sunshine, get to know like-minded people in your community, and more room to grow more and better veggies.