Another weekend passes and more installations completed. As I mentioned to John and his wife in Essex, one of the joys of installing hives for clients, is the common occurrence of discovering their wonderful gardens. We had no preconceptions at HBAH, but it seems to be, that if someone has the spirit and drive to create a little bit of outside paradise at their home, they care enough to want to add to it in an equally caring and beneficial way. Without tarring all of our clients with the same brush (please could someone give me an equivalent metaphor more positive than that), it does mean that our visits are always to gardens that have huge amounts of love, care and attention cherished upon them. I'm not sure the same can be said of most peoples places of work ! For this we consider ourselves rather lucky.

Our two Essex clients along with David in Blackheath, have their new bees and hive . Davids garden was truly beautiful along with Patricia and Johns. Both David and Patricia had prepared fantastic sites for their hives. The installation process can be a bit of an anti climax, especially after the prolonged nature driven delay. However, like anything worthwhile, the frustration of waiting, will, with time and a decent summer, soon diminish. The rewards and benefits will hopefully manifest themselves over the coming months and years.

A lot of clients have dogs and cats, and it's worth mentioning that until now, this has not been a problem, either for the pets or the bees. Pets of all types can be curious things, but it seems they have a better understanding of nature, including the dangers of a full bee colony, sometimes more so than we humans.

The inspection visits start soon and again, that too is an exciting time, as one can witness the progress of the colony first hand. There are no guarantees and there can be disappointments, but it is pleasing to see the process taking place all the same.

I'm not sure the weather forecast for the week ahead looks great, but we crack on regardless and be forever optimistic about our summer starting properly.

Finally the gallery contains some new photos. The world we live in is about everything and everyone we share it with. As the American novelist Theodore Dreiser said "Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on the wings of misery and travail". Not sure whether the latter observation is always true, but the initial part feels right and believing in that sentiment allows us to post photos of any type of beauty........in other words.......and to quote another wise animated American, "Too infinity and ...Bee-yond". There is one photo from last years Royal Academy Anish Kapoor exhibition. Great stuff.

Davids hive sited on the prepared area.

Kitchen garden now resplendent with Johns new hive.