House on the Hill.

I had a session with one of my beekeepers this afternoon, the bees were a little feisty, but not a problem. She did rather well compared with the last time I watched her work, but then she was handling somebody else's bees while the somebody else was watching. Having said that, she will soon need to demonstrate in front of the examiner. We corrected problems with the way that the hives were put together and discussed how the apiary could be re-arranged to give the bees protection from the wind (that's what med then feisty) and then went over the importance of feeding bees at this time of the year. There is often surprisingly little natural food available at in spring, just when they need it most; the colony is trying to build up its population so there are few foraging bees compared with the younger house-bees and developing brood and so it is often the time when  they will suddenly run out of stores and die of starvation.

After we'd finished, I went for a stroll around the nearby Hadfast Valley Nature Reserve and it was from there that I saw this striking house with the remains of its walled garden.