Flowering Currant.

I took this picture just over eleven months ago (it is now 31 March 2017); once a week or two had passed without me posting, it had lost its topicality; but now, it is back in favour.
 
The flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) is used as an indicator species amongst the bee keeping fraternity; at least, that’s what all the books tell you. The story is that once the shrub is in flower, it is o.k. to open beehives. There is a lot of rubbish spoken about such matters, as there is about everything else; the perceived wisdom is that opening a hive in poor weather lets out heat and it takes the bees several days to recover. However, there are researchers who open their colonies daily, all the year round and whatever the weather and their bees seem to manage on this regime. I prefer to open my hives when the weather is warm and sunny with little wind because it is at times like this when the flying bees, those that sting, are out on official business; they’re busy foraging, while the younger bees, who haven’t yet graduated to these risky duties are busy indoors: polishing cells ready for the queen, feeding and caring for brood and all the other housekeeping chores so, being gainfully employed (and not having learned how to sting) will generally allow the bee keeper to go about his business unmolested.
 
This very same harbinger of the warmer spring weather has been in flower here for several days, three weeks earlier than I took this picture when it first flowered last year. The word on the street is that nature is three weeks earlier than it was last year, and here is the supporting evidence.