The grass is greener

The Bee Farmers Association - which represents professional beekeepers - has reacted with a puzzled shrug to the government's assertion that Brexit has enabled them to export honey to Saudi Arabia. Only 10% of the honey consumed in UK is produced here, so there is little incentive for producers to look for export markets. If honey has gone from UK to Saudi, it is almost certainly honey brought here from overseas then sold on, at a profit

About one-third of our imports come from China, with significant quantities also from India (some of which is also of China origin), Vietnam and (in the past - not sure now) Ukraine. It is absurdly cheap; it is the reason why supermarkets can sell 'honey' at £1 par pound (£2.20/kg) or less. It it very likely that a lot of China honey has been adulterated by sugar syrup. Sophisticated tests to detect adulteration are available, but the resources to use them here are not. Some forms of adulteration are difficult to detect even with the best of tests. Perhaps Saudi Arabia will be more assiduous

There is something fascinating about seeing the world from a higher than usual place - it's why we climb hills and mountains, I suppose. Even 2.5 metres up on a flat roof in my own garden comes with a little jolt of excitement - the familiar places from an unfamiliar angle. The apple tree tidier than it was at new year; the chickens sticking to their own garden for once; the snowdrops not quite yet at peak frothiness; the brewery stable-door left open for the return of its residents; the stone wall that I rebuilt at this time last year still vertical

I spent the morning taking all last year's growth off the green roof. It leaves it looking a little ragged, but the new growth will soon begin. After a bit of trial-and-error, I found the mist effective way of clearing it was simply to rip it off by hand. Hard work, but satisfying. At this time of year, most of what remains green is grass, and I'm happy to rip that back as far as possible. The annuals have all dropped their seeds, the perennials have mostly died back to ground level. Mrs M found some wild-flower seeds at the back of a drawer, so I wiil spread those around now that some soil is exposed. Too windy to try it today