Three months ago I planted, very carefully, flower seeds of three varieties. My solitary success has been a beautiful blood red poppy that has flowered continuously for several weeks.

Near the poppy, high off the ground in a sunny position sits the Bee Box also called a Bee Hotel. We did not really believe that any bees would find it, much less live in it but this afternoon Jeremy called me over to see the first occupied room.

Apparently many varieties of bees are “solitary” and do not live in hives. These bees need to find homes in which to nest and raise their larvae. The green coloured wax at the entrance to the wooden tube shows that a bee has settled in for the winter and closed itself inside. I don’t yet know how it will emerge or remove the doorstop.
We inherited a beautifully laid out front garden and although there is a lot of grass to cut and hedges and bushes to trim the pleasure certainly outweighs the effort. The sumac tree has just lit up with velvety plum coloured candles and we pruned the arch of laurel and honeysuckle yesterday using our ancient hedge trimmer and a rickety ladder. We survived as did the arch.


Jeremy planted the two rose bushes that I bought from the nearby garden centre. It took patience and persistence to dig up the rubble filled ground under the lawn but the result is a new burst of colour and two new additions to The Gables front garden.