Dear friends

“Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not’’. British beekeepers were surprised and happy to see an apiary of bee hives being looked after by moustachioed apiarists, featured within the rural scene that opened the London Olympic Games. Around the Olympic Stadium, wildflower meadows of bee-friendly cornflowers, marigolds and prairie blossoms were mown especially early in the season so as to bloom gold during the Games. Ten football fields’ worth of nectar-rich wildflower meadows, 4,000 trees, 300,000 wetland plants, and more than 150,000 perennial plants and bushes are planted around the Olympic Park and Village, planned to provide a park for people and wildlife for generations to come.

And July 2012 has been a very good month for openings! Earlier in the month, in our genuinely rural and green hill-surrounded world of Monmouth, we celebrated the opening of Bees for Development’s new premises. BBC Broadcaster Bill Turnbull - who has steadfastly been supporting us as a Patron of BfD Trust for ten years now, cut the red ribbon. To add to the celebration, Monmouth organised a one-day Bee Festival with street theatre, live bees - plus human ones in bee costumes, competitions for children, and displays of plants and all things bee-related: a smaller scale event than that in London, yet enjoyed by participants and spectators - and commonly agreed to be a great success!

Bill Turnbull cuts the ribbon and declares Bees for Development’s premises open

PHOTO © BfD