Light and Shade

Diwali. Festival of Lights. To quote Wikipedia: "symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. The festival is widely associated with Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity and Ganesha, god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles." Well, let's hope so

The day has certainly been resplendent. I have so many pictures of autumn hedgerows and dramatic, multi-coloured skies, glowing ironstone walls and even a rainbow. But this is a farewell picture, so this trumps them all. We set off on our big trip on Thursday, so this is expected to be my last sight of our apiary until December. Let's hope the stag-head oak on the right hangs on through another season of autumn gales. If it ever blows over, the hives on the left are in peril from the falling crown.

The tall trees on the left mark the route of the Nethercote Brook; mostly it is a small stream in a deep channel, but we are near the head of the valley, so heavy storms can lead to flooding. We have had years when water was flowing under hives, but never (yet) into any. Badgers have a holt in the bank of the brook; they have never (yet) disturbed the colonies, but it is not unknown elsewhere. They did once dig out a wasps nest from the ground nearby; the wasps were attempting to rob honey from the bees, so we treat the badgers friends

The gateway in the far hedge is a road to nowhere. The land beyond it is not ours. It is not a public footpath. We never use it. Nevertheless, I like it being there; it gives glimpses of the high land surrounding us, and sometimes dramatic vistas of flocks of birds stealing our neighbour's crops

The bees have supplementary feed to help them through the short days - hardly needed in this year of plenty, but it helps me sleep easy. The roofs are weighted to resist gusting wind. The light, polystyrene hive is strapped down. All is as it should be

All these things I see and think about as I look at this scene. You, I hope, see a full palette of greens fading into gold; a classic autumn sky of blue and white and grey; lengthening shadows and a low, kind sun providing a festival of light