Froggy Pond…..Free Bee-friendly Seeds…..Trees….
by Bernie Bell - 11:27 on 18 March 2023
Froggy Pond….
When the pond in our garden froze earlier this week, we wondered how the frogs were managing. Mike knocked holes in the ice to let some air in, but it was very thick ice and we thought we might just be giving them a headache thumping on it, as it does reverberate.
The answer is….. they were managing just fiiiine. The ice thawed - the sun came out, and there they are, mating, swimming about, moving Lotte back and forth across the pond.
We have a ‘floating stone’ which we named Lotte, after Lotte Glob who made it https://lotteglob.co.uk/ , and when the frogs are active she gets moved about a lot – and sometimes turned upside down!
The human Lotte is a ceramicist and all-round wonder-full person. She lives and works in an old croft near Loch Eriboll, in Sutherland, and produces wonders – including floating stones. She made 333 of these, and floated them on 111 lochans throughout Scotland, then made a book about her travels.
We visited Lotte, and brought home a floating stone to remind us of her, and her wonder-full croft-land.
We’re waiting for the day when we see a frog sitting on top of Lotte! I think she’d approve.
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Free Bee-friendly Seeds……
I received the following from ’38 Degrees’…. https://home.38degrees.org.uk/ ….
We won’t be taking them up on their offer as our garden provides itself with plenty of seeds! But I thought that maybe readers of my blog might like to go for it…..
“In just the last 20 years, 60% of our flying insects have vanished.”
David Attenborough, Wild Isles
Bernie, this alarming stat includes Britain's bees, which we rely on for a third of our food supply. [1]
But the decline in wildflower meadows means the bees' food is running out fast. [2] If they’ve got less food, there’ll be fewer bees to pollinate our crops - which means we’ll have less food too. And for the third year in a row, the UK Government has approved the use of a bee-killing pesticide on certain crops, showing the health of our bees isn't a priority for them. [3]
But as the 38 Degrees community, we don't just sit back and let bad things happen.
That's why thousands of us up and down the country have already signed up to get packets of bee-friendly seeds to plant this spring. It’s something simple that you can do too, Bernie. And it could make a massive difference, by giving our bees enough food to survive and thrive this spring. But you haven't signed up for your pack yet. The seeds are going fast, and once they’re gone, they’re gone!
So Bernie, will you sign up now to get your very own packet of seeds to plant this spring - and chip in for others to get a packet too if you can? Seeds will be limited to one packet per person so as many people as possible can take part and plant seeds up and down the country.
Don’t want to plant seeds yourself? Why not chip in to pay for someone else's packet so we can send out even more seeds to help our bees.
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a large garden or a plant pot on a windowsill - anyone can help our bees by planting some seeds.
Last year over 60,000 38 Degrees supporters - people like you - came together to sow seeds for our bees. This year we can do even better, and fill green spaces with flower food to help our buzzy friends.
Bernie, will you sign up now, to give our bees a helping hand? The seeds will need to be planted in the next few weeks, and the more of us who sign up, the more flowers there’ll be for our bees!
Thanks for all that you do,
Simma, Megan, Jonathan and the 38 Degrees team
P.S. Seeds will be posted at the end of March, and should be with you by April 15th - ready to be planted. If you have any more questions about this campaign or the seeds themselves, check out our FAQ page: https://38d.gs/SeedsFAQ
NOTES:
[1] UN Environment Programme: Why bees are essential to people and planet
[2] The Independent: ‘An alarm bell we must not ignore’: Major report calls for huge pesticide reductions to halt collapse in vital insect populations
BBC News: The fight to save vanishing wildflower meadows
[3] The Independent (paywall): Ministers allow banned bee-killing pesticide to be used for third year running
NB…..I didn’t understand the ’chip in’ bit – but realised that the idea is…… as the offer is limited to one free packet per person, a person can pay to have a packet sent to someone else.
I can be a bit obtuse sometimes.
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Trees….
They are the lungs of the planet, and this is what we do to them…
https://twitter.com/paulpowlesland/status/1635770693244661761
If that film makes you wince – you can take action to try to prevent something similar happening…..
https://twitter.com/BonkersBusway/status/1635910569264857088?cxt=HHwWgIC21dn_9bMtAAAA
I’ve just posted a blog about how we humans treat other forms of life - trees have been found to communicate with each other and help each other and can help us, too – especially in an urban environment where contact with the natural world is helpful – can be vital - for our well-being.
It isn’t just the trees themselves - it’s all the life that lives in and on them and depends on them for life.
What do these people cutting the trees down think they are doing? Following orders, I suppose – orders from whom? The local Council? Councils are supposed to work for the people - ??????
PS
They’re not getting away with the sneaky night-time felling…..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-64974072
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Here’s one I made earlier….. https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/06/10/we-be-of-one-blood-thou-and-i-the-jungle-book-rudyard-kipling/
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