Rare Firs, champion maples and pines from far flung countries such as Japan, Tasmania, the Andes and China are just some of the species of trees in the small pretty park of Cefn On in Cardiff.

I just catch a glimpse of a late Spring bluebell.

Together with forest flame, azaleas and rhododendrons along the winding paths. As a child I used to thread the fallen pastel & vibrant coloured flowers onto a stick.

The stunning pond iris catch my eye. Bees love yellow – it’s one of their favourite colours (as well as blue, purple, violet and white)

and I have been enjoying the various bee yellow offerings in our gardens in Wales and Ireland …

The Welsh poppies….

Primrose

Gorse

And dandelion

And the centre of this apple blossom

We opened up the hive today and swapped three honey frames from the half brood box with some drawn out empty frames from the honey super above the queen excluder. The main and half brood box are packed so we hope by giving the queen a bit more room to lay she won’t consider swarming this year. So far, so good as for two consecutive years we have had swarms on the same day .May 14th!

Here are a couple of pictures of our hive taken today ..with arum lilies foreground and the bees shining brightly in the May sunshine.