If only bees could tell their tale – and they have

First posted in January 2021 and suffice to say that our pollinators are still very much in danger.

We are changing this world in so many ways and in some cases we haven’t got so much historical data to go by to see how much change is taking place. Thankfully, due to a PhD study on the feeding habits of bees in 1952 it was possible to repeat the survey in 2017 during another PhD research study to see what had changed. The data extracted shows how the landscape of the UK has changed in those short few decades, https://phys.org/news/2021-01-honeybees-reveal-floral-landscape-years.html, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55662985. Bees along with many other pollinators are suffering because of intensive farming and the increasing use of pesticides. Something that we should all be worried about.

I became interested in bees due to my wider interest in environmental change to human activity. So far I have written two stories for the 8-12 year old reader on the adventures of bees that face similar problems to real bees. In the first story, Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow (two versions), https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Endangered-Meadow-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/198320384X/, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Endangered-Meadow-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/B08BW5Y3CS/, the bees need to stop some greedy farmers building on their meadow. In the UK we have lost 97% of our meadows since the middle of the 20th century. Then in the follow up, Busy Bee and the Silent Spring, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Silent-Spring-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/B088JFN1ZV/, the bees have to solve the problem of a nearby farmer using banned pesticides. Although for younger readers a few adults have said that they enjoyed reading them too.

Our links

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

Our Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/JunagarhMedia.

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If only bees could tell their tale – and they have

Originally posted 15th January 2021

We are changing this world in so many ways and in some cases we haven’t got so much historical data to go by to see how much change is taking place. Thankfully, due to a PhD study on the feeding habits of bees in 1952 it was possible to repeat the survey in 2017 during another PhD research study to see what had changed. The data extracted shows how the landscape of the UK has changed in those short few decades, https://phys.org/news/2021-01-honeybees-reveal-floral-landscape-years.html, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55662985. Bees along with many other pollinators are suffering because of intensive farming and the increasing use of pesticides. Something that we should all be worried about.

I became interested in bees due to my wider interest in environmental change to human activity. So far I have written two stories for the 8-12 year old reader on the adventures of bees that face similar problems to real bees. In the first story, Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow (two versions), https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Endangered-Meadow-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/198320384X/, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Endangered-Meadow-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/B08BW5Y3CS/, the bees need to stop some greedy farmers building on their meadow. In the UK we have lost 97% of our meadows since the middle of the 20th century. Then in the follow up, Busy Bee and the Silent Spring, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Silent-Spring-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/B088JFN1ZV/, the bees have to solve the problem of a nearby farmer using banned pesticides. Although for younger readers a few adults have said that they enjoyed reading them too.

Our links

See more of Gerry Newton’s wonderful art, https://www.geraldnewtonart.com/.

Our Teemill shop site for our organic cotton clothes and bags, https://junagarh-media.teemill.com/.

My author page where you can discover more about my books, https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07D3ZTQ1L.

This is our website for all our photography and my books, https://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk/.

We are also on Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/21104365@N06/.

Also on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/junagarh_media/.

If only bees could tell their tale – and they have

We are changing this world in so many ways and in some cases we haven’t got so much historical data to go by to see how much change is taking place. Thankfully, due to a PhD study on the feeding habits of bees in 1952 it was possible to repeat the survey in 2017 during another PhD research study to see what had changed. The data extracted shows how the landscape of the UK has changed in those short few decades, https://phys.org/news/2021-01-honeybees-reveal-floral-landscape-years.html, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55662985. Bees along with many other pollinators are suffering because of intensive farming and the increasing use of pesticides. Something that we should all be worried about.

I became interested in bees due to my wider interest in environmental change to human activity. So far I have written two stories for the 8-12 year old reader on the adventures of bees that face similar problems to real bees. In the first story, Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow (two versions), https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Endangered-Meadow-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/198320384X/, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Endangered-Meadow-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/B08BW5Y3CS/, the bees need to stop some greedy farmers building on their meadow. In the UK we have lost 97% of our meadows since the middle of the 20th century. Then in the follow up, Busy Bee and the Silent Spring, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Busy-Silent-Spring-Paul-No%C3%ABl/dp/B088JFN1ZV/, the bees have to solve the problem of a nearby farmer using banned pesticides. Although for younger readers a few adults have said that they enjoyed reading them too.

Plantlife and Butterfly Conservation Support

In the UK I am in the process of getting contracts with these two charities and therefore will be donating a percentage of sales from any of our items for sale on our website www.junagarhmedia.co.uk to them. The initial product that I approached them with was my story Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow. This is available as a pdf on our website and for the Kindle and a printed book from Amazon. Below is a synopsis and some artwork. If you need further information about any of our products please don’t hesitate to ask.

Bea Bee is the most resourceful, hardest working and happiest bee living in a hive located in a beautiful meadow. One day she notices a new sign on the gate and goes back to the hive to get wise old bee to come to the gate with her and read the notice as she doesn’t understand all the words. The news is bad; the sign is for a planning application to build houses all over the meadow. Wise Old Bee suggests that only if a rare or endangered species is found in the meadow is there a chance that the meadow can be saved. Bea suggests a wild idea on how to save the meadow from this happening. If they don’t then they are going to have to move the hive.

Her plan is fairly simple. There are some red flowers down near the stream that produce some fairly sticky pollen and she thinks that if she disguises herself as a red bee people will believe that there is a new species of bee. At least it will give the bees time to find out if there is a rare or endangered species in the meadow. Time to tell the Queen about the problem and also a possible solution.

Bea tries out the deception on two young people camping in the meadow and they take several photographs that they load onto social media. Bea has started a series of events that she is unaware of. Two teams are set up, some normal bees to keep a lookout on when visitors are coming and a “red” team to sow the story and keep each other from being caught. They will now try and convince other people but will experts believe them?

Can Bea’s plan and her friends from the meadow find a way to save it from being built on?

Bea and Wise Old Bee read the new notice.

The meadow

 

Flowers in Richmond Park

We went to Richmond and its park today. It is like much of the rest of the country in that it is very dry. There is a small garden there where I took this photo of an unknown bee on an unknown flower. I’m sure somebody can tell me what they are. I have learnt a lot about bees since writing “Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow” but also learnt that there is now far more that I don’t know. I was never that big a fan of biology on my Environmental Science course as Climatology for me was always the most interesting subject. As a matter of interest I will do a bit of BBC bashing here as it seems more interested in what the Royal WAGs are wearing at Wimbledon then what is going on in the real world. I look at Al Jazeera a lot and the disastrous fires raging in our neighbour Sweden appear to be going unreported at the beeb.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/sweden-wildfires-heatwave-drought-180719134605446.html

They have now corrected their coverage of this serious event.

Proofs Have Arrived – Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow Soon Available as A4 Book

The proofs arrived today of my story, Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow. I just need to read them and then press the publish button on Amazon’s KDP platform. The story is already available for the Kindle and devices that run the app. It is also available as a pdf for PCs, Mac and tablets with a pdf reader from our website, www.junagarhmedia.co.uk. I hope that you like it.

Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow – Reviewers Wanted

If you would like to read my new story and review it for me I would be very happy to send you a copy of the pdf version. The pdf will run on any PC, Mac or tablet that has a pdf reader installed. The pdf is for sale if you want to buy if from our website, www.junagarhmedia.co.uk. At the moment it is only available for Kindle from Amazon but will be available as an A4 story and colouring in book once we receive and approve the proofs. 

Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow – Proofs Ordered

I have today ordered the proofs of the story so it should be available as Print on Demand as well the Kindle app and tablet. Later today I will load the pdf version onto our website Junagarh Media

I hope that some of you like the story I will be giving a percentage of earnings away to any good causes that buyers request.

Published – Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow

After completely reading through the story twice today and making all the editing changes I have at last loaded up the kindle version onto the Amazon KDP platform. Now for the pdf and Print on Demand versions.

Another day of reading and editing

I’m getting close to finishing Busy Bee and the Endangered Meadow. It has taken far longer than I had hoped but it is at a point where I have done all I can with it. Hopefully, at least the Kindle version will be available this weekend.