All Creatures Great And Small

Today I met this elegant, but unimpressed fellow while I was cutting wood in the forest at Paul's place. He or she is a very well-fed blue tongue lizard who is clearly hoping I will go away soon. I love cutting wood in the forest for so many reasons, such as getting to associate with blue tongue lizards and playing with my baby electric chainsaw, but also because it sounds as if I am inhabiting a Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.

The most exciting thing though, was when I discovered a wild beehive in a hollow tree trunk. I took this photo back up to the house to show Paul.
"Guess what?" I said, "I've found a thing you have always wanted, and it's in your own forest!"
"A yacht?" asked Paul hopefully.
"No," I said, "Not a yacht."
Happily Paul was nearly as excited about the beehive as he would have been about the yacht. Nearly.

One of our lovely beekeeper friends has promised to bring us an empty beehive that we can artfully place nearby so that when the bees fill up the hollow in the tree they can begin to cast covetous glances at the large expanse of real-estate so temptingly close by and think about shifting to larger premises...

I recently discovered that before bee hives were invented, even before those cute plaited straw beehives of medieval times, bees were kept in short lengths of hollow logs where they made beautiful honeycombs the size and shape of dinner plates. Here is a beautiful and evocative little film about hollow log beehives. We are very happy that we have been blessed with beautiful bees.