I have just returned from another round of watering our youngest trees on the land… It’s been a summer of periods of very dry weather and torrential downpours. Sadly for some of our broadleaf trees our watering efforts came too late. We have also finished defining the Northern Heath areas – this involved a lot of gorse cutting by hand over a two year period. There is a bit of chainsaw and brushcutter work left and then it will take minimal effort every two years to keep these precious habitats open.
As the covid restrictions were eased, what was most evident this summer was the increased human activity on the land. We had Paul Howell’s vision quest group camping here again for a week plus the shelter being used on a regular basis by the Northern Light Sangha and less regularly by other groups. Birgit Carow initiated and held gatherings around a fire for young families with small kids for many weeks on Friday mornings -it’s been a joy to see them around the picnic table and in the woods. We also had an unusual overnight visit from a lady with two horses who does cross country charity rides… In addition we had three work-parties with about 10 attendees each – to catch up with work in the Edible Woodland Garden with a small but much appreciated grant from Volunteering Matters to help fund this work. A few people have also started using and enjoying staying on our camping pads during the last couple of months. Other events included ‘Hinterland Tours’ being restarted with some great feedback and as you probably know this is the first year when we, the Findhorn Hinterland Trust, are offering our own retreat programmes.
I am particularly excited about running these retreats here in and for Hinterland as they are a way for us to share some of the wisdom amongst our members as well as the magic of the land. They also open a potential and much needed income stream for the Findhorn Hinterland Trust and the partnership with the Findhorn Foundation is proving to be a fruitful one – hopefully building a model of cross partnerships within our community in the future.
The first weekend retreat held at the beginning of July was very successful with two of the retreat participants coming back to support the next retreat. We are about to start that first week-long ‘Out of the Ashes – turning crisis into opportunity’ camping retreat in a few day’s time which, as I write this, is almost fully booked! There are 100 details to consider and organise before the first participants arrive. As this is a first for us there is still a good deal of learning involved …
On a personal level I am grateful for the FHT for having taken me on as their first employee after I was made redundant by the FF in June. It is a half time position and I have to be creative about finding other income but I believe that creating this position of employment for a Land Manager is another step for the trust towards a sustainable future.
Many blessings,
Kajedo Wanderer, August 9, 2021
Three years ago an agreement was sought and granted from the landowner the Findhorn Foundation to build the structure on the southern edge of Wilkies Wood close to the present wood store and access track to the FHT Green Burial site on the northern edge of Pineridge. Henry Fosbrooke, a master builder who built the Outdoor Learning Space building in our Edible Woodland Garden, helped design the building, which will use round timbers cut from our woods for its main structure. Cladding and other squared building timber will also be from our own trees with Logie Sawmill set up to process them – at present you will see them lying in various places next to the Pineridge road. Overall the building will be 100m2 with much of this covered space to keep our materials and tractor and trailer dry with a smaller enclosed space for our workshop facility and safe tool storage. The outside of the building will be used to present educational material. 
This winter the site was cleared by Kajedo Wanderer, our Land Manager, and these trees along with others thinned nearby in the woods, have been measured, selected and dragged to the site using our tractor. We received a small grant from Volunteering Matters to allow us to purchase woodworking tools and for a good many weeks in February/March over 25 volunteers peeled and prepared the logs – a splendid community effort in the snow and darker months. Thanks goes out to all involved.
Our beekeepers come and visit us every week. There are more of them this year and the new ones are keen to learn all about us. It is funny listening to the ‘experienced’ beekeepers talking about us. They know quite a lot but we often give them a surprise by doing something unexpected. Perhaps they should spend more time listening to us.
A bee’s view of life at the Findhorn Apiary August 21
The previous report from the Findhorn Apiary was from my great aunt. She hatched last autumn and had the important role, along with about 10,000 of her sisters, of keeping the colony sustained through the winter. She had to help keep the colony warm and the queen fed ready for laying in the spring. Then there was the vital role of raising the next generation. She worked hard and died at the ripe old age of seven months.
My life is somewhat different, there are so many different jobs to do. My first three weeks of life were spent inside the hive. Shortly after emerging from my cell, having had a good meal, I was set to work as a cleaner. It is amazing the amount of rubbish that can collect in a home. Fortunately our beekeepers have supplied hives with mesh floors so a lot of rubbish falls through it, together with varroa mites. However, I soon progressed to polishing cells, getting them ready for the queen to lay an egg in them. That felt really important.
I was then promoted to nurse. When the eggs hatched I was kept very busy feeding the larvae, they eat so much, their weight increases by 700 times from their hatch weight to when they pupate after 6 days. I was even entrusted with feeding the queen.
My final role within the hive was as a house bee. We had to produce wax and build cells with it. That is really hard work because we have to raise our body temperature to 43C so the wax is soft enough to mould. Other duties included processing and storing nectar and honey, ventilating the hive and distributing water to where it is needed.
Sometimes our beekeepers would come to see how we were getting on, looking through the glass ceiling of our hive. However, I don’t think they really know what we are all doing!
After three weeks I was promoted again, this time to guard duty. At last I can see outside our hive. We patrol the entrance, stopping bees from other hives, or sometimes wasps, coming in and robbing our honey. We can detect the queen’s pheromone on a bee and know if they are not from our hive. However, some bees, especially the drones, get up to devious ways of blagging their way in. We do what we can!
We also help our foraging sisters find the way home by releasing a pheromone from our nasonov gland which is near our sting. So if you see us standing with our bottoms in the air and flapping our wings, that is what we are doing.
From our hive we can see the giant whirring white blades of three ‘windmills’. We have heard people ask our beekeepers what we think of them. Perhaps we are too busy to really notice them. Then came the great day of becoming a forager. We explore the area, sometimes flying two miles, or more, from our hive, looking for good supplies of nectar. We have to carefully note features around our hive so that we know the way home. We also register where the sun is and its movement, so we have a sort of compass to navigate by. I thought that would be difficult but it seems to come naturally. When we find a plentiful source of nectar, we can tell our other foraging sisters inside the hive. We do a dance which gives them the ‘compass’ bearing and distance.
We are blessed with many productive gardens around Findhorn, so usually we do not have to fly too far. There is also, close to us, a bountiful supply of heather which produces delicious honey. I have probably said enough and I am very tired. I am now nearly seven weeks old and I expect very soon I will not have the energy to make it home from a foraging trip. It has been a demanding life but hopefully I have helped our colony prosper.
If you are fortunate enough to sample some of our honey, you can now picture something of the work that has gone into producing it. Goodbye.