At the Holker Garden Festival with the Furness Beekeeper’s Association.  These are the guys who are providing us with bees and giving Margaret her training.  The Chairman, Mike Luke, had a very impressive stand and our kids enjoyed the Live Bee Show.  A working hive is placed in a gazebo and the participants don a bee suit and experience for themselves the opening of the live bee hive.
The festival, which is the biggest in Cumbria, was packed on a perfect summer’s day.  Bumped into the hosts, Lord and Lady Cavendish and invited them to visit us at Hampton Court.

                                                                                                                   Jonathan

Called at the Joinery Shop in Kendal, in torrential rain,  to check on the progress in building the Apiary.  The roof is almost finished and is lying in the yard, covered in tarpaulin.  Richard, the joiner, lifts the tarpaulin to give me a look.  A very impressive sight.  This is no stage-set or temporary structure.  The Apiary is being built to last 50 years, exactly as it would have been in Victorian times.   The cedar shingles  are due to arrive tomorrow.  We have had a lot of debate about the material for the roof covering- cedar shingles were our first choice, but we need them to look aged, which is a difficult effect to achieve in a few weeks.  Then we thought about lead ( ruled out as it  is too heavy) and oak  (too liable to shrink unevenly).  After a lot of tooing and froing Chris , (the ironmonger)  perfected a way of aging the cedar convincingly.  Each shingle will have to be cut into a scallop shape , a very laborious process, especially as the sizes vary with the diminishing courses.Inside, good progress has been made on building the main structure- the main panels are finished.

                                                                                       Jonathan

A bronze sculpture of my daughter Georgina (14) has pride of place here opposite the Perfume Garden, soon to be seen by 160,000 visitors.  She’s pictured here with the sculptor, Martin Duffy.  (http://www.thesculpturecollective.co.uk/)

 This is my first visit to Chelsea on Press Day.  It’s bliss- no crowds!  The tension is palpable as the finishing touches are made to the gardens prior to the judging. 

Here are the judges in one of the main show gardens.  The very same people will be judging our garden at Hampton Court in six week’s time!

 I keep on seeing familiar faces and stop myself from saying “Hello” just in time as I realise that I don’t really know them- they are off the telly.  The paps are everywhere and I’m soon snapping away with them…Here are some faces you might recognise: