It's midsummer - we have arrived at the longest day and the shortest night of the year. Summer Solstice is the peak of the solar year and the sun is at the height of its life-giving power. Our Community Garden is awash with fertility and life and this is a time to celebrate together.

So to celebrate Summer Solstice this week we were lucky enough to have a group bee keeping session run by Sarah, our bee mentor.

Two weeks ago we spotted a swarm of bees over our site so we called Sarah and she managed to encourage them into a temporary box with super frames in it. This week we looked inside and found that they had developed a healthy queen with brood and pollen showing in the frames, which is great news. So, Sarah has placed them carefully into a full sized hive and we will add more brood frames for them to continue to expand their colony. We now have three healthy colonies on site.

The group members take it in turns to do a session in a bee suit with Sarah and Jo had her first close up look inside the hives this week. She really enjoyed it and can't wait to do it again next month. We will keep you posted on the colonies health and growth throughout the year.

Summer Solstice is a great time to celebrate life and community so we also marked the day together with some delicious vegan cakes (on bee napkins of course!)

Happy Summer Solstice to everyone from all of us at the Community Garden!