Our 60 litre marine reef system continues to evolve: in such a small, closed environment some organisms seem to flourish, while others gradually fade away. Star and disc polyp colonies seem to do best - we've had some since the initial stocking: cabbage corals have also been reliable. The only problem is that there's no room to add any new items!
There are - perhaps surprisingly - nearly 50,000 beekeepers in the UK, maintaining around a quarter of a million hives: Linda (Mrs Bryant!) is one of them. It's hard work - very hard work - requiring commitment (both emotional and financial), patience and consideration for the bees: most apiarists make just enough from selling their produce to break even. The bees? It takes a dozen bees their entire lifetimes to make just a teaspoonful of honey, but the whole hive can yield between 20 and 100 pounds of honey a year.
Visit any supermarket and you'll see a variety of honeys for sale, with prices ranging from a couple of pounds a jar to as much as £100 for the top-of-the-range Manuka honey. But here's the thing: around 1,700 tons of genuine Manuka honey are produced annually in New Zealand, but, according to Crisis Report UK, ten thousand tons are sold around the world!
There is no way that a jar of genuine honey can be sold at a profit for a couple of pounds, yet every supermarket offers numerous brands around that price. When Crisis Report tested runny honey from the major supermarkets, they discovered that most contained psicose, a known chemical 'marker' for fake honey - especially if it's from China.
Genuine honey has long been prized for its therapeutic properties, but that is not the case for the syrup-diluted, blended cheap 'runny honey' offered in most shops. If you're just looking for something sweet to put in your porridge or on your toast and you're not worried about empty calories, well fine: but if you want the real health-giving food, read the label and be prepared to pay a little extra.
Linda and I have both seen the long-staying Eastern Black Redstart on the seafront at Sheringham, but the report of a nearby pair of Eurasian Black Redstarts was an incentive for a revisit! We saw the flamboyant eastern bird as we were parking, but the target birds took a little longer. In the end a friendly local led us to them, along Driftway, where Linda and I have stayed on several occasions. After 'filling up' we walked down to the promenade and, after a bit of to- and fro-ing found a dapper little Purple Sandpiper with a big flock of Turnstones. All this and kippers for lunch!
Early this morning the sky was clear: the first time for ages, it seems! To the south the waning gibbous Moon was in the constellation of Virgo, close to the blue-white star Spica. Part of a binary system, it is around 250 light years from Earth and is one of the twenty brightest stars in the sky.
Towards the Moon's north pole the dark-floored crater Plato was prominent, with the well-known Alpine Valley - an ancient impact scar - close by.
You may have seen posts all over the 'net about an 'amazing line up of all the planets' in the middle of this month. As is often the case, this is a total piece of click bait! The simulation below shows what might be visible at dusk on the 18th: Mars will have set before the Sun, and won't be visible until later in the year (It's close to the Moon and Jupiter in the dawn sky in October) Saturn will be to the south, while Venus and Mercury will be just above the glow of twilight: you'll need a cloudless sky and clear eastern horizon: good luck with that!
At the moment we regularly have twenty or more Blackbirds of all ages and sexes feeding on apples and suet that Linda puts out. Despite the freely-available food with plenty for everyone, the Blackbirds stand by their favoured item for hours on end if not disturbed, driving off all others that approach! (A metaphor for modern humanity!)
Finally, the clouds part briefly to reveal a watery Sun with a couple of impressive sunspot groups. (Remember: never look at or photograph the Sun without the proper equipment!)
There were five or more Snipe visible on the cut reeds in front of Bishop's Hide at Cley yesterday - but not a sign of a Jack Snipe, even using my infra-red detector. Lots of Avocets and Black-tailed Godwits on Pat's too...
