Collaborating with the Bees

At the end of August, Neil and I - plus our two cats, Kaniss and Lexi - moved from Inverness to Nairn. It was with a huge amount of excitement that, with the help of the amazing team from New Start Highland’s removals division, we unloaded the van and celebrated our arrival in this wonderful town.

As the warm weather persisted into September and October, I turned my attention to our new garden. It’s very much a blank canvas, and I immediately started plotting great things!

Around the same time, at the end of September, Gordon Ross came to speak at our Climate Café at The Highland Weigh. Gordon is a beekeeper... and when I say beekeeper, I mean it. He has 100 hives and supplies our store with the most delicious honey!

On the evening of the event, we sat down as a group, eating toasted sourdough topped with Gordon’s Highland Honey while he told us about how he cares for his bees: what happens when they swarm, how bad-tempered they get on wet, windy days, and what a great season it’s been for them. Thanks to the warm, settled weather, they’ve been out foraging most days.

Now, you may wonder how this relates to me moving house and my new garden. When Gordon explained that his bees cover up to three miles... so essentially all of Nairn - my ears pricked up. With my love of bees, toast, and honey, it occurred to me that just as we love collaborating with businesses in Nairn, I also want to collaborate with the bees!

So as I plan our new garden and start a list of priorities (Neil feeds the birds, the cats like shrubs to sleep under, and we all enjoy sitting outside), the bees are firmly on that list too. And although at the moment I’m still at the messy digging stage, in my mind I’m already sitting in the garden, eating toast with Highland honey and watching bees in my flower-filled borders.