Local art gallery will be buzzing soon

I popped out earlier today to take a short drive over to the beautiful Compton Verney, an art gallery in the Warwickshire countryside. The reason for my visit was to meet with the grounds manager to chat bees.

Twitter is an amazing thing because you can chat (or should that be tweet) and socialise with people from all corners of the world on every subject. I set up a twitter account almost three years ago. Initially I used it for my job at DEVELOP3D magazine tweeting about design and engineering related stuff but since I started beekeeping at the beginning of the year, my network has grown and I now follow a range of beekeepers and organisations involved in beekeeping. It's been a really valuable resource for a newbie beekeeper like me.

Anyway, I digress, the reason for this post was how I came to be at Compton Verney on a bee-related mission. I came to follow Gary Webb on twitter, the grounds manager at Compton Verney, a little while ago (Compton Verney is very special to me as I was married there in January 2011). One day I tweeted Gary asking whether Compton Verney have thought about keeping bees. The grounds are huge and 'Compton Verney Honey' has a nice ring to it. He tweeted back saying that it is something they have looked into. After a few more tweets and a couple of emails, I set off to Compton Verney this morning to have acup of tea and chat about beekeeping with Gary.

He told me that they've wanted to keep bees at Compton Verney for a while and have located an area in the grounds that would be suitable. They obviously want to start small with just a couple of hives, which is wise. There is a local beekeeping couple who Gary has been in touch with who will be leading the set up of the apiary. My role will be as a volunteer and I'll come and inspect the bees and help out whenever needed. So, early next year we'll all be meeting up to discuss the'plan bee'. I'm very excited.

Also, I'm glad that today of all days I went to Compton Verney as the mansion, lake and gardens looked so beautiful in all the frost.