(B)eerily quiet

I have in my garden a lovely bank of lavender of which the picture here is just a small but fragrant (just like me!) part.

Usually in the summer it is quite literally buzzing ...with bees funnily enough.

However, today in full English sun and mid-July there was not a sausage. Nor a bee.

Just where have all the bees buzzed off to??

I looked for ages but they definitely weren't hiding in the bushes.

Various theories for the tumble of the bumble have been trailed - Other buzzing mobiles, GM crops/Monsanto, illness or pesticides, habitat loss.

The death of the bee is being described as 'Colony Collapse Disorder'. And we could suffer the same collapse as Robert Edwards, a North Carolina farmer put it starkly to a congressional hearing in America on the matter, "No bees, no crops," .

With food prices already high this is not good. And what's more, as our favourite tipple, warm beer, grows on plants the great winged wipeout will mean we won't even be able to drown our sorrows or cry in our beer. No bee, no beer.

Some useful links
Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Campaign to increase research funding into what's happening to our bees with the British Beekeepers Association.

And as 'personal responsibility' is the buzz phrase of the moment why not bee responsible and follow the wildlife gardening tips from The Wildlife Trust.

If you think my puns are bad you could try these