Zam Pollum, Brambles, Bees, Rock Roses...

An afternoon spent in the glorious fragrance of honeycomb, rolling up a fresh batch of 'Zam Pollum' candles (Zam Pollum is the bee queen in Leonora Carrington's novel, 'The Hearing Trumpet'). I make the candles with wax from a supplier in Lincolnshire, whose sales support the charity Bees For Development. More on their work here:

http://www.beesfordevelopment.org

We had a hot, sunny morning here and I walked around the Haven to the Market Garden on Oxford Street, the air busy with swallows, brambles beginning to flower under the goat willow:

I picked some alexanders on the way (buttercups and alexanders were so abundant this year we called it a 'yellow spring', cold as it was) for an experimental soup:

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Then a flower from the market garden, which I didn't realise was the Rock Rose of the Bach Flower Remedies ('Rock Rose became full of terror' Dr Edward Bach, 1934), or a pinkier helianthemum cousin:

It's living under the Buddha Tree by my front door now.