Monday to Friday of last week was almost perfect summer weather. Pleasantly warm, blue skies, majestic cumulonimbus clouds and sunshine. Realizing that this summer has been very hit and miss and may well continue to be so - it has rained for the last three days - I decided to walk to Hampstead Heath. I make this delightful five mile round trip fairly regularly but I hadn’t for a while so off I went. Hampstead Heath is a jewel in the crown of North London. London has many fantastic wild spaces, Richmond Park, Sydenham Hill Wood and Barnes Common for example, but ‘the heath’ is my favourite. It has a unique vibe and romance, as painters including John Constable, since time immemorial, would attest. It has the views, the historical pub, The Spaniards Inn, the glorious Georgian masterpiece Kenwood house. It has it all. A natural space which remains pleasantly wild, you can look across at the vast concrete and steel jungle that is contemporary London, from high up on the heath, whilst simultaneously watching bees feed on plants which have grown in this very spot for thousands of years. It's a beautiful juxtaposition. St Paul’s Cathedral, the London eye, the Shard… London is a feast for the senses and this view is one I never tire of looking at. In all seasons too. The lushness of the trees at the moment and the hum of insects is most welcome and perhaps this is my favourite time of all. The crickets in August are pretty good too, chirping away. 

My plan was to see butterflies and I wasn’t disappointed: the meadow brown with its eye-like wing spot being the most prominent. There were also a cabbage white or two, a red admiral, a small blue one I couldn't identify, and several amusingly-named 'gatekeepers'. I’d have no doubt seen more if I’d spent more time or explored a bit more but I’m too lazy and impatient to be a true aficionado. Nature isn’t bothered with whether we spot it or not. It doesn’t have the ‘look at me’ narcissism of humans. It’s not there purely for our pleasure. Sometimes you just need to sit it out but I don’t tend to. I did see a dragonfly too, almost certainly an emperor due to its size but it wasn’t hanging about so neither was I. This is not to talk down my experience, short as it was, it was truly delightful. Bees and butterflies may not have the power of a golden eagle or the breathtaking presence of a dolphin but they are amongst my favorite things in the natural world.

A bee on a flower, in particular, has me spellbound. Butterflies have the beauty and the fragility but bees really are the work horses. They are quaker like in their unwillingness to waste a second of time. Completely focussed on what they have to do, they work with calm precision and dedication to their task. A bee on lavender is my contribution to the “still life” movement 2020 style. And they don’t fight either. If they find themselves around a flower with another bee they just move to the next one. Busy as a bee indeed. As a human I like down-time, leisure time. A pleasure which seems to be denied to bees, but if I do take inspiration from them it's to cherish the short time in which we share their lives with them over the summer months. If you have a garden or a park nearby go have a look. You might find a Bumblebee - the most prominent bee both in terms of size and noise. Or a Honey Bee, the classic bee we all know due to their eponymous product. You might even come across a solitary bee - much smaller than honey bees, they don’t form colonies, hence the name. Look out for them. Let’s not forget that these pollinators, as well as the hover flies - which are common too - are vital to our food supplies. Bees deserve to be cherished and nurtured as we do our children. This is no exaggeration, without bees we won’t eat. They like Lavender and Buddleia amongst other plants if you're lucky enough to have a garden and want to help. But the best thing to do is go to the garden centre and see where the bees are landing. They also like bramble, if you have any growing wild, and my wild hydrangea is proving popular too.

And as summer moves swiftly on have you seen or heard the swifts? They’ll probably be gone in a couple of weeks. Back to Africa. A highlight for me this year was walking on a warm still night at dusk a few weeks ago and suddenly a ‘screech’ of about twenty swifts sped by against the pale blue and red sky. It’s normally more like three or four that fly together so this was particularly spectacular. Look out for them, you know by now, the half crescent moon shape, the screech and the extraordinary speed and agility. They’re a wonder. Have a look above your head, though you’re more likely to hear them before you see them.