bees, butterflies and mushrooms

We are having some glorious weather, warm, dry and sometimes even sunny. Could this be the start of the beautiful autumn we wished for ? I hope so. Even butterflies and bees have found our garden at last.

It has been an anxious time for the bees this year. Firstly a late frosts destroyed tree blossoms. This was followed by the wettest summer since 1912 (!), so little pollen for bees to collect. We like to buy a local honey, but until now there wasn't any in the local shops, it seemed that the beekeepers would have to keep most of the honey back, to keep their bees alive through the cold months. So it is so nice to see our little stripy friends busying themselves in our garden at last.

And yesterday I found the first jar of local honey in our shop.

                                                                 

Autumn has its own attractions and a good autumn can be wonderful!

One of the pleasures for us is picking forest mushrooms. 

The mushroom season starts for us much later then in the rest of Europe. Actually, it is much harder to pick them here, as they start growing about the same time as the leaves are changing colour and start falling from the trees, so the mushrooms are not always easy to see. On our walk this morning we spotted first signs,  something is growing at last!

And not long after that :

                    

We did not come home empty-handed. 

I know, I know, this is a very small find by some of your standards, but this is just the start of the season. 

In the past we had some good years for mushroom picking, lets hope this year will be a good one also.

But it was enough for a good breakfast.

Ahhh, the smell - you can't buy this in a supermarket!