Good morning. It’s nearly seven AM in New Zealand.  The sky is bright blue with hardly a cloud in the sky. A very light southerly breeze is ruffling the cabbage tree leaves. The tuis are singing in the flowering pohutukawa trees (our red flowering Christmas trees). The odd starling is pecking at the stale bread on the lawn.
 
Inside the kitchen windows are already steamed up from cooking the vegetables for our family lunch.
 
 Down under it’s summer and it’s going to be another good day with temperatures in the mid twenties Celsius.  The first bees have just begin flying and soon there will be a hum in the air as they bring in nectar from the kamahi (which is just finishing along the river fringes) plus blackberry, lotus major, and pohutukawa along the coastline and in the cities while on marginal land and the bush fringes in our area manuka is just flowering.  
 
Hive are stacked up tall as the bees respond to what ever they think provides the best return for their efforts, gathering storing and white waxing the combs with natures bounties. It’s going to be a productive honey flow as the weather has been fine and mild for the last couple of weeks but rain is on the way to freshen up the pasture and keep things flowering.
 
Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year with loved ones where ever you are.
 
Frank Lindsay  		 	   		  
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