
Sadly we haven’t seen too many of these visitors this year. Add that to the almost complete lack of Bees 🐝. Only a few years back our garden was mobbed by garden visitors but not anymore. Very worrying.

A few weeks back we had a day in the garden and we counted insects for a wildlife survey. You count the highest number of insects at any one time and the best we found was
2 Butterflies in the garden at any one time
0 Bees… ZERO, ZIP, we never saw one all day long
We have been doing this local survey for a few years now. The first time we did the survey, was before Covid, before a Trump President thing, we had the following scores
16 Butterflies at one time
14 Bees at one time
Not good, not good at all.
Sadly something which isn’t missing is the use of the death of a family member in TV and Movies, for dramatic effect. Fine, if it’s a drama movie but Kids stuff….. Two nights ago Hawklad was watching a random Disney type movie and without any warning the mum died. I could see the sadness in his eyes. Then today he’s watching a cartoon and guess what, the mum dies. He turned the TV off and went outside.
At least give some warning if the show is aimed at a young audience. Grief is tough enough without the likes of Disney adding to it.
A few minutes later, Hawklad came back in and quietly said “I’m probably going to stick to Tom & Jerry from now on”. I really can’t disagree with him on this one.
Many kids movies have inappropriate content these days.
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It’s like there is a rush to make adults of our children
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Yes, and in a dichotomy, they make movies for adults which are childish.
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Yes they do
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🧐🧐🧐
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It is a long time since I saw a Disney movie, but I must say the adverts don’t look like children’s programmes
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Most of them aren’t. I think they are doing a Mike Tyson movie….
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That is sad about the absence of butterflies and bees — why is that, do you know?
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Pesticides. The climate is changing. Loss of habitats round here.
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I should’ve known — man destroying nature.
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Sadly so.
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Aw, I really feel for him….. and you too.
Sad about the bees. Everyone has commented here about the sudden abundance of clover everywhere. The bees have been going nuts in the gardens and on the lavender bushes under our window. We’ve seen ground bees, honey bees, and even a couple of the big bumblers. It’s a wonder Maya hasn’t been stung the number she’s been ‘playing’ with.
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We have lavender, in years back they mobbed it. So far not seen one bee over it.
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How odd. Ours was swimming, as was the clover in the back garden. Maya was ‘playing’ with the bees so much I’m surprised she wasn’t stung.
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Never had a dog which has been sting.
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Barney was, and so was Babs, the ex partner’s GSD.
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I’m amazed ours hasn’t with his wanting to lick everything approach.
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Maya loves the chase and biting!
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Ours it’s the licking everything.
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Ha!
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😊
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oh, not many butterflies though other than the cabbage whites attacking our veg!
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They do like veg don’t they
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Especially ours it seemed (sigh)
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Definitely sighs
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There is often too much drama in kids’ movies that they cannot handle what they are confronted with. Too much gets stored in a way that may be haunting them in their subconsciousness.
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I remember him watching a Disney movie when he was something like 7 and asking what cannabis was as someone was trying to buy it.
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Oh, gosh, and that in a Disney movie?
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Disney has changed
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The films are more made for every age which is fun on one hand for the adults but confusing for the kids.
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I miss the simple approach.
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I know what you mean!
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🙏
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I hope the butterflies and bees make a return. I am sorry to hear about the constant reminder but glad he could immediately think of a happier alternative!
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I so prey they will. ❤️
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Oh…😔💕💕💕
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Thank you ❤️
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It is worrisome about the bees, I agree!
And OOH I am sorry about Hawklad, I never understood why kids movies had to have such sad things in them! (((Hugs))) to you both!
Tom and Jerry are very cool!
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It’s like they want to force our kids to become adults earlier and earlier
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Yes, very sad! Kids grow up fast enough!
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Sad to say, it has also become a rarity to see butterflies and bees in my urban garden. My two cucumber vines are loaded with blossoms and no pollinators around to work their magic 😦
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It is so worrying
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I suppose you could start raising bees. It’s quite popular around here -I’d join in, but I’m terrified.
There’s a local comedy group that started doing YouTube videos (Studio C) that made fun of how Disney ALWAYS kills a family member.
I think “Wall-E” is safe. “Incredibles,” maybe. When I asked my kids, they pointed out there are some where the parent is ALREADY dead.
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Wall -E is such a good movie. Incredibles is one of his favourites. I wish someone would do a channel which just had proper family safe entertainment
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No kidding!
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❤️
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Because we live on different hemispheres, I am currently trying to make our garden ready for Spring/Summer. Hoping to bring in some Bees and Butterflies this year. We have a lot of birds though.
Don’t watch any animal Disney films. Actually, when I think about it. There a lot of sad Disney films.
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Our nights are drawing in and some if the birds have already started to migrate.
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Oh no =/
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We live on 2 acres. The decrease in insects has been really alarming. This year, my son decided not to mow behind the house (where most of the land is). It appears to have brought back some, but not all, of them.
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We need to do something or this is going to get really bad for the next generation
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This makes my heart hurt. Sending hugs and positive thoughts your way. 💛🌟
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Thank you my friend ❤️
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I can’t think of the last time I saw a butterfly. We have heaps of bee- and butterfly-friendly plants, and we see bees all the time but rarely butterflies.
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It’s really scary, what will it be like for the next generation. That’s the other thing, it used to be worrying about future generations, now it’s the next generation. The timescales have shortened in just a few years. And now we have a PM who is going to phase out many of the environmental standards.
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Oh God, she’s just the worst, isn’t she? Boris Johnson was awful, and so is she but in a different way.
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This could go even more wrong.
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Rumour has it that members of the Tory party deliberately voted in the worst candidate so that she would stuff it up and then Boris could swoop in to save the day and be the big hero. 😬
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Back by Christmas sounds like the plan after he has filled his bank account.
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Oh good grief, that soon?
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I’m sorry that happened to Hawklad. I have no idea why Disney has to do that. 😕
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For viewers I guess.
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Loved your photography!
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Thank you
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What plants/flowers/fruits and herbs do you have in your garden currently Gary – how about weeds?
I have a few of each here currently and have seen an abundance of pollinators and butterflies, in fact maybe less of the latter, and maybe less of the former too, but l have still had them.
The life cycles of bees and bumbles can fluctuate wildly so it might be a cycling process.
But also at times flowers don’t have lots of nectar and if that is the case the pollinators and insects and birds are foraging elsewhere.
Do you have water available in the garden?
Is a neighbour specifically planting for pollinators around you?
I get a lot of birds in this garden, l feed a variety of bird feeds and because of this l unintentionally rob other gardens of their birds, the same can happen with pollinators.
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We have weeds round the edges (on purpose) and we back onto farmland used for sheep and cow grazing. Shed load of pots with wild flowers.
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Which wild flowers?
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Stuff like foxgloves
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I am so sorry that your son has to suffer for the sake of “entertainment”. This year we had quite a few bees but virtually zero lady bugs or dragonflies.
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Didn’t mention that we haven’t had any ladybugs as well.
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That is so strange. So many of the Americans that I have talked to said the same thing.
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I’ve had a significant drop in hummingbirds at my place and I am not sure why!
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It is worrying. ❤️
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thats really hard on hawklad, seeing shows and cartoons with death of a loved one and no warning in them. I hope you gave him a big hug, ❤
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He wants to see the new Thor movie but he can’t because he knows it has a lot about cancer in it.
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This is terrible! I’m so sorry your son had to see those shows and yes they need to be a bit more mindful.
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I wish they were.
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