This is the new Welcome sign at Ferry Meadows. It’s a massive bug hotel, as you can probably see from a closer examination of the individual cells in the picture. It seems that this is a new fashion I had been totally unaware off, as can be seen from this site, for example. The one at Ferry Meadows can be seen better in this picture and has been built by Green Earth Habitats.

I’m not sure if they are better than having plain bug hotels around the place. If they were actually properly publicised I could see he point, but posting them on Facebook and Instagram isn’t doing it, whatever people may think. Look at it this way. I live on the doorstep and I didn’t know about it because, like many other people I don’t use social media.

The other thing they are doing is the Bee Bank. This is as much as i could find about it, so i had to dig a bit further.

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And, as I suspected, it’s a bank made up to provide habitat for bees and, butterflies, according to Ferry Meadows, though butterflies don’t need banks, they need appropriate food plants. I suppose a bank gives a patch of warm earth for them to draw warmth from, but that’s about as far as it goes. Everyone else seems to call them Bee Banks. I will remember it when we redesign the garden, but I’m not sure it’s going to be easy to fit one in.

Small Tortoiseshells on red buddleia