We’ve had a busy few days here with some AirBnB guests during which time I felt I’d hardly been outside, so the sun shone this afternoon, and I just decided it was time to get out and walk.
From my study window I can see a huge field of rapeseed…. I challenged myself to go walk through it and see what it was really like.
Rapeseed as far as the eye can see 🙂
I’m guessing here, but I presume rapeseed must be a member of the brassica family, as there was just the faintest smell of cabbage…. anyone know? And the flower head is awfully like kale that has bolted.
Rapeseed flower head
It is also much much taller than I thought. You know you drive past these bright gold fields, but I had not realised that the plant is actually taller than me.
I kept on walking until I could go no further and enjoyed taking photos of other plants and insects along the way.
We reckon this busy bee is probably one from our own hive
Can summer be too far away when you see this in bloom?
Bullrushes
It is years since I’ve seen bullrushes aren’t they such an interesting plant? It was an absolute delight to see lots and lots of ladybirds around.
Ladybird
This stream brought my wanderings to an end….. not very large but deeper than my boots 🙂
A Year In Redwood 
Lovely photos, Margaret. How wonderful to be surrounded by all this. Hope you enjoyed your walk!
Thanks June… it was lovely… just me and the sound of the wind in the trees and the insects.
Yes indeed, Oil seed rape (OSR) is a member of the cabbage family, the ‘Crucifers’ (flowers have 4 petals in a cross shape). It is also unusual, for the sake of your bees, in having nectar which is very high in simple sugars (invert sugars or ‘monosaccharides’ such as fructose and glucose) which will set the honey in your bee hive comb as hard as rock.
Thanks for that Matt… and thankfully I only saw one or two bees over around it…. so hopefully they will stick with the apple, cherry and plum blossom closer to home 🙂
You may not need to worry on that score. Bees naturally find themselves a balanced and varied diet. Put the hive in the rape field and some bees will forage the rape, but others will go off up to 2 miles finding other stuff in the hedges. They hate monoculture just the same as we do!