The following is a short extract from the House of Commons Report entitled BEES AND THEIR PROBLEMS last updated 18 November 2011. Neonicotinoids are a relatively recent type of insecticides used on crops. “Information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoid insecticides, suggest the potential for long term…
I have just returned from a brief trip to the Yorkshire Dales, the old haunts where we filmed All Creatures Great and Small. I discovered some terrific initiatives happening there. Do take a look at these links: » http://www.wharfedalebka.org.uk/ » http://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/index/natureinthedales/wildlifeprojects/haytime.htm
I am writing this letter from Rome, not from the Olive Farm. A visit to Rome just before Christmas is my idea of joy. Fortunately, thanks to the schedule for The Olive Route films, I have been given the perfect opportunity to indulge my pleasure this month. I arrived two days ago. Once installed at…
This is rather novel for those who would like a designer hive in their house. Get the freshest ever honey with a wall-mounted urban bee-hive Global Bee Emergency petition Friends, this one is urgent. I realise that AVAAZ, who I consider an excellent organisation, may have simplified the issue here because loss of habitat is…
Have we celebrated Bastille Day, the fourteenth of July, already? Yes, indeed. We sat out on the terrace, enjoying a late barbecue watching fireworks shooting into the sky from every Provençal village encircling us. The most spectacular, of course, were those down at the coast in Cannes. The year seems to be running ahead of…
Hello! My word, spring is everywhere and I hardly feel the year has begun. Those of you on my Olive Farm Facebook page will know that my feet have barely touched the ground this year. Directly after Christmas, I was in London for the France Show at Earls Court where I met many readers, some…
HM Government petition I, along with many others, including quite a few readers from my Facebook page, signed a petition last year to beg the British government to seriously and in all conscience consider the withdrawal of neonicotinoids pesticides from the market. These chemicals almost certainly damage the nervous systems of bees and other insects….
The holidays of Christmas and the New Year are almost upon us and I am hardly aware of them. Of course, I know these days of rest and merriment are creeping towards me, bringing with them blizzards, sack-loads of fallen snow, shoppers bustling to and fro, office parties, coloured lights in the streets, but such…
It is dark outside. The world is still asleep. Beyond the windows, a terrestrial silence, above which Jupiter hangs like a brilliant bulb in a black sky. For the present, it is a solitary illumination. It is seven am and not an unreasonable hour to be at my desk, but autumn is upon us, the…
Summer is here and I have just arrived back in France after a three-week book tour in Britain and Eire. RETURN TO THE OLIVE FARM has been, as we say in Ireland, launched and I hope that you will be encouraged to rush out to the shops and purchase a copy. The early reviews and…
I have recently returned from a month in Australia and a few days at Tauranga Bay in New Zealand where I was appearing at the bi-annual arts festival there. If you attended either of my Tauranga events, thank you so much for coming. They were terrific and I met so many readers. I felt really…
There are few moments that match the sense of release I feel after my latest book has been delivered and an email comes winging back a few days later from my editor with the message, ‘LOVE it!’ Hooray! My new book is about living off the fruits of the land and the challenges of sustainable…
Interview with Carol Drinkwater.
Carol discusses her new book.
We have been pruning in our olive groves these last few weeks, pruning back thirty of the big old fellows and every single one of the juniors and these now number over two hundred and forty, I think. It is backbreaking work, but it is also extremely satisfying, particularly if the weather is kind. Earlier…
The days leading up to Christmas were not the happiest for me or our olive farm. I had spent November in Africa, visiting the magical rainforests of Madagascar before travelling briefly through Kenya and then on to South Africa. Before leaving for this trip, which was to keep me away from the farm for almost…