The Hampshire Bee Library
I need to fill those times between domestic chores and paid jobs, that in summer we’d have spent inspecting beehives and twiddling bee kit, pretending we were busy on important stuff. So I have decided to read the odd book or two on bees.To avoid acid comments on idling about from the domestic goddess, I’ve told her I’m studying for a module, thus pretending I am still busy on important stuff. Not everyone’s cup of tea, exams but I enjoyed Christine Coulsting’s free fortnightly Zoom class last year (and not everyone has to go on to do the exam) and I get to meet a nice bunch of students of a certain age from Romsey, Southampton and Fleet.
So, I rushed off to borrow the books for my chosen module (M5 – Biology and Anatomy) from the Hampshire Library. Lovely place, at the Sustainability Centre in the middle of the South Downs near East Meon. Great spot to exercise dogs and children and the Beech Cafe beneath the library serves really good light lunches. But the highlight is the library run by Avril and Denis Tilman. All those books covering so much on the bee which you’d buy but are a bit too expensive to swing past the domestic budget committee (I can hear domestic goddess now – “what, AS WELL AS all the bee stuff in the garage?”) so why not borrow them?
There’s a full catalogue of titles on the HBA website and if the book you’re looking for isn’t there you can ask Avril to buy it and post it to you. There are also novels, back issues of remarkably readable magazines like BeeCraft, BBKA Special reports and some fascinating old historic tomes about beekeeping in darkest Africa….just nice to see some paper instead of a screen. It’s just a pity the winter is only a few months long and our queens will soon start laying eggs for more trouble and work for us again.
See HBA website for links to the library
Leave a Reply