Field Study's Man in E17 on reigns, rains and outpourings

I have been undergoing an intensive course of waffle replacement therapy - a process involving, in part, the rigours of earthing and watering. Earthed, the potatoes may be, and watered, the tomatoes et al have been however some sloppiness and over spill into other fields of research seems inevitable.

There above is evidence of an effort to overcome some of the strictures of the now suspended hose pipe ban. Fortunately because the weather has been so wet recently it is just the polytunnel and its thirsty denizens crying out for water - if, that is, you believe polythene structures and plants can cry.

How confusing it is though to be carting water by wheel barrow in the pouring rain most evenings. Confusion is rife in the various fields of study here in E17, E11, E4 including those along my daily routes of routine and habit. I fear the daily and everyday is set to become more grinding; an element of this being alienation caused by the invasion of 'lumpit' cultural forces.

I commute by bicycle between E and SE for the rewards of a frozen wage, made more austere as each month of inflationary pressure goes by. Recently the route commute has been affected by the annexation of the breath of fresh green open air, the release of pressure that was Hackney Marshes, and the neighbouring Lee Canal towpath. The prolonged obscenity of the wall to this (BBC) Hackney weekender has been made worse by the ineptitude and indifference of the high vis' militia patrolling and trying to secure the extended boundaries of the exclusive pleasure field.

'Fortunately the weather has been so wet' ........ except that the absence of the sustained seasonal sunshine we might normally expect has affected honey bees. Their vital mellifluous foraging has been hindered and with this, odd and disturbing things have and have not been happening in the buzzing darkness's of the hives and I have been lost in the resulting complexities and confusions of laying worker bees, laying drone queens and errant mated queen bees.

To conclude, before I retire for more WRT, here is an image of a Buckfast queen bee recently introduced to one of our hives. Long may it reign.