WyseWitchUK

Lavender is much beloved by insects, humans and faeries. In high summer lavender bushes are literally humming and thrumming with honeybees, bumblebees and butterflies. Yet it is despised by mosquitoes meaning that its oil and dried bunches of it can be used as a handy mosquito repellent! Its name is said to either come from the French Lavandre which in turn comes from the Latin Lavare meaning 'to wash' or from the Latin Livere meaning 'Blueish'. Lavender is one of the mint family. Lavender comes in a variety of colours; its purples range from silvery blues to royal purple, but it also comes in pinks and even white. Traditionally lavender is considered the Queen of Herbs and is so loved by faeries and elves that one of its old folk names is 'Elf Leaf'. Wherever lavender grows, there you will find faeries so if you are looking to work with faeries, do plant some lavender in your garden/window box. Even the scent of lavender in the form of dried flowers...

(Originally written for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust ) The bee features as much in folklore from around the world as it does in our gardens in summer time. Yet, in this article, I can only scratch the surface of this vast body of information. Bees show up in human art forms almost as soon as mankind learned to create them; they are depicted in ancient rock art from around the world, for example from the Palaeolithic in Spain and from the Mesolithic in India and are mentioned in some of the earliest forms of writing in the world. Bees crop up everywhere from poetry to prose and even in our everyday sayings: we can be as 'busy as a bee', we 'make a bee-line' for things, we can get 'a bee in the bonnet' and the term 'bee's knees' now famously refers to something fabulous, although originally it referred to something small and insignificant. Bees are linked with magic, love, industriousness and creativity. The mere presence of bees on a ...