Monthly Archives: April 2020

Notes from the Bedales Apiary

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By Marcella Craven, Outdoor Work Technician and Beekeeper

Beekeepers all over the country watch their hives intently at this time of year.

All the long winter we have fed our bees with fondant, checked that the hives haven’t blown over (at Bedales we weighted our roofs down with slabs during the severe winds and we still had one fly off)! We treated the hives for disease.  We also worried that pests might have got into the hives, silently wrecking the comb, eating stores or consuming bees! Woodpeckers, badgers, mice, wasps and worse of all, man-made poisons, insecticides and sprays all present a serious risk to the hives.

This year the weather has not been good for bees. Wet, mild weather makes hives damp.  Bees can’t fly to make cleansing flights, and the colony can chill easily. Global warming is changing our seasons and this causes a difference to the forage available, and the weather which a bee needs to be able to venture out and retrieve it.  I have observed that life for a colony is complex and often mirrors our human problems.

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Contemporary Music students get creative in lockdown

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By Neil Hornsby, Head of Contemporary Music

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When Bedales closed its doors to students five weeks ago, I set our students the task of producing some online content that would both help to keep them busy and also hopefully bring one or two smiles to the faces of the Bedales community. What has since followed has been one of the most meaningful and creative periods I have ever had the fortune of witnessing in all of my years at Bedales.

From spectacular original songs to fun covers, innovative video collaborations to hilarious outtakes. Students have been constantly learning new skills to turn their creative visions into very real end product. From how to record bands across three continents with limited equipment, using specialist music and editing software to create professional quality video, learning stop motion video techniques, researching how best to stream live concerts (more of which to follow in the coming weeks) and learning new ways to collaborate with each other during this unique period. We’ve been sharing the finished results on our social media channels, but if you’ve missed any, you can access all the videos on the Bedales Vimeo channel here.

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Filmmaking in Nepal

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By Jake Morris, 6.1

In February half term, I went to Nepal – a country with an incredibly rich and diverse culture, which makes it the perfect basis for a film.

It seems that whenever anyone speaks about Nepal, they instantly think of the Himalayas or Mount Everest, but not nearly as many people speak about who or what lies beneath the villages clinging to existence on the mountain slopes (they may look photogenic to Westerners, but in reality, people there live below the poverty line) or the extensive smog that hangs above the hustle and bustle of its capital city, Kathmandu.

When I realised this, the title of the film – ‘Light and Shade’ – came into my mind. It was an idea with two meanings; the physical light contrast, but also the way of Nepali life being so different to ours.

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