Butterbur treat for the honey bee

Wolsingham, Weardale The butterbur brings to mind strawberry ice-cream cones, and to the bees it has the same irresistible sweetness

If we had been standing among these riverside alders four months ago we would have been swept away. This low-lying stretch of the bank of the river Wear is inundated by flood water every winter, and debris was still trapped in the lower branches above our heads.