A taste of summer by the weekend... welcomed by bees, too

Oh yes - it's true.

After a decidedly cool period through most of May to-date, we're now locked into a distinct warming trend for the rest of this week, culminating in temperatures lifting towards the mid-20's C by Saturday.

It's looking like the warmest day of the year so far for many districts by then; likely to remain dry - at least for most, bar an isolated shower or two - and hopefully with a fair amount of sunny spells, adding to the quasi-Mediterranean feel.

One beneficiary of the warmer weather will be our native bee population. There's over 200 species in the British Isles, most of them solitary in nature, but all of them tend to share a worrying decline in abundance. Studies have linked this to a wider decrease in biodiversity and not least in our wild flowers and for that matter, across continental Europe, too.

To emphasise their plight and help make some amends, the BBC is a partner - alongside the National Trust - in a novel project started this week and running through the summer.

'Bee Part of It', the strapline says... and I'd encourage you to have a look at our BBC Breathing Places website for extra details.

And for my part?

Alongside mentioning all this on BBC Points West weather this evening, I bought a dozen packets of varied wildflower seeds from a local supermarket chain and will duly sow the whole lot across our front and back gardens in the coming days.

There's something so uniquely British about spending a warm summer afternoon nestled in the garden (but not missing a Grand Prix in my case, obviously), beneath the ever-changing montage of fair-weather Cumulus clouds, listening to the harmless buzz of our ever-industrious bees.

Please do what you can to help this continue!