Mr Bee

I once thought, half-heartedly perhaps, of keeping bees in the open area outside of Eitan's bedroom (I still consider a green roof but that may be a retirement project). Chillingly, bees are disappearing - in some areas of the UK honeybee numbers have dropped by as much as 80 per cent, while bumblebees across the country have declined by 60 per cent since 1970, according to the the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. In both cases this is largely due to loss of wild habitats, intensive farming and overuse of pesticides and herbicides. The simple truth is that bees need flowers, and there are very few flowers in the farmed countryside. It is not only the UK: In the US, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) - where whole colonies disappear or die - has caused a devastating loss of honeybees. Since it broke out last autumn, declines of between 30 per cent and 90 per cent of honeybee populations in at least 27 states have been recorded. There have also been reports of CCD in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.

But let us not dwell in more misery. Our backyard gets these unusually fat bees, pictured, who end up trapped in the house making a friendly racket. No way would Madeleine allow them to be harmed. Also buzzing about are the usual brown and black guys who I recall from our backyard in Berkeley. They always seem so cheerful. Their work effort makes the marathoner pause: a bee's wing beat covers a small, flapping approximately 230 times per second (it took Caltech engineers with the help of high-speed cinematography and a giant robotic mock-up of a bee wing, to reveal that sufficient lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency"). Let us not forget that our food supply would crash out without this humble servant.

Eitan reflects on the bank holiday weekend: "Aw, man, it is raining."

Me: "What did you expect?"

Eitan: "I am wearing three layers right now. A fleece, a jumper and my pajama tops."