"God Save the Queen!" - getting shirty about the Plight of the Bumblebee

Mr Wesley took a sojourn in the South of France to see l'il Ocean and his mum and dad, slap bang in a spate of searing temperatures. Unable to do much outside he was watching telly in the cool interior one morning and found himself progressively more and more in a funk as items about fracking, elephant poaching and the plight of the bumblebee followed one upon the other. And so he came up with a rather clever  idea for a "God Save the Queen" bee-shirt.

To get you in the mood, here's a musical interlude: a novel version of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble-Bee", played on the accordion, which seems a propos as Mark had the idea in France:

Upon his return, we buzzed along to the end of our road to take advice from the good folk at Roots & Shoots there. They teach young people with learning difficulties how to nurture gardens and they also house the London Beekeepers' Association. http://www.rootsandshoots.org.uk/
We shyly sought out David Perkins who takes care of the wild garden to make sure we were on the right track. We found him occupied with a party of six year olds, schooling them in bee husbandry. He threw a couple of suits at us, told us to get Velcro-ed up and tag along. So there we were covered head to ankle, with gauntlets covering our hands, but not having anticipated this turn of events we were wearing flip flops. You will be relieved to hear our tootsies survived unstung.

Mr Wesley contemplates the weedy pond in the wild garden at Roots & Shoots

It gets warm in there

Mr Wesley entertaining the children whose tour we crashed

Then we headed out to the hives where David Perkins smoked the inhabitants into action.

Back in his office, while the children ate their packed lunches, David approved the graphic and gave us a poster and more information on what we can all do to help reverse the decline in the bee population. Buzzing with excitement we ran back to the yard and got printing:

Extract from the text on the back:

Bombus Bedlamus!  Create asylum for bees: plant more flowers!
“Bumblebees are key factors in our wildlife. If they disappear many of our plants will not bear fruit. I am proud to be associated with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust”. Sir David Attenborough

bumblebeeconservation.org

You can buy the shirt on our e-shop, and these two new styles also:
the Earl's crown (in white, navy or taupe) -
http://earlofbedlam.bigcartel.com/product/earl-of-bedlam-summer-2013-t-shirt

and the newly remixed for Kennington, reprinted classic Bedlam Motorcycle Club - http://earlofbedlam.bigcartel.com/product/bedlam-motorcycle-t-shirt:

And in the final burst of exciting shirt-related news, we are delighted to announce that we now offer a bespoke shirt service. Come in for a consultation, be measured up for a pattern and choose from the finest Lancashire cottons. Put your dream shirt together (lady's or gentleman's) with the details you desire - collar, cuff, monogram, all to play with. Reward your wardrobe with beautifully made, British clothes. Do not let another craftsman or bee become extinct in the UK!

For your beach reading, you still have a chance to pick up the August issue of "JazzWise" magazine, with the British jazz quartet Empirical on the cover, dressed by Bedlam.