A few lingering butterflies rested their wings on the ivy flowers in November, but they were too fleeting to catch with my camera.
November is a good month to plan next year’s garden by taking note of which plants have thrived best in which parts of the garden, and which have attracted the most insect visitors.
My bee garden calendar is slowly coming together, starting with spring flowers and spring-flowering shrubs (snowdrops, crocuses, bluebells, cotoneaster, hebe, smoke tree), long-lasting summer flowers (salvia, scabiosa, toadflax) and late summer to autumn blooms (snowberry, sedum). All of these plants seem to grow well in our heavy clay soil.
November is also a month of surprises.
Our fatsia has flowered for the first time to the delight of honeybees, bumble bees, hoverflies, and to me.
The mornings are getting frosty. Even the frogs are no longer bothering to pop up and watch John when he is gardening.
Soon the bee garden will sleep for winter.
Mrs Apis Mellifera 
Your Fatsia looks very healthy. It is such a pleasure seeing the bees out on the flowers in November on the sunny days. Amelia
It was such a surprise to see it flower. We moved the fatsia to a sunny spot at the bottom of the garden so perhaps that made the difference, and it looked like the flowers were a nice surprise for the bees and hoverflies too 🙂
A real joy to read your blog😊
Thank you, Banerjeesnak. That is very kind of you to say ☺️
I have got myself a pollinator friendly gardening book from the library, if I can create a garden a tenth as bee-friendly, frog-friendly and lovely as yours I shall be happy 🙂
You will – it is easy! Which is why I wish everyone who has a garden – however big or small – would do it. One thing I’ve learned – making big insect hotels or setting aside certain parts of the garden for specific insects and other wildlife doesn’t always work. Like cats, bees choose where they want to go. So now, for next year, I’m planning on making bee/wildlife-friendly spaces all over the garden. Then nature can choose as it pleases.