To celebrate Buy One, Get One Bee, back in July we ran a competition for one lucky winner and a friend to come along to the National Trust's Hanbury Hall to meet Tim the beekeeper and ask him all sorts of questions.

The winner was Julian and he'll be going along in a couple of weeks time to meet Tim, see the bees and have a spot of afternoon tea (we'll keep you posted about it right here).

In the meantime though, we thought it'd be polite to introduce Tim properly.

So here's a few interesting things about the man himself:

• Tim's day job is as a computer software consultant so he looks after the bees in his spare time.
• He's been beekeeping for about 10 years now, after having told a friend he wanted to see inside a hive (and then ending up looking after the entire colony).
• His kids like to help him collect the swarms. That's his son on the right below (resplendent in mini bee keeper attire).

Tim has very kindly answered every question that came in as part of the competition because he's a good man like that.

Here are just a few of his answers to some of the questions we had through:

Aren't you worried the bees will sting you? (Teresa Hill)

Whenever I get stung, it's because I did something that I shouldn't have so I'm more annoyed with myself for not noticing it. For example, going to move part of the beehive and not realising I have a bee caught in the fold of my glove. If I frightened the bee by trapping it in my glove then I deserve to be stung. Still hurts though.

Does the smoke used to help pacify the bees have any effect on humans? (Elaine Miller)

Yes. It's makes my eyes water for a start. I burn rotten wood but other beekeepers burn cardboard, old sacking or special old tobacco. The smoke causes the bees to think their hive is going to burn down so they may need to leave in a hurry. Seeing as they don't have any luggage, they fill their mouths with honey and nectar. Then they get a bit sleepy (like we all do after a big meal) and can't be bothered to move. Which means I can get to the honey more easily.

Is it true that honey is made by bees regurgitating nectar? (Bronwyn Cannon)

Well seeing as they haven't got any baskets to carry in, yes it is.

For the rest of Tim's answers, check out the comments below.

P.S. If you still haven't tried our lemon, honey and ginger recipe, then you haven't got long left before our next special guest recipe hits the shelves.

So bee quick and get down the shops quick smart.

(pun shamelessly stolen from Ben W)

If you like rural things but live in a big urban thing (London) you should keep an eye out for Roam, a traveling ex-mobile Library that's working its way through East London's parks and green places right now. Part gig venue, part library, part a lecture theatre, part nature disco, part reading room, part meeting point, all depending where it stops. I went down last Friday to see Adem (who played at out innocent village fete a couple of year ago) play the guitar and use the side of the bus as a drum kit. Very good. There's still plenty more Roaming to come.

After the coldest winter in thirty one years, it's been non rainy for exactly 4 days now.

Dan has driven to work in the sunshine everyday (and he gets up really early).

Ted saw two new born lambs in a field near Swindon last week.

And the crocuses are out in the park.

Too early to call spring yet?

January.

Rain. Grey. More rain. Not much incentive to go outside.

Thankfully, the good people at Rocket Gardens are a jolly sort and have given us a very good reason to get out, keep fit and assuage our biscuit cravings by doing a spot of gardening.

You see, right now is the perfect time of year to start planting soft fruit in preparation for crumbles, summer puds and jam making.

And they've very kindly given us 10 of their compact fruit gardens and 10 of their large fruit gardens to give away.

All you need to do to bag yourself one is tell us your most memorable fruit pie/crumble/pudding experience.

Post your answers below by Monday 26th January and come next autumn, you could be running your very own black market fruit pie operation (with a nice sideline in preserves).

(This competition has now closed.

Congratualtions to Big Tom, Sammy, Karen, Rachael, Susan F, Ian, Soo, Julie Lee, Steph, Emma, Lulu, Stephen Armstrong, Esther, Sarah Bruch, Anita, Ook, Davkt, Simone, Lindsay and Abby Bookham. Gardens on their way to you very very soon).