The lovely weather over the bank holiday brought a lot of visitors to Shotover, but it did not, as far as I could see, bring any bees and wasps to feast on the abundance of sweet smelling bluebells and vivid yellow gorse flowers.

Perhaps this is yet more evidence of their sad decline.

Our own gardens offer us the chance to do our bit to help and Oxford City Council’s Jubilee flower meadow is a wonderful initiative, but I would love to see some of our parks cultivate wild flower meadows in their overall plans.

It is obvious that some areas have been left wild but it is nothing compared to the wonderment of a real wild flower meadow.

I can vividly remember as a child rolling in the clover– a carpet of pink and white – and taking a bunch of assorted wild flowers to display (somewhat briefly) in a jam jar.

Our priorities seem a little skew-wifff when jam jars are still in abundance, but sadly the flowers have all but disappeared.

If we can reverse this trend then we will be helping the bees before it is too late.

S NELDER (Mrs) Dene Road