Whoo! We have just produced a batch of honey from the beehive in the Mustapha's Place garden. We are going to use it in our cocktails, such as "Dawa" (Swahili for medicine), a cocktail that includes vodka, lots and lots of fresh lime and honey. It's the Swahili version of a hot toddy, and surprisingly effective if you are going down with a cold or flu.

The honey should taste good with all the tropical flowers in the garden - I'm not sure what the bees feast on the most, but frangipani and hibiscus abound.

We have also noted recently the return of the weaver birds to Mustapha's. These gorgeous little yellow birds (as used in our new logo) thrive somewhere with lots of trees and a minimal crow population, but keeping the persistent, cunning hordes of crows away is a big job! For now, we are winning, so the weaver birds are returning to build their distinctive round nests of twigs. The poor male bird has to rush around building the nest until it is done, at which point its "wife" can say if the nest is acceptable, or if it isn't up to scratch. If it's the latter, the poor man has to start again with a new nest until she is satisfied.