A handful of crocuses have started to bloom, their petals peeling open just enough to reveal the soft amber-yellow middles, covered in pollen. A bumblebee’s dream - and breakfast. The bees, when they wake from their long winter’s sleep, will like this.
There’s some debate over what bees see, and how they see colour, but the bulk of research suggests that they have a particular penchant for purple, blue and violet flowers which are the bee equivalent of our high-vis yellow and shocking pink. Maybe it’s pure coincidence that our first two flowering species (the other one being primrose) are decent shades of purple, but I’d like to think this is some sort of natural arrangement between plant and pollinator, with the flowers providing beacons to sleepy queens with a hankering for a pick-me-up.