Kate Middleton’s younger brother James has a fascinating new hobby he shares with fiancée
THE DUCHESS of Cambridge's younger brother has revealed a fascinating new hobby he shares with his fiancée Alizee.
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The pair have had to postpone their wedding plans following the coronavirus outbreak. In an article for The Daily Mail, he wrote about his favourite pastime and how the hobby has helped overcome troubling battles with mental health. James revealed he has converted Alizee to his love of beekeeping.
He wrote in the article: “I've written in this paper about the clinical depression that first hit me in 2016.
“One of my strategies for coping with it is beekeeping.
“I see it as an active form of meditation, a chance to escape from the mental tumult.
“When I'm with my bees it's as if someone’s pressed the mute button on everything that's worrying me."
In the new photos, the couple is seen wearing beekeeping outfits as they pose for a picture at the Middleton’s family home.
James has eight hives at the family home in Bucklebury Manor, in Berkshire.
He added in the article how pleased he was to convince his fiancée to join him.
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The Duchess's younger brother wrote: "I'm glad, too, that my fiancée, Alizee, is a convert.
“Early in our relationship, I bought her a beekeeping suit and when she's helping me with the hives, as she has been during the weeks of lockdown we've spent at Bucklebury.
“She couldn’t be happier.”
James believes his love for beekeeping started at a young age as a fan of A.A Milne’s Winnie-The-Pooh creation.
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The 33-year old realised his dream on his 24th birthday after his sisters, Kate and Pippa, bought him a colony of 1000 Buckfast bees.
James hopes to spread his passion for beekeeping with the wide world.
He also suggested plans to purchase an observation hive to take into classrooms to show children how bees work.
Whilst he admits his love for the hobby, Kate’s younger brother points out the profession requires patience.
He said: “Beekeeping is methodical, patient toil.
“I’ve been stung hundreds of times — actually the reaction tends to get worse over time — but I’m not put off and I never blame the bees.
“It’s always my fault: I haven’t been careful enough; I’ve been lazy about wearing the protective equipment; I’ve caught them on a day when they’re feeling grumpy or out of sorts.
I always approach the hives with a mix of nervous anticipation and excitement — much like the feeling of a first date — wondering: ‘What will they be like today?
“Calm or skittish?
“Irritable or biddable?’
“Before you open a hive you always blow a little smoke into it — it’s a courtesy and a safety measure because it calms the swarm by masking the guard bees’ alarm pheromones.
“I love spending time with my bees, checking, monitoring, treating them and collecting their honey: it is soothing toil; a balm for troubled minds.”