Hiving off the wedding gifts

I WAS fascinated by your report (Yorkshire Post, May 8) about the bee-keeper queen, DR Crane. She and her husband were given a hive as a wedding present and she went on to find out everything about bees (with nuclear physics as her day job).

Anyone giving bees as wedding presents should bear in mind what happened to my mother-in-law. She was put in charge of a hive which suddenly swarmed all over her. When that happens, you are quite likely to suffer from anaphylactic shock. This can be most alarming to anyone watching and my mother-in-law needed immediate medical assistance. I suggest that a magi-mix or an Aga is a more suitable wedding present.

Dogged dismay

From: Mrs MJ Coupe, Thirkleby, Thirsk.

HAVING just spent a weekend in the Netherlands, I was delighted to find that the Dutch authorities allowed dogs into their great garden festivals, the Floriade and the Keukenhof Gardens.

How different from the English who appear to go out of their way to ban dogs from everywhere at every opportunity. How sad that I shall never see many of our beautiful arboretums and gardens or enjoy refreshments in their cafés because Trifle, my Westie, can’t go with me.

Paper tigers?

From: Douglas Telfer, Kings Road, Harrogate.

Bernard Ingham writes (Yorkshire Post, May 2) that Mrs Thatcher did not bother with minor matters such as ingratiating herself with powerful media figures. Why, then, did she give knighthoods to newspaper editors Sir Larry Lamb, Sir David English, Sir John Junor and Sir Nicholas Lloyd?