Bee swarm in Auchtermuchty? Help is a minute away.

Auchtermuchty is a small historic burgh in the Howe of Fife — the fertile basin between the Lomond Hills and the Ochil Hills — known nationally as the birthplace of the accordionist Jimmy Shand and as an unlikely hotbed of folk music tradition. The surrounding farmland is among the most productive in north Fife: oilseed rape fills the flat vale from Cupar westward through April and May, and the Howe's raspberry and soft-fruit farms around Strathmiglo add an unusual late-May to June flow. Hawthorn is heavy on the estate hedgerows; the Eden Water — rising on the Lomond Hills and running east through the Howe — carries willows and alder below the town. White clover dominates the improved pastures through June and July. The East Lomond summit moorland to the south-east carries bell and ling heather from late July.

Oilseed rape is the defining early Fife flow across the central plain. Raspberry canes on the Howe of Fife add an unusual early-summer crop. Sycamore and lime carry May into June in St Andrews, Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline and Cupar. The Lomond Hills and parts of the north Fife moors give bell and ling heather. Coastal sea-aster and samphire along the East Neuk add seasoning; ivy on old fisher-town gables closes the year.