The Ecology of Beauty

In wilderness is the preservation of the world
Henry David Thoreau

Just as our skin can be a barometer of our own health, bees are the barometer of the health of the planet. When we talk about holistic wellbeing - we look at everything 

 

 

Ecology is the study of the relationships between living things and their physical environment. It is what connects us to plants, animals, each other and the world around us. Fine-tuned and infinitely complex, ecology forms the very fabric of our world, each of us a thread in our planet's great web of life.

This interconnectedness is what enriches our world. From the very small to the incredibly vast, ecology is all around us. It is these connections that weave us together and influence life at every level - from the biochemical reactions in our gut to our global weather systems.

 

When we study ecology, we look at ecosystems - communities of interacting organisms and their physical environment - or more simply worlds within worlds. These worlds are like cosms or mini universes that overlap and interlink as we zoom out. They form a matrix so beautiful and complex, that it could never be replicated or fully understood.

 

We do not exist outside the system but are instead an intrinsic part of it. Every choice we make impacts our world: what we do to nature, we ultimately do to ourselves.  

Coming from backgrounds in biology and wildlife conservation, we have taken an unusual route into beauty. Guided by our shared love of nature, we have turned to nature for 

 

It is this interconnectedness

 

With our roots firmly planted in ecology and wildlife conservation

Our mission is to 

Every choice we make impacts our world:

 

With our roots firmly planted in ecology and wildlife conservation

 

 

what we do to nature, we ultimately do to ourselves. 

 

 

 

 

Ecology enriches our world and is crucial for human wellbeing and prosperity. It provides new knowledge of the interdependence between people and nature that is vital for food production, maintaining clean air and water, and sustaining biodiversity in a changing climate.

 

It is these connections that weave us together and influence life at every level - from the biochemical reactions in our gut to our global weather systems. 

 

Take your skin for example. 

But in caring for ourselves, we can care for our planet too.

 

It forms the fabric of our world, each living thing a thread in our planet's great web of life. It is these connections that weave us together and influence life at every level - from the biochemical reactions in our gut to our global weather systems. 

Sometimes it's not always clear how all of life's elements fit together

 

Fine-tuned and infinitely complex, we form the very fabric of nature  - what we do to nature, we do to ourselves. 

 

 

 

From the very beginning, nature has been at the centre of Therapi - it's where we come from, it's what we're part of and it's where we return to. Every decision we make is carefully done so with our shared health and home in mind.

Every choice we make influences the world around us

 

Fascinated by the honeybee colony, we take huge inspiration from honeybees in the running of Therapi. As nature's greatest alchemists they inspire our formulations; as industrious workers they motivate us to focus on what matters; as evolutionary pioneers they show us there is strength in doing things differently; as agents of biodiversity they demonstrate that variety brings resilience; and as winged messengers they teach us that we are each part of an intricately connected and beautiful system. Fine-tuned and infinitely complex, we form the very fabric of nature  - what we do to nature, we do to ourselves. 

 

The story of the bee is closely entwined with that of the flowering plant world. Splitting off from their wasp ancestors around 100 million years ago, bees and flowering plants arose together - as bees developed a new taste for sweet nectars and pollen produced by flowers, flowering plants began to diversify and flourish. In return for their sweet floral offerings, bees provided these plants with pollination services, successfully transferring genetic material from plant to plant that led to rapid speciation and diversification.

This exquisite coevolution has given rise to much of the beauty and splendour - the scents, colours and shapes - of the flowering world that we enjoy today. It has also provided us with many of our favourite fruits, nuts, vegetables, beans, fibres, spices and medicines. In fact bees pollinate one or more cultivars of over 66% of all crop species and contribute to one third of the food we eat. Indeed a world without bees would be a world without berries, coffee, tea, chocolate and cotton!

It is awe-inspiring to think that one small creature can have had such an influence on the course of Earth's natural history.  Bees are a litmus paper – the proverbial ‘canary-in-the-coalmine’ - for the health of the planet: when all is right with the bees, all is right with the world.
 
The Way of the Honeybee
There are around 20,000 known species of bee. Most of these are solitary or subsocial but there is a small number of species that are truly social and live in large colonies. The honeybee, Apis mellifera, is amongst these and is one of the most studied organisms in the world. Living in colonies of between 10,000 - 80,000 individuals, the honeybee colony operates as a superorganism that is female-led, collaborative and works for the good of the collective.
 
Fascinated by the honeybee colony, we take huge inspiration from honeybees in the running of Therapi. As nature's greatest alchemists they inspire our formulations; as industrious workers they motivate us to focus on what matters; as evolutionary pioneers they show us there is strength in doing things differently; as agents of biodiversity they demonstrate that variety brings resilience; and as winged messengers they teach us that we are each part of an intricately connected and beautiful system. Fine-tuned and infinitely complex, we form the very fabric of nature  - what we do to nature, we do to ourselves.

 

 

Though we think we know things, sometimes we don't really know them until

Just like our skin has it's own ecology