Days of rest

 This week my afternoons have featured very long siestas, combined with a tendency to do as little as possible.  Perhaps I came back from the European trip more exhausted than I thought?

So, it will come as no surprise that today was another lazy day.

We headed out down the lane with the dogs early, before the heat set in. We were out and back before nine o'clock, but it was still very warm by the time we returned home.

My morning was spent working on The Journal entry covering the bike trip, and the main points from another couple of days were noted down.

The afternoon included another huge sleep, before we got ourselves tidied up. This evening we joined Bubbles and Bobbyn for a curry at The Mother Huff Cap at Great Alne. 

This restaurant and bar specialises in Nepalese and Indian food and we had a rather good curry. I may seem a little churlish, but that was all I can say. It was a decent curry. For some reason I am no longer as enthused by a curry as I used to be, and now regard it as a spiced chicken or lamb stew, nothing more.

Don't get me wrong, I do like a curry, but I now find little to rave about. There are plenty of good Indian Restaurants in these parts that serve decent food but, but after forty odd years of eating their food, I find their menus are all pretty similar, and the same can be said for the eating experience.

Perhaps I need to try one of the Michelin starred Indian Restaurants?

Another haircut

 Saturday turned out to be very similar to Friday.

The weather is very warm, but the skies are frequently overcast, and there is an annoying wind that deters me from gardening. Mind you, it is so dry out there, that we are doing little more than watering at present.

So, my preference is to stay indoors at the moment, and I needed something to justify this.

With the clippers still unboxed, from yesterday's grooming session, it was now Hobson's turn. The Grooming School have reported that he can be an utter pain to clip, but I found him to be quite well behaved. 

By lunchtime I had trimmed his coat back with a #5F blade and he was looking rather smart with a neat topknot and ears.  I should mention that he now looked quite tidy, provided that you didn't look at his feet.

After lunch I attempted to tidy up his feet, and that was the point when his cooperative nature dissipated. He obviously doesn't like the sensation of the clippers on his toes.

I also found that my Heiniger mini clipper just wouldn't work on the hair around his toes. It may be that the blade needs sharpening, so, for the moment, it looks like I will have to persevere with a full sized clipper and blade ... he isn't going to like that at all!

It's warming up

 A heatwave is expected over the next few days, with temperatures expected to peak in the low 30's on Monday.

Both 30% and I enjoy the warm weather, but it is no fun for the dogs. Both Whiffler and Hobson currently have quite long coats. It is, therefore, time for them to be clipped.

A couple of #5FC (6.3mm) blades* were ordered a couple of days ago, and were due to arrive today. In the meantime, I set to trimming Whiffler's topknot and ears. It seems that the students at the grooming school have opted to style Whiffler with a luxuriant topknot and ears.  These have developed tangles and knots over recent weeks and it is time for some serious pruning.

I spent this morning attending to his coiffure with anti-tangle spray, a comb and hairdressing scissors. After much faffing around, I am reasonably pleased with the result.  Although, I have to admit that, as long as the scissors are close at hand, there is always a tendency to just tidy up a minor imperfection.

Phil the postie arrived with perfect timing, and the #5 blades were unpacked and put to work.

Over the next couple of hours, Whiffler's coat was shorn right back. We took several breaks to allow him to rest, and for me to vacuum up the clippings.

At the end of the day, he looks quite respectable, and I just need to tidy up his rear feet to finish off the job.

As I mentioned yesterday, Whiffler is about to celebrate his eleventh birthday, and it is apparent that he now a senior citizen. The Grooming School have advised that he copes with grooming sessions well, but I have my suspicions that there is an element of self-interest involved.

He has a very calm nature and is, therefore, an ideal candidate for an inexperienced student. Today I noticed how quickly he became fatigued. It is definitely time he was retired and groomed at his own pace at home.

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* #7FC blades cut the coat to 3.1mm, which is probably a little short when we consider when they are next scheduled to be clipped.

Peaked too early

As the title of today's Journal entry suggests, I most definitely peaked too early today.

I was out of the house by half past seven this morning for a check-up with the Ophthalmologist. Amazingly, I was seen, tested and exiting the clinic before my eight thirty appointment time. My IOP readings are good and, apparently, my readings and scans will be reviewed by a practitioner, and I'll be alerted if there are any concerns.

I was home by nine o'clock, and had time for a quick coffee before Whiffler and Wilson were bundled in to the car for an appointment at the Vet's.

We wanted to check on Wilson's vaccination status and Whiffler has developed a fleshy lump on his lower lip. 

Whiffler had a similar growth a couple of years ago, which was removed. We had had the growth tested, at that time, and it was found to be a malignant melanoma. We were obviously concerned that the melanoma had returned.

Our Vet checked out Wilson and his medical history and confirmed that he was up to date with his jabs. She also gave him a once over, as he is scheduled to be castrated on the 7th of July. With Wilson checked over, it was now Whiffler's turn.

Emma the Vet had a long look at the lump and then fetched Whiffler's paper records to check the date and diagnosis of the previous lump. She confirmed that it was likely to be a return of the melanoma, and recommended that we get it excised.

She added that he was in great shape for an eleven year old dog and that it had been two years since the previous growth had been removed. In that time he had not developed any other symptoms or growths. It was therefore her opinion that the operation was worthwhile. 

She commented that, if the growth returned in a similar timescale, he would be a very senior thirteen years old.

So, now both Whiffler and Wilson will be going under the knife on the seventh.

Back at home I had an enormous kip on the sofa, before hauling my lazy backside outside. I managed to get the water butts filled from the well,* but little else.

I did say that I peaked too early today.

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* I checked the level and it is currently about 12' below ground level. I replaced the well pump back in 2023, and, at that time, calculated that it is about 50' deep.

Back in the groove

Wilson is settling in nicely, and, day by day, we are becoming familiar with his personality. 

It is fair to say that he is a good boy, but can be a little possessive and temperamental. His temper usually manifests as the occasional growl or barking, but these are becoming fewer as time passes.  He is wary of TP, and it is possible that this is because he originally lived in a home with a young man with anger issues.

However, the relationship with TP is improving slowly, and each visit will, hopefully, reduce Wilson's anxiety.

We also have Wilson booked in for castration in a couple of weeks, which should help with curbing his  hormonal behaviour.

Now, the reason I started with a summary of Wilson's progress was because today I unboxed the clippers as I planned to trim the fur on his face. This is another of those canine care activities that could go horribly wrong! 30% has been brushing him regularly and he seems to be quite happy with grooming, but, as they say, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".

I put a #10 blade in the clippers and sat Wilson down. I have to say that he was an absolute angel to clip, and didn't even wriggle as I ran the blades over the sensitive end of his nose and over his eyes. 

That is another significant milestone passed in his integration in to our little pack.*

Phil the postie turned up shortly before lunch and carefully handed over a small package marked Live Animals in Transit. He is familiar with the honey bee requeening process, as he has delivered a few in previous years, and is interested in how the hives are doing.

I carefully opened the package and checked that the queen was alright. She is not particularly large, and I can only hope that her size will increase as she settles in to the hive and starts to lay.** I placed a drop of water on the queen cage*** and put it in a cool dark place until I was ready to introduce her to her new home.

The introduction took place in the early afternoon, and all I can do now is wait a week and hope that the requeening is successful.

The rest of the afternoon was spent thinning my carrots. I really must remember to dilute the seed more when I next sow a crop, as I pulled hundreds of mini carrots from the raised bed to make space for my crop.

So, here ends Wednesday's Journal entry. I'm definitely back home and back in the groove.

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* Mind you, I haven't clipped his feet yet!

** The massive assumption here is that the colony accepts her, rather than deciding that she is an intruder, and killing her!

*** I had no idea how long she had been in transit, so wanted to ensure that she, and her attendant workers, were hydrated.

Now I need to crack on with the garden

 It was important that I found time to inspect the hives yesterday, as they really should be looked at every seven or eight days from late March through to September. Fortunately the colonies had showed no sign of swarming nor starvation, and no other problems had arisen whilst I was away.

With the bees taken care of, I had nothing that I must do today, and I found time to take stock of the garden.

In my regular calls to 30%, she had indicated that the weather had been very hot, with not a drop of rain.  I could see that she had not been exaggerating. I was shocked to see parched areas and virtually no sign of growth on the lawns ... there was no way they would need mowing until after this dry spell breaks.

I decide to settle back in to garden mode gently and spent some time this morning removing the side shoots from the tomatoes and tying the vines up to their supports. I also took a quick look at my carrot seedlings and added "thin carrots" to my virtual to-do list.*

That was pretty much all I achieved today, other than a monumental kip in the afternoon ... the bike tour was obviously more tiring than I thought!

There was one other episode from today that I felt was worth mentioning. 

A few weeks ago 30% commented that she had found some droppings up in the orchard that were significantly larger than one would expect from the occasional Muntjac visitor.  We have a trail camera, and, a couple of weeks ago, I set this up overlooking one of the larger gaps in the hedgerow to the adjacent fields.

This morning I removed the camera and sifted through the video clips. I can report that we can add Fallow Deer to the list of orchard visitors, as we had a couple of clips clearly showing this large deer with their unmistakeable dappled coat. There were also rabbits, muntjac and several appearances by a fox.**

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* That list also has "investigate parsnips" to see if I can find anything worth saving amongst the weeds!

** The little sod is even coming in daylight, which means 30%'s plan to release the chickens will have to be put on hold.

I'm back

 I made it back from the Black Forest tour yesterday afternoon.

Once I have had time to collect my thoughts, I'll summarise where we went, what we did and how I just about managed to avoid telling one of the group that he was an overbearing know-it-all prick!

But, for now, I'll just run over my first day back at home. It relates, mostly, to bees and honey.

TP stopped over last night and asked for a couple of jars of honey to take back to Cardiff. 30% had reported that honey had been selling well over the past ten days. In other words; supplies were low. So first job of the day was to get a batch of honey warmed, bottled and labelled.

While it slowly liquified in a hot water bath, TP and I took the dogs for a walk down the lane. On our return I got the first batch bottled, and set another batch to liquify.

We all lunched together and TP headed off home shortly after.

I then needed a restorative nap, before I donned my bee suit and headed up to the hives.

I started with Hive #3, and was delighted to report that the queen has finally started to lay. I could see plenty of larvae and two frames of capped worker brood. I added a queen excluder and a super to the hive and hope that the colony will increase significantly over the next few weeks.

Hive #2 was next on my list. It, too, is doing really well. There are several frames of brood and I caught sight of the queen as she wandered across the frames. The colony temperament is not too bad. They were prone to get a little stroppy, but soon calmed with a couple of puffs from the smoker.  I'll keep any eye on them and see if they settle over time.

I finally got to Hive #3, and it was exactly as expected. The little brood present was predominantly drone brood, and this is definitely indicative of a failing queen. I located her quite easily and euthanised her. I then promptly hit the internet and got a new queen ordered ... she should be here in the next couple of days.

So that's it for my first day back. It's lovely to be home, in the company of 30% and the dogs.  I've had an interesting break and will, eventually, get around to jotting down my traveller's tales.

Packing and last minute jobs

My main achievement for Thursday is that I have now, mostly, packed my bags in preparation for the trip to Germany.

I wisely purchased a pair of inner bags for my panniers, and this made packing a doddle. These are now sat on the bedroom floor, and will be put on the bike tomorrow. 

A sad commentary on my age is the ridiculous quantity of prescription and non-prescription medicines that completely fill one sub-compartment of my rather natty luggage.*

Once I was reasonably assured that I could survive a week with the items that I had packed, I headed out to the garage and adjusted the screen angle of the ConnectedRide cradle. Hopefully that will make the phone screen easier to see.  I also made a tweak to the phone settings in the hope that the sat nav instructions will be audible.

My back is no worse, and I still plan to make a judgement on arrival in Folkestone.

My final must do was to take a look at the bees before I abandon them for ten days.

I found the queen quite easily in Hive #3, but there is still no sign of eggs or brood. I hope it is just a case of she is taking her time to settle in and start to lay.

Hive #2 is doing really well. I didn't spot the queen, but the four frames of capped brood indicate that she is present and building up the strength of the colony.

I finally got to Hive #1. I found the queen quite easily, and, as with the last inspection, there is very little brood in the colony. I think she is failing, and was hoping to find supersedure cells, but, so far, nothing. If the colony is the same when I return from Germany I think I will requeen it.

Right, that's it ... I'm just about ready to go.

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* insulin, vitamins, eye drops or various types ... the list goes on ... and on!

Well that works!

 The back is certainly no worse today, but I'm not sure whether it is any better.

I dosed up on painkillers this morning, and decided to do as little as possible. I did, however, have a couple of must dos that could not be put off.

After a lazy morning, I headed out to the garage and fitted the panniers to my bike. I then installed the BMW ConnectedRide cradle and slotted in my mobile phone. Bike, cradle and phone paired automatically, and it was then a moments work to access the Motorrad app and type in a destination.

Within a couple of minutes I was off down the road and was truly impressed with the performance of the Satellite Navigation system and the way it operates in conjunction with the bike's LCD screen. The instructions are clear and the map view on the phone is lovely and clear. I'm really pleased that I bought the cradle and it is much less costly than the BMW Satellite Navigation unit.*

There were a couple of niggles ... I need to adjust the angle of the ConnectedRide cradle and the audio volume on my Fodsport intercom is still bloody crap!

As for riding with my unloaded** panniers for the first time ... I didn't notice they were attached.

Finally, my back ... It's no worse, but no better. I plan to ride down to Folkestone on Friday and make a judgement on Saturday morning. As I mentioned yesterday; the last thing I want is to be stranded in Germany with a bike I can't ride.

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* Which has very poor reviews

** I plan to pack light.

I hope it's not serious

 I woke this morning with a twinge my back.

It was nothing awful, but I had definitely done something to it. Looking back, I had mowed the back lawns yesterday and also loaded an exercise bike in to the trailer. 

I wondered if I had pulled a muscle, while hoping that it wasn't a recurrence of the problems I had with my back in 2023.

With the German motorcycle tour getting underway on Friday, an injured back was the last thing I wanted. My inner hypochondriac went in to overdrive, and had me imagining being stranded in Deutschland unable to ride my motorcycle.

I took a couple of ibuprofen and decided to have a lazy day. Unfortunately the pills didn't lessen the pain, so I upped the anti and took couple of Tramadol too. 

For the uninitiated this is the pharmacological equivalent of downing half a bottle of good wine. I subsequently spent the next three hours dozing on my bed.

Dot 'n Dave paid a visit in the afternoon and we spent a few hours sitting in the sun catching up with each others' news.

On their departure I downed another couple of Tramadol and snoozed on the sofa for the evening. 

I was so out out it, I didn't bother to eat.*

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* 30% was out with the cinema club

How big is it?

Monday started with the obligatory dog walk.

Having ticked that off the list, I then entered a period of extended pottering. This included fascinating activities, such as an inspection of the tomatoes in the greenhouse, and watering of the veg patch.

It was during this light gardening that 30% happened to mention that she "was going to pick up an exercise bike this evening".

Now this didn't come as a massive surprise, as she wants to improve her level of fitness, and had just missed out on buying a recumbent exercise bike at the weekend.

I should also point out that I am fully aware of the actual meaning of "I'm going to collect an exercise bike this evening." What this really means is "I'm going to pick up an exercise bike this evening and you're coming to help me ... whether you want to, or not!"

There is no way that 30% would be able to load an exercise bike in to her car on her own and no guarantee that the seller would be willing to assist.  My assistance was therefore mandated.  At this point I enquired as to the size of the exercise bike and whether it would fit in the car.  

My dear wife hadn't thought to ask either of these questions during the negotiations for the purchase of this exercise equipment ... She never ceases to amaze me with both her optimism and complete lack of forethought.

So, after an afternoon that included mowing the lawns at the back of the house, and the replacement of the LED strip light in the shed, we headed in to deepest, darkest Redditch.

After arriving and handing over thirty quid, it rapidly became apparent that the bike did not disassemble easily,* and there was no way the bloody thing would fit in the back of the X3.

It was therefore necessary to return home, hitch up the trailer, and drive back in to Redditch in order to collect the damned thing.

Now I love my wife dearly, but there are times when I just wish she would put in a little more thought, when we are executing on one of her impulses.

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* I had the foresight to bring an extensive socket and driver set, and a large screwdriver

Problems with my helmet

Sunday was a fairly lazy day.

I pottered around the place and, on occasion, attempted to gather together my Germany trip essentials. I finally took the time to attend to my crash helmet,* as I am not happy with the fit, nor the installation of the intercom unit. 

For some strange reason, every time I put on the helmet I find that the pinna of my right ear gets folded over. This isn't particularly uncomfortable on a short ride, but on long journeys it niggles. I'm also not sure about the location of the intercom speakers, as, at high speeds, I can't hear a thing.

I had already made the decision to replace the helmet later on in the year, but, after faffing around with the lid for twenty minutes, I made the decision; there was no way I was going to put up with that ill fitting crash hat for the upcoming trip.

I therefore spent the next hour considering the fit and suitability of my other helmets.  The Shark Evoline 3 has a delaminated visor, is noisy and well overdue for replacement too. I finally looked at my Shark Explore-R. I had bought this on a whim a few years ago, and quickly decided that I wasn't overly keen on the plastic peak attached to this full face lid. As a result it had sat in the cupboard mostly unused. I wondered about the possibility of removing the peak and replacing the detachable goggles with the spare visor supplied.

After much faffing, and a narrowly avoided temper tantrum, I eventually worked out how the peak was removed.** Attaching the visor was a doddle, and I also found out that the helmet liner has pre-cut apertures for the intercom speakers ... Result!

And, as for the fit, it's lovely!

So, I did manage to achieve something today.

We also left Wilson home alone for the first time, as we popped over to help Bubbles celebrate his birthday. It was a fairly low key barbecue with a few friends, and we had a pleasant couple of hours.

A special mention does go to Jess. Have you ever met someone who had a massive impact on you  ... but not in a good way?  Jess was one of those people!

She is an ex-primary school teacher*** who has a complete inability to listen. She was constantly in transmit mode, and was only interested in patronising her audience with the benefit of her views and limited knowledge ... We've only owned standard poodles for fifteen years and, funnily enough, did not need to be told the origins of the breed and their elaborate clips!

And, as for Wilson ... we arrived home to find no dramas at all ... another result!

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* Shark Vision-R

** A single thumb screw and brute force!

*** We have a saying "A teacher generally only knows slightly more than the age group they teach."

Germany is fast approaching

As the week drew to a close the weather forecast for Saturday had been suggesting that heavy rain was likely.  This was not welcome, as Bubbles had booked us in for a morning's clay shooting at the Cotswold Shooting Ground in Childswickham.

On rising I could see that we had experienced a few showers overnight, but the weather was reasonable. There was a cool breeze, but no rain, for the moment.

After my early morning chores, I threw my gun and shooting bag in the car, and headed across the Vale of Evesham for a fun morning's shooting. My score was dreadful, but I had a pleasant time catching up with Bubbles' and Ben's news.

And, even better than that, not a single drop of rain fell from the sky.

In the afternoon my first job was to remove the touring screen from the BMW, so that I could affix my Crit ' Air* sticker to the inside. I know that I should have done this on Thursday, when I originally fitted the screen, but I foolishly didn't.

Basically I am now in the process of slowly getting ready for the tour to Germany. I still haven't ridden my bike with the panniers fitted, but I am sure I will get to that before next Friday ... I bloody well hope it is still manageable.

So, as each day passes, an item or two is ticked off the virtual list and/or is added to the pile in the bedroom. 

As my holiday preparations continue I realised that my stock of bottled honey is running short, and I am hoping 30% will manage my little retail establishment** while I am away. I therefore spent a couple of hours liquifying and bottling the first batch from this year's honey harvest.

I now have twelve jars bottled, labelled, and ready for sale. That should be enough to keep her going.

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* A French vehicle emissions certification that permits access to municipal clean air zones

** A tiny little roadside table, not even worthy of the term, "stall"

Today I 'ave been mostly ...

... Clipping The Rat.

Dog #4 has been looking very scruffy recently, and the fact that I have just clipped Whiffler and Hobson's faces have made her look rattier still.  With the weather likely to warm up, I really did need to get my shit together and give her a damned good haircut.

Now I have recounted the fact that The Rat does not like going to the groomers on several occasions, so I won't bore you again. I will simply advise that she is such a fidget that she just gets a 7FC* all over. Actually that's not strictly true, as I do clip her face with a #10 blade.**

So, today has been mostly spent clipping the dog. I took plenty of breaks to allow the blades to cool down, and for the cordless clippers to recharge.  These allowed The Rat to rest a little, and I also used several treats to keep her reasonably cooperative.

I can report that I now have a much skinnier looking dog.

That was my most significant achievement. I also finally removed the "no longer wet" supers from Hives #1 and #2.  These were reasonably clean, but had been left a little too long, andthe bees had started to store a little nectar in some of the frames. To get them totally honey free, I stacked them in the carport. Within a few minutes they had been located by scout bees, and were buzzing; with hundreds of bees busily cleaning them up.

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* This will only mean something to someone who clips dogs. A 7FC blade is a #7 Finish Cut blade and it cuts the dog's coat to 3.2 mm in length.

** 1.5 mm

Post Script

I thought that The Rat's coat was looking a little overgrown. It was only when I checked that I realised she hadn't been clipped since last September.