I'm going to be very busy

This morning 30% headed off to London with a sub-sect of the coven.* They had arranged to visit the Queen's Wardrobe exhibition, and had planned the day with military precision, including car parking, train tickets, bus routes and even the snacks each of them were bringing!

I was home alone and did very little, other than keep the dog's company.  The main reason for mostly staying indoors, is that the dogs, obviously, needed to be kept well away from the tree felling crew. so we all had a lazy day.

I did make a brief excursion down the lane, as Pete the Beekeeper had dropped his truck of for its MOT test at the local workshop, and he didn't fancy a long walk home.

I also found a few minutes to glue and clamp the first of my bench cupboard doors. I'm pleased with the way they look. I just hope that they aren't too  out of square, or twisted when I attempt to hang them.

Over the course of the day the ash tree was reduced in height, and eventually the trunk was felled on to the lawn in front of the garage.** The trunk was then cut in to 10" slices, before the tree felling crew headed off.

As the daylight started to fade, I looked out at the huge pile of chipped wood and the even bigger pile of logs ... I'm going to be very, very busy over the coming weeks.***

---

* Jules, Mummy Sheila and Paula

** I made sure that I filmed the largest sections being felled, and posted these to WhatsApp for the entertainment and amusement of 30% and TP.

*** At present the log pile prevents me getting any of the bikes out of the garage ... and the BMW is booked in for a service on the 9th of June.

Post Script:

I should also add that today is the first anniversary of Traitorous Bastard's arrival here.  He has settled in really well and is very different from the skinny nervous boy that joined our little pack.  He is now well muscled and very handsome. He is a real ladies man, and loves to settle on the sofa alongside anyone who will give him attention.

He is still quite territorial and noisy at the gate. He also has a tendency to jump up and demands to be acknowledged.  His relationship with Hobson is amazing. They absolutely adore each other, and will play for hours, particularly if they find a favourite toy, which will lead to a boisterous tussle that goes on, and on!

Overall, he is turning out to be a lovely dog and I'm definitely thinking that he should probably stay with us ;-)

The Ash Tree Felling

Today was the day that the Tree Surgeon turned up to make a start on felling the ash tree.

Prior to their arrival, we removed our cars from the drive and I even relocated my little roadside stall twenty yards further along the verge, to put potential customers out of harms way. I then took a photograph of the tree to record it for posterity.

The first hour was spent positioning equipment and rigging ropes up in to the highest branches. Then Rich climbed up into the crown and made a few preliminary cuts. As each branch fell to the ground, his crew leapt in to action. The brash was cut away and fed in to a chipper. The branches were then cut in to manageable pieces, barrowed away, and dumped in the space between the garage and the hedge.  

Over the course of the day, larger sections of the tree were brought down. One was so heavy, that, when it hit the road surface, we felt the vibrations in the house, over twenty yards away.

This photo shows Rich preparing to fell the large branch on his left. That was the last part of the tree to be removed today.  Everything was tidied up and I can report that we now have a large pile of chipped brash on the drive.*

So, that was the excitement for the day, but I wasn't entirely idle myself. 

In the morning I routed grooves in the door frame components. These will hold the plywood panels in place when the doors are assembled. I had to get a little creative to cut these grooves, and ended up screwing a wooden fence to the base of the router and upending the router in my bench vice. I was then able to slide each frame element over the spinning bit, using the wooden fence to guide it. **

In the afternoon I attempted to walk the dogs, but my recent issues with blood glucose control resulted in me having a massive hypo about as far from home as my walk takes me. I ate an energy bar and had to call 30% to come and collect me, Hobson and TB.

I then spent an hour recovering at home, before returning to the workshop. I cut the panels for the doors and dry fitted them in to the frames. I have to say that they look absolutely brilliant. I am so pleased, as my carpentry skills are basic, at best.

---

* 30% and I will need to barrow that up to the orchard over the coming weekend.

** I'm pretty certain that it how routers are supposed to be used. I really could do with a router table, but they cost a bloody fortune, hence the Heath Robinson, or possibly MacGyver, approach ... and I still have all of my fingers!

More successful in the workshop, than the apiary

 I started Sunday morning with a little light carpentry.  

I spent a couple of hours in the workshop fettling the tenons, to ensure they fitted snugly in to the mortises.  A bit of light sanding had them slotting together nicely.  The fit is snug, but they can be taken apart without excessive force ... apparently that is how things should be.

I marked up the joints and frame components and then checked the frames, to see how square they were.  I can report that I have two square door frames and eight nice tight joints. They aren't Chippendale or Sheraton quality, but they are certainly good enough for my little Sjobergs bench.

The weather has been cold all week, and today was going to be the best day for checking on the bees.  When I say, "best" I really mean "least windy, and least chilly."  The bees were flying, so I judged it warm enough to take a quick look through the hives.

The new hives*, established by creating artificial swarms from hives #1, #2 and #3, were all in good order. The colones in  #4 and #5 are still stroppy, but all three are building up quite nicely.  That is a good thing as the colonies left to raise new queens do not look great.

I only checked hives #2 and #3, and was encouraged by neither.  Hive #2 has no sign of a laying queen, so my plan is to leave it another week, before considering introducing a new queen.  As I worked any way through hive #3, I started to get excited by the sight of larvae and capped brood. However, on closer inspection it all appeared to be drone brood.  This suggests that I either have a drone laying queen,** or a laying worker.  If it is the former, I stand a chance of being able to find her, cull her and replace her with a new queen.  If I have a laying worker, the colony will be impossible to re-queen and will slowly dwindle over the next couple of months.

I'm a little disappointed by the state of the queen less hives, but that is beekeeping. I just need to look towards next week's inspection and develop a plan, dependent on what I find.

In the afternoon I had a snooze on the sofa, and then planned to mow the front lawn.  Fortunately there was a shower, which messed up my plans. I was actually delighted, as the weather was bloody freezing.

I therefore headed back to the workshop and trialled routing a rebate in some scraps of wood. I am now slightly more confident that I can route out the rebates to hold the door panels, without cocking up the frame components, and without cutting off a finger!

By three o'clock I had had enough of the cold, and retired indoors to light the fire. I tried to concentrate on my successes in the workshop, and the fact that I still have three queen right hives.  There was never any guarantee of the colonies successfully raising new queens.

---

* Hives #6, #4 and #5 respectively.

** Possibly resulting from poor weather preventing successful mating flights

Spuds

Unusually, 30% was up early this morning, and was keen to get on with her day.

After breakfast we divided and conquered. She started out in the garden,* whilst I headed out with Hobson and TB for our walk.  It was definitely an early start, as I was back home a little after nine!

On my return we assembled, with tools, in the vegetable patch and spent the rest of the morning planting three rows of potatoes.** I appreciate that it is a little late to be planting potatoes, but, in my defence, I have only just got the ground ready for planting, and 30% found some bargain seed potatoes whilst out shopping.  I did a little research on the internet, and it seems that I should get a crop ... time will tell!***

I had a short snooze after lunch, before 30% and I moved a small, vacant chicken coop that sits alongside the garage. 30% has been informed that the tree fellers will be here on Monday, and moving the coop will give them more space to fell the tree and pile up the wood.

I then headed out to the workshop, where I spent the remainder of the afternoon on my carpenter's bench project. I can now report that the tenons for the cupboard doors have now been cut. They now just need a little fettling to ensure a snug fit in the mortises.

There is still no improvement in my blood glucose. It is still going sky-high after meals, so my evening was punctuated with regular checks and repeated injections. I'll be increasing my long-acting insulin again this evening. 

---

* She also nipped out for a short walk with Whiffler and The Rat

** A row and a half of main crop (Desiree & King Edwards) and a row and a half of second earlies (Charlotte and Wilja)

*** I have planted potatoes in late July, and these gave a small, but welcome, crop of new potatoes in time for Christmas.

Post Script

We should have been out this evening, to see Mark Watson at The Huntingdon Hall in Worcester.  30% kindly added an event to my calendar to ensure I didn't forget. She also checked through her email and other apps this afternoon for the e-tickets.  She even made a call to the Venue to check... as it seems she had got the event in our diaries, but had forgotten to actually book the tickets!

An Indoors Day

 It was another bloody cold day, so I decided to have an indoors day.

Having got the R1250R booked in for a service next month, I decided to see if I could sell a couple of items on eBay, in an attempt to cover the servicing costs.

So early this morning, I headed out to the garage and retrieved a rider's seat and rear seat cowl for the R nine T.  These had been purchased many years ago, but I had never got around to fitting them to the bike. I also ensured that they didn't end up being passed over to Bubbles when he bought my bike.*

I soon had the seat and cowl polished and then spent the next half an hour taking a multitude of photographs.  These were uploaded to my Mac mini, where I cropped and edited them to show off the items at their best.

I then spent a couple of hours drafting two carefully honed advertisements and scheduled them to go live at seven o'clock this evening.

The afternoon included a kip on the sofa, before I lit yet another fire and settled in front of it for the rest of the day.

My eBay auctions went live at seven o'clock this evening and soon started getting a few views and watchers. I was amazed that the seat cowl had actually received a couple of bids. These are well below the auction reserve, but it at least shows that my copy and photos are getting attention.

At this point I should mention that my blood sugar had been ridiculously high today, but I could see no reason why. I hadn't stuffed my face with sugary snacks. In fact I had eaten very little over the course of the day. Neither did I feel like I was going down with a bug.  These are two factors that would drive up my blood glucose levels, but neither seemed relevant and my blood levels were stupidly high.

Over the course of the day I gave myself increasingly large doses of my fast acting insulin, and ate a very small, low carbohydrate evening meal, but it was close to bed time before it started to drop. I increased my slow acting insulin dose too, and hope that things would settle overnight.

---

* The seat and cowl are worth a good amount of money, and Bubbs had already got the bike at a very fair price!

What are you doing on Thursday?

I was contacted towards the end of last week by ex-colleague Gary.  He has recently retired and I have, intentionally left him to his own devices, to allow him to find his feet.* 

So, Gary pinged me and asked if I was doing anything today. I replied that it would be good to catch up, so we arranged a visit for today.

However, before Gary arrived, 30% and I took. Whiffler up to the Vet's for his final post-operative check up.  The Vet, who performed the operation, is a lovely elderly gentlemen and he was delighted to see Whiffler looking so well. I lifted him up on the examination table and a rather undignified examination** followed. The Vet reported that he was healing brilliantly and that there were no signs of cancerous growth.

We were sent on our way, after making an appointment for Hobson and TB to come in for their annual inoculations in a fortnight's time.

Gary arrived shortly after midday, and we settled with coffee, to catch up on each other's news. It is only a couple of months since he finished work and has already discovered that there is no way that he could go back to work. I think he still has to settle in to the more measured pace of life that comes with retirement, and ensure that his interests prevent him from becoming bored.

One of his interests is that he has started dealing in vinyl, and he brought up a Dr Feelgood singles LP that I had agreed to buy.  I have no concerns about the quality, as he is a HiFi buff with a Michell turntable and an ultrasonic LP cleaner.  I was almost embarrassed to sit him next to our modest turntable and amp!

Time ticked on, and we headed up to The Why Not up on The Ridgeway for a pub lunch. Further coffee and chat followed, before Gary headed homeward in the late afternoon.

The weather is still unseasonable, so another fire was lit and we settled in front of it for the evening. 

My closing thought is that I really should think about mowing the lawns, but it is far too bloody cold at present.

---

* I personally think that you need to find your own way in to a retirement mindset. Chatting with an ex-colleague will naturally make you revert to your working frame of mind. Hence I have left him to calm down and forget about the nonsense that was IT services outsourcing.

** From Whiffler's perspective!

Lit another fire

More talk than action

I started out with a walk this morning, which included a twenty minute chat with an acquaintance, who lives in the next village.

I demonstrated perfect timing, as I arrived home just as our preferred painter and decorator; Jonathan turned in to the driveway. I then spent the next thirty minutes showing him the scope of the work we would like him to take on ... 30% has decided that he should decorate the entire ground floor.*

After discussing the job with him, it became clear that I would need to address a few DIY jobs before he arrives. There are light switches to be changed, a window board to be replaced and some plaster to be stripped off, the wall sealed and a sand and cement render applied. I am certain that this list will grow, and some of these tasks are not five minute jobs!

Once Jonathan had left, I wandered out to the tomato greenhouse and spent the time before lunch ensuring that the bamboo canes were up to the job of supporting the 2026 tomato crop.  I am well aware that the vines can become quite heavy and I have my doubts about the thin wire holding the canes in place.

After lunch I managed a short snooze, before I joined a video call with our Financial Advisor. This wasn't overly taxing.** and my requested pension draw down will be progressed in the next few days.  We also had a brief discussion about inheritance tax avoidance options, but that needs a lot more thought and investigation.

I then got the R1250R booked in for a service, before I settled in the lounge and lit the fire.  It is the middle of May and the weather is bloody freezing. I did turn the central heating off, but the warmth of a fire was extremely welcome as the temperature outside is barely in to double digits.

I must admit that I was reluctant to leave the warm fire and head out for this evening's Tai Chi class.

Reviewing this Journal entry, I can see that I got quite a bit done, but, at the time, I felt that I spent a lot of time talking and not much time doing!

---

* I have no objection to this, but her "natural enthusiasm" did need to be curbed, somewhat.  Her initial plan was that Jonathan should come in and decorate the entire ground floor in one go. I pointed out that we had four dogs, quite a lot of furniture to move around, and we needed somewhere to live too. It was also likely that Jonathan wouldn't be available until the late Autumn.  30% took this onboard and agreed that we should give Jonathan the option of doing the job in stages.

** No pun intended

 

Chat with FA

Bike bike in fur service

Tai Chi 

Lit fire bloody cold

I have a feeling I'm going to be very busy

Cowslips; they have nearly finished flowering now, but I need to mention that I love them. I don't know what it is about these little yellow primulas, but I think they are delightful.

At one time, well before we came to live here, the verges and fields were filled with them, but now they are far less common. We are lucky that the verge in front of the house is covered with them in the Spring, and we even have a few dotted amongst the grass on the front lawns.*

One of the possible reasons for the reduction in the number of cowslips is down to management of grasslands.  Many people are unaware that cowslips take a long time for their seeds to mature and disperse. The flowers need to remain, undisturbed, until late July to ensure that they are able to successfully shed their seeds.

Unfortunately, it seems that our local Authorities are unaware of this and insist on engaging local contractors to mow the verges, well before the cowslips, bluebells and other plants are able to reproduce successfully.

I do my best to help the cowslips spread their seeds, by carefully mowing a strip of verge alongside the road, but making sure that the cowslips remain unmowed, until the late Summer. This tends to deter the contract from mowing, but, on previous occasions, we have flagged down the tractors and instructed the drivers to leave our verge uncut. The result is that the verge in front of our house is one of the few parts of the lane that is covered with cowslips in Spring.

I mention this today because we heard the contractor mowing the lane this morning, so I put our wheelie bin out on the verge to deter him from mowing our little patch.  Fortunately this was a successful tactic, and the fading flower heads are still intact.

The other new for Tuesday is as follows ... 

... The morning was mostly taken up with walking the dogs** and dealing with a couple of administrative tasks. I chased up our Financial Advisor, as I had not heard from him, following a request to make a pension drawdown. I also contacted a motorcycle clothing supplier, in respect of a pair of trousers I had returned two weeks previously. It seems that my parcel is stuck at Alcester Post Office and I have not yet received a refund.

I can report that I now have a call scheduled with our FA, and a refund will be made to my credit card in the next forty eight hours ... Result!

In the afternoon I finally levelled off the last of the conifer stump's root wad out on the front lawn.  I now need to arrange for the hire of a stump grinder, but that can wait for a month, or two, or three! The reason for this lack of urgency, is that 30% advised that the tree surgeon will be here next week to fell the ash tree.  I will, therefore, be processing logs for the next couple of months, possibly longer.

For the sake of completeness, I should also mention that 30% took delivery of 500g of brandling worms, and has introduced them to her wormery. We are hopeful that this will convert vegetable scraps to a fine compost, a natural liquid fertiliser ... and a supply of quality fishing bait!

---

* They are buggers to mow around, but I do my best!

** I should probably mention that 30% tends to walk Whiffler and The Rat while I am out with Hobson and Traitorous Bastard. Whiffler and The Rat have a much shorter walk due to Whiffler's age and dodgy hips.

Stump Removal, Phase 4

This morning's activities started with the application of the final coat of oil to the bottom rails of the gates.  This didn't take long, and, as it wasn't particularly warm, I was glad to return to the shelter of the workshop.

Once I'd cleaned the brush and tidied up a little, I settled to cutting the rails for the cupboard doors. I then went on to cut a test tenon on a piece of scrap wood.  The test piece was a little loose in the mortices, but I am now feeling a little more confident that I can make a decent job of the doors for my work bench.

The afternoon included a post-prandial snooze, before I headed out for a walk with Hobson and TB.

It became clear that my walk wasn't sufficient exercise, as I then gathered a spade, mattock, axe and wheelbarrow, and headed out to the front lawn. Here I made another assault on the conifer stump's root wad.  After an hour or two I had dug out a wheelbarrow full of top soil and chopped out a good few feet of sizeable roots.*  I had manage to level the ground around the stump, but lacked the energy and enthusiasm to level out the final piece of the root wad** ... that can wait until tomorrow.

---

* Having recently sharpened my chainsaw, there was no bloody way I was going to use it to cut out tree roots again.  I'll have to use it to deal with the wood from the ash tree pretty soon. 

** For the moment there is an odd little grass topped mound about two feet away from the stump.

Less than expected!

It will come as no surprise, that I slept like a log last night. However, what was a surprise, was the fact that I felt relatively pain free,* after yesterday's workout with the rotorvator.

Just before ten o'clock we had another tree surgeon turn up to give us a quote for the felling of the ash tree. He seemed very thorough, and, after several minutes of inspection and questioning, he advised that he'd do the job for £1,950. This is a good deal less than we expected, and it is likely that we will be accepting his quote.

The remainder of the morning was taken up with a walk. The weather has turned unseasonably chilly, and both hat and coat were necessary attire ... and I was only just getting used to leaving them behind.

This afternoon 30% headed off to the cinema with 'Chelle, so I took the opportunity to have a lengthy siesta on the sofa.

I then headed out to the workshop and picked up a project that had been abandoned last Autumn.  I reacquainted myself with my mortiser, and finally got the mortises cut in the door frame stiles.

Next, I need to work out how big the rails need to be.

---

* As pain free as any sixty two year old can hope to be!

I'll sleep well tonight

 Saturday was forecast to be the finest day of the weekend, so I had planned my apiary inspection for this morning. As soon as the temperature had risen, and the bees were flying, I donned my bee suit and wandered up to the hives.*

I first checked on the colonies that had been created from artificial swarms taken from hives #1, #2 and #3. These are now numbered hives #6, #4 and #5 respectively.  All three are building up quite nicely and hive #6 was moved from a nucleus box to a full sized National Brood box. All of the queens were visible and they are laying beautifully.

I had planned to get one of these colonies to start drawing foundation on some shallow frames in a super, but none of them were sufficiently developed for this. Perhaps they'll be ready in a week or two. I should also mention that colonies #4 and #5 don't seem to have the nicest of dispositions.  The queen in #5 always produced workers that were a little stroppy, but the queen in #4 produced far better behaved workers ... perhaps it is related to the weather or their forage?

I then went on to work my way through hives #2 and #3.  This was their first inspection since they had been split in early April, and I was hoping to see signs that they had produced mated queens.  I could see cells that had clearly produced queens in both of the hives, but, as yet, there were neither eggs nor brood to be seen.  I'll give it another week or two before I start to worry.

The colony inspection took most of the morning, and my afternoon was taken up with a once-yearly activity ... It was time to drag the rotamatiser from the shed.

I have written about this little rotorvator before and, also, about the fact that it is quite a work-out to rotorvate our veg patch.  I'll try to avoid repeating myself, and simply say that I was exhausted by the time I had finished, and my eyelids were drooping by ten o'clock this evening.

---

* I had spent the preceding hour levelling the ground and laying a heavy concrete slab as a base for hive #6.

Honey and Comb

It has only been a week* since I was last bottling honey, and here I am at it again today.  Normally I sell about ten jars each week, but 30% had orders from WI and other member of the coven this week, hence my increased sales.

Dealing with the honey took the morning and I was finished by the early afternoon. I then headed out with the dogs for our walk.

The rest of the afternoon was spent tidying up and preparing a few batches of syrup for the bees. 

After splitting all of my colonies I have decided to see if I can get one of them to draw some comb in a couple of supers.  I propose to add a queen excluder and super,** add a feeder on top, and see how well they do over the next week.

I plan to inspect the bees tomorrow, and will probably use hive #5 for this little experiment.

---

* Well, eight days, if we are going to nit pick!

** With ten frames of foundation

Road kill in Redditch

This morning started with a visit from a local tree surgeon.  30% had arranged the appointment, so I am unsure how much information was exchanged, but he turned up at the gate, looked up at the Ash, and said "is this it?"

I confirmed that it was and that we wanted a quote for felling it, chipping the brash, and cutting the trunk and boughs in to manageable pieces. We want all of the tree to remain on-site, as the shippings will be used as mulch in the garden, and the wood will be logged and stored for use in the log burner.*

The tree surgeon confirmed that he was happy to oblige and advised that it was going to take a couple of days to complete the job. He also advised that there was a lot of weight in the tree, and it would definitely need to be brought down in small sections.  We await his quote with interest.**

The only other activity in the morning was my usual walk with the dogs.

The afternoon started with a post-prandial nap, before I grabbed one of the less favoured mowers from the shed.  The reason for using one of the more battered mowers, was that I had decided to mow the veg patch.  Having killed off the weeds, I would then, normally, break out the rotorvator, but it seemed more sensible to get the, now dead, weeds chopped up, before rotorvating their remains in to the ground.

I can report that the simple act of mowing the veg patch has made it look much better, and rotorvating will be a complete transformation. Hopefully I will get that done at some point over the weekend.

This evening saw us back at the Redditch Catering College restaurant. It was a wild food themed menu, *** and our dining companions were Mr & Mrs Tweedy.  Once again I have to report that the food was fabulous. I had a duck liver parfait to start, followed by a ragout of rabbit and ham hock, served with pasta. Both were beautiful. I finished with another panna cotta.  It was ok, but not a patch on the one I had last week.

I swear that I need to schedule a quieter day for tomorrow.

---

* We have also realised that felling the Ash tree, removes the shade from the roofs of the garage and outbuildings. It may be time to reconsider a small solar array?

** 30% is hoping that it will be under £3K. I think that's a reasonable guesstimate.

*** We are talking about Redditch here, so wild food is probably more accurately described as road kill and dead cat!

An unexpected sighting

It was an early start this morning, as I had an 08.30 appointment at CHEC. It was a fairly routine examination including a visual field test, eye scan/photos and IOP readings. Interestingly these were very different from those taken at Worcester hospital last week.* 

I wasn't particularly impressed by the check-up, but at least I am registered with NHS Ophthalmology, and they do seem to know what they're doing.  Also, I was back home a little after nine o'clock.

I spent the rest of the morning mowing the lawns at the front of the house. The place looks a lot tidier!

At lunchtime my new pair of motorcycle touring trousers were delivered and I can report that they are far better than any. of the other pairs that I have tried on, in the past fortnight ... do I remove the tags?

This afternoon I headed out for a walk with Hobson and TB. Normally there is very little to report about our walks, apart from TB disappearing off in to the distance, and refusing to return.** However, today, things got a little ornithological. 

As we walked down the lane, Hobson was investigating the verges and disturbed a partridge. I naturally assumed that it was a red-legged partridge, as they are not uncommon in these parts, in fact there were two pottering in the garden at the weekend. We wandered on, and then turned to head home. Hobson returned to the same spot and I noticed that he seemed to have something in his mouth. He wasn't willing to give it up, and seemed to have swallowed something. A few yards further on I noticed that he dropped something, so I went to investigate. It was an eggshell, a greenish eggshell.

This didn't seem quite right. From memory I recalled that red-legged partridge eggs are buff with brown speckles. This was completely different. Back at home I hit the internet and was rewarded with an answer to my searches. Hobson had disturbed a grey partridge. I was aware that they are very uncommon in this area, but didn't know that they had been recorded on the Bird of Conservation Concern Red List in 2015.  I shall have to look more carefully if I see another partridge in the lanes over the coming weeks.***

That just about covers Wednesday, although I should mention that a well earned snooze was taken, before I headed up to the Parish Education Centre for this week's Tai Chi session.

---

* 18 & 21 mmHg vs 10 & 11 mmHg, a week previously?

** The little sod did that again last Sunday, and was found waiting at the gate to be let in!

*** For completeness I should also report that I heard my first cuckoo of 2026, calling from the area alongside the little brook.