Busy doing nothing?

 Today was one of those days when I don't recall doing much, but I seemed to be occupied for most of the day.

30% left the house early this morning, as she was having an overnight stay with her friend; Pinky. Pinky's recuperation is going well. Not as fast as she would like, but she is returning to a normal life ... Well, as normal as it can be without a stomach!

I was left home alone, and my day was filled with the various chores that keep the house going. 

I do seem to come across a variety of half completed jobs, that have been abandoned left by 30%. For example, I now always check the washing machine, as she, invariably, will have left a load of wet washing festering in there.

She didn't disappoint, and that load has now had a spell on the line, and in the tumble drier. As I type this, it is folded neatly in an ironing pile.

So that was my day. A series of domestic duties and pet care. I'm not complaining. I quite enjoyed myself, and the house does seem to be slightly tidier.

Day of rest?

Sunday used to be referred to as the day of rest.  That is a concept, of which I definitely approve. To be honest, I'd like to extend that definition to a few more days of the week too!

So, as today panned out, I was concerned to note that there wasn't a lot of resting to be had.

First job of the day was to remove the bacon from the smoker. This was cut in half,* wrapped up in clingfilm and left at the bottom of the fridge, to rest for a few days before slicing. I then tidied away the smoking paraphernalia and took a moment to appreciate the warm, sunny morning.

The bees had noticed too, and were flying for, probably, the first time this year. I could see them bringing pollen in to the hives, which suggests that the queens are starting to lay.

I decided to check whether the colonies had consumed all of their fondant, so I donned a bee suit, lit my smoker and returned to the orchard.  All three of the colonies are working their way through the packs of fondant. One of them was virtually empty, and was replaced. 

At that point I decided that it was warm enough to take a peek under the crown boards,** and assess the size of my overwintered colonies. I started with hive#2 and was amazed. All eleven frames seemed to be crammed with bees and the underside of the crown board was covered too. Hive#1 seemed to be a similar size too. The third hive was slightly smaller with seven or eight frames of bees, but this is still very good for a colony approaching the end of the winter.

Obviously I haven't checked the frames to ensure that my queens are laying, and that the colony is healthy, but I am reassured, if not delighted, by this brief check on progress.

In the afternoon I took the dogs out for a walk. We walked as far as Pete's house, and he appeared from his front door. Half an hour was spent chatting over the gate, before I turned and headed home. I did also remember to order another bucket of honey, as supplies are running low.

I made sure that we had plenty of logs and kindling available for a fire this evening, and then applied myself to the last of my planned activities ... We will be having friends over for dinner on Friday, and 30% decided that gravlax might be suitable as a starter. Consequently I spent a short while preparing the cure mixture and applying it to a pair of rather lovely pieces of salmon.

They will be ready to sample on Wednesday.

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* Simply to make handling easier, as it was huge.

** This would be a quick look under the crown board. No frames would be removed, as I didn't want to chill the brood nest.

The Beekeeping Show 2026

I had an early start this morning.

Firstly I needed to refill and relight the smoke generator, to give my loin of bacon another twelve hours of smoke, before I made preparations for my day out.

Today is the annual Beekeeping Show up in Telford, and, several months ago, I had made the decision to attend. 

Over the past few weeks I have assessed my beekeeping equipment, checked on-line prices, and had drafted a shopping list.  The list covers the items I will need, to facilitate increasing the number of colonies in the apiary.

One of the more costly purchases was a large quantity of wax foundation.*  I had learnt that one of the Companies at the show offered a wax exchange service.**  I would be able to exchange my stores of beeswax for sheets of foundation at the show. This would be a considerable saving, as I estimate that I need about eighty sheets of foundation, which would cost well over one hundred pounds. I have about eighteen pounds of bees wax which, when exchanged, should supply the foundation needed.

So, shortly after eight o'clock this morning I loaded up the car and headed North towards Telford. It was a relatively easy drive and arrived at about nine thirty.

As I wandered across the carpark I was amazed at how many people were in attendance. The place was absolutely rammed with people and queuing seemed to be the order of the day. I queued to get in to the venue, every point of sale had a very long line of people waiting, and even the stock and exhibits were obscured by the hordes.

Fortunately the wax exchange was less busy, and I had soon offloaded my beeswax in exchange for sixty sheets of brood and twenty sheets of shallow foundation. I put the foundation in the car and then returned to the exhibition hall to continue my shopping.

I was glad that my list was relatively short and I soon had everything I needed, including some rhombus clearers and a new bee suit. By lunchtime I had had enough and was glad to head home.

In retrospect it was worthwhile visiting, as I had managed to offload my beeswax and I had also been able to try on my new bee suit before purchasing. But, generally, it is far easier to purchase on-line and endure the postage fees, especially as my visit incurred ticket and fuel costs.

I would only go again if there were fabulous show offers, or if I needed to physically assess a product before buying. 

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* Foundation: a wax sheet that is impressed with a hexagonal pattern. The sheet also has a wire embedded in it to provide support. Foundation is fixed in to the hive frames to give the bees a foundation from which to build comb.

** They take in beeswax and will either offer a credit note for other goods, or will swap it for sheets of wax foundation.*** They use the wax to produce the foundation they sell.

*** At the rate of 3.75 sheets of wired, brood foundation in exchange for 1 Lb of wax

Smoking bacon

First job this morning was to retrieve the cured loin from the workshop, unwrap it, and hang it up in my tea chest smoker. 

I then filled the smoke generator with sawdust, lit it, and checked to ensure that it was producing a gentle stream of smoke. I closed up the smoker and left it in the carport to work its magic. 

The little smoke generator is amazingly efficient, and should continue to produce smoke for the next twelve or fourteen hours. I needed to do nothing further, apart from checking occasionally for a trickle of smoke coming from the smoker.

My only other activities were a shopping trip with 30% in the morning, and a walk with Hobson and TB in the afternoon.

 

I didn't do much

It was yet another soggy, grey day, and I did very little.

I did manage to clear some space in the store room, and, as a result, had a small bonfire to dispose of some cardboard boxes. 

I'm keen to keep the store room as tidy as possible, as the beekeeping season is nearly here. I will be regularly accessing my supply of hive components, as the colonies increase in size, bring in nectar, and start honey production. 

I will also need to get my hands on my bacon slicer in the next few days.

On the subject of bacon, the cured loin has been hanging from the workshop ceiling for the past week and is now just about ready to be smoked. I therefore spent some time gathering my smoking equipment together, in preparation to smoke the bacon tomorrow.

Daffs and Dogs

I keep forgetting to mention that the daffodils are finally starting to flower.

We planted well over one hundred bulbs back in October last year, and I noticed that the first signs of growth were visible on New Year's Day. I can now report that they seem to have done really well. There are lots and lots of buds and the first dozen flowers have just started to open. 

It'll be interesting to see how they look at the peak of flowering.

There is not a huge amount to report for today. The weather was cold and dry, and I got out for a walk with the two dogs* in the early afternoon. 

I use the walks as an informal training session, focussing on their recall and walking to heel, off the lead. These are the key behaviours that are needed so they become conditioned to returning when we see cars, horses or pedestrians, and that they walk alongside me as we approach blind bends and junctions.

I have to say that they are both doing really well. They still love to race ahead, exploring the hedges and fields, but are content to come and walk to heel, when conditions dictate. We have had a few tests recently, and, so far, they have responded perfectly.

I should state that these tests have all been where the car, person, or horse has been seen well in advance. We have yet to execute a recall in a close encounter scenario.

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* We seem to have divided and conquered when it comes to dog walking. I walk Hobson and TB. They are the youngest and need most exercise. 30% now walks Whiffler and The Rat. They are the older dogs and need far less exercise. The reason for this division of labour is that 30% is less mobile than I, hence I get to complete the longer walks.

How long have you had that?

Over the past week, or so, 30% has been having a clear out of her dressing room.  She has made half hearted attempts at this over the five years we have been living here, but, this time, it seems to be a serious attempt to make the room look presentable.

Yesterday evening she wandered downstairs and presented me with a voucher. "I found this upstairs," she said, "You're going to be in the vicinity of Halfords tomorrow, why don't you use it?"

I looked at the voucher and it seemed voucher ish. It was clearly from Halfords and offered the owner £5 off any purchase. However, on closer examination there were many things you would expect on a voucher, that just weren't there. There was no QR or barcode. There was no expiry date, neither were there any detailed terms of use or limitations, just a reference number of eight or ten digits.

I said I'd give I a go, and that leads us on to today.

First activity this morning was a walk with Hobson & TB, once the painkillers had taken effect. This took up most of my morning, and any spare time was used to refill the log basket and chop some kindling.

After lunch I headed in to Redditch. I will need some plywood in the near future.* A quick visit to Wickes had plywood ticked off my list. I then drove around the corner, parked up, and wandered in to Halfords. I spent several minutes wandering around, and failing to be inspired by any of their stock. Yes, I could have purchased something shiny in chrome vanadium, but I have plenty of tools already.**

Eventually my eyes fell upon a little visor cleaning kit in the motorcycling section. "That'll do" I thought, so I picked it up, and wandered over to the tills. Eventually a member of the team ambled over and cheerfully scanned my purchase. I handed over the voucher and he looked a little puzzled. He made a couple of attempts to get the till to recognise it, before calling over his team leader.

The team leader looked equally puzzled and, was about to just create a manual discount, when the till seemed to recognise the voucher code and I was able to complete my purchase. The chap advised that he had worked for Halfords for over ten years and had never seen a voucher quite like the one I presented today.

God knows how long that voucher had been lurking in 30%'s belongings, but I happen to know that she does have a Co-op voucher that she received when she was first married, over thirty years ago.

Perhaps we should try that one next?

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* I have a few clearer boards to make. These are used to get bees out of the supers, before the honey is extracted. They act as a one-way valve. Once the bees have exited the super, via the clearer board, they can't find their way back in. 

I also need to finish making a pair of cupboard doors for my carpenter's bench refurbishment.

* You can NEVER have too many tools!

A slight improvement

The forecast for this week looks almost pleasant after the preceding weeks of rain.

It should be noted that the weeks of continuous rain has meant that my definition of pleasant has been tempered, and is now satisfied by showers rather than downpours, and sunny spells rather than endless rain.

Today started with blue skies. It clouded somewhat later, and there was the occasional shower, but it was dry enough to get out with the dogs and walk out as far as Pete the beekeeper's house.*

I have learnt that I need to schedule these walks, as my back is much improved, but I need to dose up on paracetamol and ibuprofen about an hour before we set off.

I am reasonably confident that I am not making matters worse, as my back seems fine when I am walking and no worse when back at home, pottering around the house and gardens.

So that it is it for Monday.  The dogs got walked and I managed to tidy up the bits and pieces left over from yesterday's honey bottling.

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* Today I established that this is actually about 2.6 miles in total. Consequently it is not my new three miler, but in fact just a pleasant walk with far fewer encounters with Townies. There is also always the chance that I will bump in to Pete, and can order another bucket of honey.

Sales report

Yesterday's sun was a brief reprieve, and today the rain is back.

Fortunately I was running low on bottled honey, so I was able to use that as an excuse to stay indoors and bottle a couple of batches, over the course of the day.

I thought that sales had slowed down,* but, on checking, my last bottling session was on 27th January, so I still seem to be shifting about ten pounds every fortnight.

That pretty much sums up Sunday. There was also a snooze the sofa, and a fire was lit early in the evening. There was also a rather nice bottle of Governo to go with this evening's dinner.

And I didn't get too wet shutting up the hens.

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* Hardly surprising considering the weather!

Fishing

Today we had a brief reprieve from the endless, soggy gloom.

The skies were blue and the sun shone down. There was even a light dusting of frost early this morning. Don't be mistaken, everywhere is still soaking wet, but it was lovely to have a bright sunny day after weeks and weeks of cloud and rain.

After a hefty dose of painkillers* I headed out along the lanes with Hobson and TB. We completed the new three miler, before the dogs were dunked in an icy bath to wash away the mud.

Late last night 30% happened to mention that an important document** had managed to slip in to the windscreen vent of her car.  After listening to a somewhat waffly explanation, I avoiding saying "FFS," and advised that she might like to use the long reach, locking forceps*** that I have in my fishing bag.

Let's now roll forward to this morning. 30% advised that she had tried to retrieve the document with her eyebrow tweezers, but had failed. I asked why she hadn't used my fishing forceps and was advised that she "didn't know where they were." I would have thought that the large,  and only, green bag in the store room, adjacent to the three rods and the landing nets would have given her a clue.

Again I avoided saying "FFS" and went to have a look for the forceps. I have to be fair and say that I totally failed to find them. I must have left them on the bank on our last angling excursion. I then tried and failed to retrieve the document with a pair of long nosed pliers. I eventually fished out the damned piece of card with a steel rule, tipped with a piece of gaffer tape.

Here endeth the tale of my first fishing trip of 2026 ... At least I had a catch!

This evening we headed in to Redditch to see the Dazzling Diamonds drag review at The Palace Theatre. We had a splendid time watching three queens sing, lip synch, bitch and take the rise out of the audience. The humour was, most definitely, fellatio focussed and absolutely brilliant.

There were moments of true drag genius, and particularly worthy of mention was the mash-up of Rod Hull and Emu with Bjork singing "It's Oh So Quiet."

We had so much fun that we have already booked tickets for their new show in April '27.

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* My back is still not pain free, but I can now stand upright and walk, confident that things are on the mend.

** The arrival time recorder that accompanies her blue badge

*** Have you seen a pike's teeth!

I think I've watched as much curling as I can take!

The rain today was relentless.

It didn't stop at any point. The ground is now so soaked that it cannot absorb another drop, so it is collecting in huge puddles, and streaming on to the roads.

There was no way that I was going to walk the dogs in this weather so I limited my activities to those I could perform indoors.

The loin of pork, that I started curing last Friday,  was taken out the fridge, dried off, and wrapped in muslin. It is now hanging from a hook in the ceiling of the workshop. It will remain there for the best part of a week, before I take it down and smoke it.

I'm embarrassed to say that that was all I achieved today. I did watch more of the Winter Olympics, but have now reached the point where I am starting to come up with suggestions for new sports to be included in the French Alps Olympics of 2030.

I think snowmobile racing could be a big hit, as could dog sledding.  Wrestling polar bears is probably a little one sided to be taken seriously, but I'm pretty sure it would bring in the viewers.

"I'm not sure why you're here?"

 The only thing in the diary for today was a trip in to Worcester for a check up at the eye clinic.

I left home with plenty of time, as I expected to hit rush hour traffic. Instead I breezed through Worcester and was parked up forty minutes in advance of my appointment. I used the time to pick up some milk,* before I wandered in to the clinic ... I was still twenty minutes early.

After a short wait I was called in to an examination room and the first utterance from the practitioner was the title to today's Journal entry.

She was very pleasant and apologised for not getting in touch and cancelling the appointment. She pointed out that I was last seen in November, and didn't need to reviewed until May, at the earliest. We agreed that the CHEC service seems to just make random appointments, and she gave tacit agreement that the company operated in that fashion, as each appointment would result in revenue from the NHS. The more appointments they make, the more money they earn!

She measured my IOP's and both were fine. Shen then made me an appointment for May, and cheerily sent me on my way, with the warning to ignore any future requests to schedule appointments.

I didn't really do much for the rest of the day. The weather is still appalling, and the Winter Olympics are a reasonably interesting diversion.

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* We always need milk, and I never drink the bloody stuff ... bleurgh!

Post Script:

We did have a quick chat with TP this evening. There is not much sound work available at the moment, so he has picked up a contract with Amazon to deliver parcels for three days each week. He is just completing his training and says, "it is actually nowhere near as bad as he expected." 

The reason for our call was to wish him luck for tomorrow. Back on the 20th January TP had mentioned that he was interested in a change in career direction and was looking at other areas of the sound engineering industry. 

He has reached out to a couple of companies to see if they would offer him some work experience and he now has offers from a couple of companies. It seems that they might be interested in offering him employment if they like what they see.

Post, Post Script:

I also had an "even better than that" moment this evening.

I briefly checked the notifications on my phone tis evening and noticed that I had received a payment into my bank account.

At this point I put on my reading glasses expecting something mundane. Instead I discovered that His Majesty's Revenue & Customs had refunded a significant amount of tax deducted from a pension drawdown payment ... Result!

Improvement?

 My back seemed slightly better this morning. 

As a consequence, I started to plan my day and a walk with the dogs was added to the schedule.

Midway through the morning the painkillers seemed to have kicked in, so I headed up the hill with Hobson and TB. I hadn't walked far before I realised that we would not be completing the new Three Miler. I could walk, but even dosed up with paracetamol, I was subject to regular twinges, particularly when going downhill.

I settled for about a mile. The dogs had emptied themselves and I had, at least, got out in the fresh air for half an hour.

A delivery in the post kept me busy for another hour ... A while back I repaired and cleaned up an old reading lamp. It is a lovely thing apart from one thing. It needs an in-line switch fitting to the cable. This simple addition would make a nice light into a perfect light.

An hour was spent fitting the switch, and I am really pleased that I have actually achieved something today.

A snooze was necessary in the afternoon ... obviously for medical purposes, and I lit the fire, before heading in to the village for this week's Tai Chi session.

I was a little apprehensive about some of the sequences. but I can report that it was relatively twinge free. I am hoping that the stretching and gentle exercise will assist in my back healing.

Mostly Sleeping

 My back seems to be slowly improving, but for most of today I have felt absolutely zonked.

I'm not sure whether it is the after effects of Tramadol,* but I felt completely out of it. 

I spent the morning dozing on the sofa and the afternoon included an hour of sleep.

I did manage to trim Whiffler's face, but that was it for the day ... Oh, and I did manage to fill the log basket.

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* The pharmacological equivalent of a bottle of red wine