Earlier this week I finally managed to finalise arrangements to collect three buckets of honey from a new supplier. The timing was fortunate, as I am down to my final jar from the last batch from PtBK.
So, this morning found me out in the bright sunshine attempting to locate the headquarters of my new supplier. After a minor detour, I eventually found his cottage, knocked on the door and introduced myself. He is a full-time commercial beekeeper with about three hundred colonies. He seems very knowledgable, and the honey was beautifully presented. It had been pre-filtered and would just need to be warmed so that it could be poured in to jars.
It is expensive at £125 per bucket,* but there will be less wastage and, with bulk honey in short supply, beggars can't be choosers! The Apiarist advised that he would offer a discount on future purchases, so I am hopeful that he has a healthy harvest and is more inclined to offload his stock.
I headed home via Alcester, dropped a parcel off at the Post Office,** and picked up some staples from the supermarket. I was home with sufficient time to take a walk with Hobson and Traitorous Bastard, before lunch.
Immediately after lunch I was required to set up the MacBook, so that 30% could attend her on-line speed awareness. I must report mild annoyance that I got snapped at, because 30% hadn't bothered to properly read the instructions for joining her bloody course. In fact, there seemed to be a fair bit of abdication of responsibility, as she simply forwarded the joining instructions to me, and left it to me to get MS Teams installed and set the machine up.
I then manage to find time for a brief snooze, before Boring John*** turned up at the gate. Months ago I had offered him a large block of weathered concrete. I have a vague recollection that he wants it to mount a water feature, but, to be honest, I do try to forget anything John says as quickly as possible.
I did my best to provide as little assistance as possible with loading the block in to his pick-up. It was very heavy and I really didn't want to injure my back doing someone a favour. We actually managed to get it loaded relatively easily, but I did have to endure a lecture about the fact that Rudolph Diesel didn't actually invent the diesel engine. I tried to make interested noises, while simultaneously wishing John would just shut up and fuck off.
Eventually he left, leaving me to enjoy an hour of solitude. I topped up the feeders on hives #4 and #5 and the relaxed further before heading in to the village for this week's Tai Chi session.
This evening we completed a warm up, and the Spring sequence, before we completed the first seven postures of the Yi Jin Jing sequence. The class ended with Kung Po Fran guiding us through the final three postures of the sequence ... I swear that one of them is call Pouncing Tiger, which suggest that I may have developed some form of unnatural mental ability.
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* Over the past couple of years Pete's prices increased from about £60 to £70, and the last bucket was £80.
** A pair of Motorcycle touring trousers that were a horrendous fit
*** The husband of one of 30%'s chum; Lesley ... I'm not overly keen on Lesley either
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