Bank Holiday Biking

Saturday, 2nd May

Saturday morning was fine and I was soon wandering up to the orchard to check on the bees.  

I started with Hives #4 and #5. These were the nucleus colonies, set up in early April, and now transferred to National brood boxes.  Both colonies are expanding in size, and drawing the foundation in to lovely clean brood comb. I caught sight of the queens in both hives and am delighted with how they are doing. Hive #4 was created a week before #5 and had increased so much that I added a queen excluder and a super to deter swarming behaviour.

I then went on to check Hive #1 and soon saw queen cells.  I grabbed a nucleus box from the store room and returned to the Hive. I was lucky, finding the queen at the first attempt, and created an artificial swarm in the nucleus box.* I should also mention that the super on Hive #1 had been filled and the cells were probably around 60% capped. I added another super to the hive to give the bees in this colony something to do, while their new queen is developing.

Hives #2 and #3 were split about three weeks ago, and it is still a little early to expect to see a new laying queen, so I just checked their supers. As with Hive #1, both were filled and the bees were starting to cap of the honey in the cells. I gave each hive another super, and put the roofs back on. I'll keep an eye on the bees returning to these two hives, looking to see if they are bringing any pollen, as this is a sign that they have a laying queen once more.

TP's cousin Rob arrived in the early afternoon.  He will be joining our motorcycle tour of France in July, and, as part of our preparations, we had all decided that a couple of days riding in the UK might be a nice little taster.

Rob had, sensibly, put his Speed Triple in the back of his van, and had a comfortable drive up from down near Guildford.

We had a pleasant afternoon getting reacquainted, before 30% and I headed off in to Birmingham to see Peter Kay at the Utilita Arena.  

We have seen Peter Kay a couple of times previously, many years ago and were anticipating a fantastic evening of comedy.  Unfortunately his show was based around material that we had seen before, and the first half was mostly Peter getting the audience to sing along to TV commercial and theme tunes from the 1970's.

The second half was better, but he was still very reliant on old material, such as misheard song lyrics and miming to songs with his shovel guitar.  There was more observational material, and it was laugh out loud funny, but, overall, it wasn't a great gig, and I'd only give it a paltry 6/10 ... I pity the poor chap sat next to me, he had travelled from Guernsey to see the show, and was of the same opinion!

---

* Hive #6

Sunday,  3rd May

We had originally planned a ride out in the Cotswolds today, but the forecast had not looked very good.  Consequently we had a leisurely morning, drinking coffee, chatting and showing Rob my bikes.

The weather improved in the early afternoon, so we all put our big girl pants on,* and headed out for a ride.  I took the lead and headed out towards Stratford on Avon. From there we headed towards Shipston on Stour and up in to the Cotswolds. A coffee break was taken at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway station at Toddington, and we were treated to the sight of a Battle of Britain Class locomotive steaming in, and out of the station.  We headed home via Fish Hill, Saintbury Hill, Honeybourne and Bidford on Avon. 

Our route gave Rob his first experience of the North Cotswolds and he loved it. We covered about seventy miles, and were out for about three and a half hours, including breaks for drinks and fuel.

At this point I should mention that way back in 1997, I was still married to TP's mum, and we were living in Granby, Nottinghamshire.  Rob would have been about eight years old, and came up to see us with his mum and sister.  He has a photo, from that visit, showing him sat on my CBR 600 in the back garden. 

Last year TP advised us that Rob still has that photo, and it sits, framed, on his desk.  Rob was amazed that I still have the bike, thirty later, and was literally gobsmacked that the bike is in such beautiful condition. He was bowled over when I insisted that he should take for a run down the road ... and that we should recreate the original photo.

We didn't get as far as reenacting the photo on Sunday evening, but he did taker her out for a quick ride. He also had a go on the Guzzi, but is yet to be persuaded by her charms ... perhaps a little too agricultural?

Charlie joined us for Sunday dinner, courtesy of my good lady, and we had splendid time chatting and joking the evening away.

---

*  It's no fun riding in the rain, so why do it, if you don't have to!

Monday, 4th May

Charlie arrived just after eight o'clock, and joined us for a huge English breakfast.  After stuffing ourselves with bacon, sausage and eggs we headed out for our second ride of the weekend. 

This time Charlie took the lead and we headed out, skirting to the West of Worcester, and on to Bridgenorth.  From there we went on through Ironbridge, and on to Shrewsbury, where we stopped for a break and a bite to eat.

We then turned South and headed to Ludlow, over the top of Clee Hill and back home via Whitley and Worcester.

We arrived home in the middle of the afternoon, and both Rob and TP prepared to head off to their respective homes.  We had time time recreate the Honda photo, before Rob headed off with honey and eggs. He had a long drive in front of him, but at least he had the comfort of his van.

I pitied TP, as he now had a two hour ride to Cardiff on his VFR 800, after already being in the saddle for a good few hours today ... I'll wager he sleeps well tonight, I certainly will!