A culinary first

 My experience of making preserves is limited to a single batch of Beetroot Chutney. I made a batch after last September's Horticultural Show, and 30% declared it a great success.  I was not so enthused. It's perfectly acceptable, but I'm not an avid eater of pickles and relishes. I'll have the odd smear of Branston in a cheese sandwich, and TP's Lime Pickle is lovely with a curry. I even enjoy a spoonful of onion relish with a portion of pâté or terrine.

The more I think about this, the more I realise that I quite like pickles and chutneys. I just don't eat them very often.

Anyway, apologies, I headed off on a bit of tangent there. Back to the subject of today's Journal entry; I have made a single batch of chutney previously, but today I attempted jam making for the first time.

A friend the village gave us a jar of Crabapple Jelly last year and it was lovely. I was perfect with roast pork, and I have no doubt that it would be lovely added to deserts or breakfast yoghurt. 

Anyway, the jar has, long since, been emptied, so I decided to try my hand at making a batch. 30% managed to acquire the recipe, and she also managed other blag a large bag of crabapples from an acquaintance. I therefore had everything I needed, and set aside today to make my first attempt at jam, or more precisely, jelly making.

The first thing I did was to abandon the recipe I had been given. It needed a pound of rose hips, and I really could not be arsed with fighting my way through the local hedgerows to find sufficient ripe hips. Instead, I used the BBC Food website to provide a recipe.

Ingredients and materials

• 1kg crabapples
• 6 cloves
• 1.25 litres of water
• 600 - 800 g of granulated sugar
• 8 x 8oz jars with lids, sterilised

Method

1. Prepare the apples by washing, removing the stalks and any other damaged areas. Roughly chop them in to small chunks
2. Place the apples in a large pan with the water and the cloves.
3. Bring the mixture to the boil, cover and then simmer for about 45 minutes. The lower the simmer the better the flavour and colour of the jelly will be.
4. After simmering, remove from the heat and separate the pulp from the liquor using muslin or a jelly bag. Do not squeeze the pulp. Just let it drip slowly in to a bowl for a few hours, or overnight.
5. Measure out the crabapple liquor to determine the quality of sugar required. 600g of sugar is needed for each litre of liquor. This recipe, allegedly, produces 1 litre of liquid. I ended up with 1.35 litres and needed 810g of sugar.
6. Pour the liquid in to a clean saucepan and bring up to a simmer. Add the sugar, one third a time, stirring to dissolve, before adding the next third.
7. Once all the sugar has been dissolved, bring the mixture to a fast boil for about 8 minutes, or until the setting point has been reached (105 ℃).*  
8. Remove it from the heat and let it rest for a few minutes, before decanting in to a jug. Then pour in to the sterilised jars and put on the lids immediately. Note: At this stage the jelly will still be a liquid, and will stay so for a good while. I found that it set overnight in to lovely soft jelly that holds its form.

I still have sufficient crabapples to make another batch. I think I may replace the cloves with some cinnamon bark for my next attempt.

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* As a jelly making novice, I can report that this was the most challenging part of the recipe and a jam thermometer or digital temperature probe is a must. I had to return the mixture to the heat three or four times before it reached the setting point. I tested the setting point by placing a teaspoon of the mixture on a saucer, and placing it in the freezer for a few minutes.  When the cooled jelly is pushed with a finger, the surface of the jelly crinkles in front of the finger tip.

Mostly horticultural

 After our recent work on improving the herbaceous border at the rear of the cottage, I made an impulse purchase.  I decided that a few Cranesbill plants would be the perfect addition to the border, providing a long lasting display of colour at the edge against the path.

Three plugs of the geranium Azure Rush were purchased from eBay, and they arrived with yesterday's post. This morning I headed out to the potting shed and soon had them potted on and watered. The plants are tiny, with barely a couple of leaves showing above the soil surface, and I felt that they would benefit from a few weeks in a pot before being transplanted to the border.

Next job was to water my leeks, and then replenish the water in the butts and tanks.

In the afternoon I finally got around to planting out my Savoy cabbages.  I purchased these as plugs at the beginning of the month, and they have flourished in our cold frame. Their roots are now starting to appear through the drainage holes in their pots, and they have many more leaves.

A line was laid out in the veg patch. A watering can was filled, and a trowel and kneeling pad was collected from the potting shed. I dug my first hole, and was surprised and delighted to see that the soil is still moist a few inches below the surface. I have been told that cabbages like to be planted deep, so their roots should be able to access the water in the soil. Needless to say, I filled each hole with water before planting, and gave them a good soaking, after they had been firmed in to the earth.

30% and I then spent a good while protecting the plants with a sprinkling of slug pellets and netting. It is amazing how quickly the cabbage white butterflies can locate a brassica plant. I swear one of the little sods was flitting over my plants within ten minutes of them being planted out!  And as for pigeons, those bastards would raze the crop to the ground in moments, given the opportunity. The only good place for a pigeon is on the ingredient list of a terrine!

The cabbage planting took most of the afternoon, especially when I take in to account the time to tidy up, and celebrate with a self congratulatory cuppa.  By five o'clock I had definitely run out of steam, and did little more.

A quieter couple of days

 I have had a fairly relaxing couple of days and have neglected to make a Journal entry.  This is an attempt to fill in the gaps.

On Friday 30% had arranged for H to come over with her two granddaughters, O & A.  They are two and five respectively and, shall we say, real characters!

They arrived midway through the morning and stayed until mid afternoon. We had a splendid time sitting and talking, while the girls played and chattered. There was no chance that two youngsters would occupy themselves, so we went up to the orchard to see the bees and chickens, and, of course, collect some eggs.  We explored the greenhouses and the veg patch, picked apples from the trees, and sampled raspberries and blackberries from the bushes. 

It's nearly a quarter century since TP was their age and I had forgotten how easy it is to amuse youngsters with the simplest of activities.  A half filled watering can allowed them to play at gardening, and they loved splashing water over the plants, whilst carefully avoiding the bumblebees!

We had a lovely day sat out in the sun, and they left around three in the afternoon. I have to be honest and report that 30% and I were both exhausted by their antics, and retired for a long snooze after their departure.

Now on to Saturday.

Evesham is hosting its annual Fishing Festival this weekend., and this has become a bit of a pilgrimage for Bubbles and me.  Basically it is an opportunity for us to trawl through the various pop-up stalls to find that "must have" angling essential at a bargain price.

I picked up Bubbs at ten o'clock and we drown down to the Evesham Crown Meadow. Anglers were setting up on the river bank for the competition that would take place later in the day, and tents and gazebos had been pitched to create a temporary market place on the meadow.

We spent an hour, or so, checking out the bargains and I wandered away with a Shimano spinning rod, a new handle for my landing net and a pair of curved forceps. Bubbles was a little more restrained, coming away with a couple of bags of boilies.

I was back at home for lunch, and just in time to wave off 30% ... she had arranged to spend the afternoon with one of her chums.

My afternoon was filled, making another batch of tomato soup, as the tomato plants are producing a seemingly endless supply at the moment.

In the evening we headed down to the local pub. 30% was under the impression that a local couple were performing this evening. It transpired that she was mistaken, so we ended up chatting with a couple and enjoying a glass of wine in the evening sun.

A trip to China Twon provided sustenance, and we then collapsed on the sofa in front of the TV. 

Recently the BBC has been showing a number of subtitled documentaries about Japanese craftsmen and restoration experts.  For some reason, which we cannot explain. these have been absolutely gripping television!  The intricate processes followed and ritualistic approach that is adhered to are fascinating to watch.  Over the past couple of days we have seen Samurai swords, Kimonos and Pottery being hand made. Each documentary left us wanting more.

Bailey Frame Change ... some progress

 I found myself awake at an horrendous hour this morning, or should I say "at some point in the night"?

I checked my blood sugar and the time, both were far lower numbers than are good for me.  As I was hypoglycaemic, my next step was to wander down the stairs* and find something to eat.

I filled my face, and returned to my bed, but failed to fall asleep.  Reluctantly, I hauled myself from my pit just before five o'clock.

The hypo and the lack of sleep meant that I didn't feel particularly great this morning, so I did very little. I took a nap after lunch and, as a result, felt marginally brighter.

This encouraged me to don my bee suit, grab my smoker and head up to check on the hives.

Hives #1 and #3 are both doing really well, and I have no concerns about them. I managed to spot both queens, and each has plenty of brood. 

The hot, dry Summer has impacted honey bee colonies across the country, and there is very little nectar available at the moment. I have been feeding my colonies to prevent them starving and have decided that I should bring my Winter preparations forward.

The first step is to remove the supers from the hives. Unfortunately these are part-filled with a mixture of honey and sugar syrup, so they need to be emptied first. I decided to place them above the crown board of the hives with the porter bee escape removed. The theory is that the bees will move up through the crown board in to the supers. Once there, they will remove the honey and syrup, and take it down to store in the brood box. Well, that's the theory. Let's see what happens in hives 1 and 3 over the next week.

Once the supers have been removed, I will think about an Autumn varroa treatment and feeding in preparation for the colder months.

Now on to hive #2. When I last checked the hive, I discovered that the bees had built fresh comb in the upper brood box, and then decided to fill it with syrup. I also failed to find and relocate the queen. 

I was hoping for a more positive inspection today.

I worked my way through the upper brood box and it looked just the same as last week. Some of the foundation had been drawn in to comb, and there was a lot of stored syrup. I removed the upper brood chamber and placed it on a Bailey board.**

I then started my search through the lower chamber.  About half way through the combs, I managed to spot the queen. I quickly transferred her and the comb to the upper brood box. After finishing my inspection, I reassembled the hive with the queen now secure in the upper chamber. I closed off the lower hive entrance with a piece of foam. The bees will now access the hive from the new entrance in the Bailey board.

According to the cognoscenti, now the queen is confined in the upper brood box, the workers will remove the syrup in order to give her room to lay. That is the theory. Let's see what actually happens in reality.

Over the next three weeks the brood in the lower box will develop and hatch. At the three week point, the lower brood box can be removed and the old comb disposed off. I will need to continue to inspect the hive and keep an eye open for queen cells in the lower chamber.

So that is the theory of the Bailey Frame Change. I'm not sure that my bees have read the relevant articles!

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* Late night walks across the landing now require a greater degree of caution, as Wilson has taken to sleeping out there. His coat is a similar colour to the carpet, which makes him well camouflaged in the low light levels. Whilst I trust him more than I originally did, I wouldn't want to step on him by mistake.

** This is a perforated floor that is used to separate the upper brood box from the lower one. It is constructed in such a way that it creates a new hive entrance for the upper brood box. It also prevents the queen from returning to the lower brood box, although the smaller worker bees can move between the two. Basically it forces the colony to concentrate their efforts and their brood nest on fresh comb in the upper brood box.

I now need to be very patient

Today started with a walk down the lane with the dogs.

We got back home at close to eleven o'clock and agreed that it was an awkward time. It was too soon to have lunch, but too late to make a start on anything time consuming. As a result we drank coffee and pottered for the rest of the morning. 

My pottering activity was to fill two wheel barrows with mulch in preparation for planting this afternoon.

That sentence pretty much makes the rest of this Journal entry redundant. Yes, the afternoon was spent planting, watering and mulching the herbaceous border.  I also revised the positions of a few plants* that had clearly been planted in the wrong place.

We still have spaces to fill, but I now need to be patient to see whether our design develops in to a work of art or a dog's breakfast!

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* Mostly smaller plants placed too far back from the front of the bed. These included a couple of hardy geraniums and a dwarf Knifophia.

Thinking in six dimensions

30% was hosting a select group of Coven members this morning.  I did what any sane person would do, and left them to it!

I headed out to the veg patch and was about to start watering the leeks when I had a sudden change of plan. I grabbed a hand fork and bucket from the potting shed, and spent a good hour hand weeding between and around the two rows of leeks. They were planted out in early July and now look like leeks rather than chives! It will be months before they are ready to be harvested and I don't want them to be competing with bloody weeds!

At lunchtime a local builder called around to give us quote for new gates. He turned up in a far more sensible vehicle,* and seemed reassuringly competent. We now need to see what his numbers look like before making a decision.

In the afternoon I returned to the veg patch.  I had impressed myself with my weeding efforts in the morning, so I knuckled down and finished the back half of the plot.  My cabbage plugs and seedlings are doing well in the cold frame, and the Savoys will need to be planted out at some point over the weekend.

30% and I then turned our attention to the recently cleared areas in the herbaceous border at the rear of the cottage.  We have a number of new plants to be transplanted, and we spent a good while placing the potted specimens in various arrangements.

Initially I thought it would be a simple matter to produce a pleasing design, but there are so many factors to be taken in to account.  We needed to consider height, width, overall shape, colour, flowering period and relationship to neighbouring plants in our attempts to finalise our design. It is no wonder that we had, on occasion, creative differences, as thinking in six dimensions does tend to make one's head hurt.

We eventually achieved a, hopefully, pleasing arrangement, and left it for the day. 

Our final activity was to head out for an evening walk with the dogs across the recently ploughed fields.

I guess that I will be planting tomorrow.

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* i.e. One that is not a flagrant display of excessive profit margins

Some light gardening

 Monday morning was fairly lazy.

TP had stayed overnight, so this morning was spent on a few odd jobs, whilst making the most of the opportunity to catch up with his news and plans.

I did make the effort to bottle a few jars of set honey, before clearing away the paraphernalia involved in making my honey crop saleable.

At lunchtime another chap called in to give us a quote for replacing our gates. These gate companies really must target a customer sector with more money than sense. This chap turned up in a new Land Rover Defender. This is an expensive vehicle and indicative of the sort of profit margins that are going to be applied to his quotation.

30% and I have done a reasonable amount of research and have a fair idea of what a pair of gates will cost. After a good few years spent estimating labour effort and cost, I also have a reasonable idea of how long the job will take. We don't mind paying a company a reasonable profit, but a flagrant display of fripperies suggests excessive margins. Our expectation is that this quote will be higher than the first.

In the early afternoon I headed in to Alcester to collect my spectacles from the optician. They had replaced the lenses in my spare readers and sunglasses following my recent change in optical prescription.

In the late afternoon the weather had cooled a little, so I headed out to the back garden where I cleared, weeded and improved the soil in another area of the herbaceous border.  I also split the large clump of Iris plants. Half was removed and transplanted to another area of the bed. I then spent a happy half hour ensuring that the transplanted plant and cleared areas of soil were well watered.

The weather looks to be cooling over the next couple of days, and we may well finally get to replanting parts of the border.

A restful day

Midway through last week, Bubbles asked if I fancied shooting this morning. I checked my non-existent social diary and confirmed that I was free.

As a result I found myself stood in the glaring sunshine at the Cotswold Clay Club, Farmington Quarry, Northleach. Our shooting party comprised Bubbles, Bobbyn, Ben, myself and Heidi, a friend of Bobbyn's.

I had a pleasant enough morning, although my dreadful score suggested that I should have drunk less red wine the previous evening.

Back at home, I shared a late lunch with 30% before setting about bottling another batch of honey.

Midway through the afternoon TP arrived, accompanied by Charlie. They had combined a pork pie making course in Melton Mowbray with a mini motorcycle tour of Matlock and the Derbyshire Dales.

We spent a pleasant couple of hours in the sun catching up on each others' news before Charlie headed off for a fate worse than death ... We think he has finally made up his mind to end the relationship with his Bunny Boiler of a girlfriend.*

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* Manipulative and controlling are understatements when applied to this young lady. She seems to think that Charlie should give up his friends and his motorcycle and spend his time exclusively with her. She has obviously not yet learnt that you can't change a person.

Something in the air?

I woke this morning and my eyes felt dreadful; dry, itchy, gritty. I went through my usual routine of drops and eyelid washing, and there was little, if any, improvement.

I really haven't a clue what exacerbates my dry eye condition, but whatever it is, there must be an increased amount in the air today!

As my eyes are very uncomfortable, I decided to have a quiet day, and stay indoors as much as possible.

Honey has been selling well over the past week and I am down to my last three jars.* Consequently I spent a chunk of my day sterilising jars and bottling a batch of honey.

In the evening we headed over to Worcester for a lovely evening with B&H. We had a great time, as they are absolutely brilliant company, and we feel so at ease with them. H had prepared two delicious tagines, one chicken based and the other was made with lamb. They were both beautiful, served with couscous ... Oh, and plenty of red wine!

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* I bottled twenty jars about ten days ago, and have sold most of it already.

Sweltering

Today was forecast to be another hot one, so it was a case of finding things to keep me occupied, that were out of the sun.

We still had plenty of tomatoes, so I knocked up another batch of soup during the course the morning.

In the afternoon I headed up to the orchard with a step ladder and a ball of string.  Back at the beginning of May we planted a Wisteria.  It has managed to survive being browsed by Fallow Deer and a prolonged drought. I have helped it along by giving it a regular splash of water ... Every night when I shut up the chickens I give the Wisteria the dregs from their water container.  This has obviously done the job, as the plant has gone from strength to strength, and has put on at least two feet of new growth.  The ladder and string were used to reach and tie in this new growth, before it gets damaged by the wind.

I'm embarrassed to say that those few pathetic sentences summed up my Friday. It was far too bloody hot to do anything more. I did try to keep myself occupied, but just wandering around the garden and outbuildings was exhausting.

The rest of the day was spent indoors, snoozing and reading. 

Oh, I almost forgot, the soup was bagged, labelled and placed in the freezer ... God, I'm desperate if I'm using that as Journal material!

A glut

Our supply of tomatoes from the greenhouse is definitely exceeding our rate of consumption.

As I sliced bread for this morning's breakfast, my eyes fell upon three pasta bowls, each one was filled to the point of overflowing. It was definitely time to do something about the glut.

30% was down at the local pub for a Women's Institute coffee morning today, so I had the kitchen to myself. I therefore decided that it was time to make up the first batch of 2025 vintage tomato soup. This is our favourite way of preserving our tomato crop. It freezes beautifully, and makes a lovely light lunch or supper.

The kitchen tidying and soup making took all of the morning, and I swear that I left the kitchen in a tidier state, than the one I found it in.

In the afternoon I headed up to the orchard and checked on the bees.

Hives #1 and #3 are doing reasonably well. I managed to catch sight of both of the queens and I am happy with how they are doing. Both have about four frames of brood, and are increasing in size nicely.  I really need to think about removing the supers from both hives, and possibly starting to feed hive #1.

Now on to hive #3, the hive in which I am attempting to perform a Bailey Frame Change.* The workers have started to build comb in the upper brood box, but the little sods have started to fill most of the new cells with syrup. There is a single frame in the centre of the upper brood box where the queen has started to lay, but the rest of the frames are being used for stores!

I worked my way through the hive twice, but failed to locate the queen. I had intended to insert a Bailey board between the two brood boxes, which would confine the queen to the new comb in the upper brood. The elusive queen made this a non-starter. Hopefully I will get this done at next week's inspection. My current concern is getting the bees to produce fresh comb, but leave it empty of stores, so the queen has space to lay.**

I need to have a think about this.

Thursday evening saw me sat on the bank of the Avon at Fladbury with Bubbles. I'd like to say that we were fishing, but we caught nothing at all. In fact, our bait received very little attention from the piscine population all evening.  We noted that the fishing pegs had recently been numbered, which probably indicate that there had been a recent competition along the stretch of bank.  We wondered if the competition had disturbed the fish, or perhaps they had simply been overfed on the large quantities of ground bait that would have been used?

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* I don't recall whether I have explained the reasons for a frame change. Over time the brood comb becomes dirty, and can harbour disease. It is good beekeeping practice to move the bees on to fresh comb every couple foyers. The Bailey Frame Change is one method for moving the colony on to fresh comb.  I've tried it a few times previously and have found it to be a bit hit and miss!

** The brood produced in late Summer and Early Autumn are vital, as these are the bees that will live through the Winter and help raise the colony brood  in the following Spring. The stronger the colony over Winter, the faster it will build up in the Spring.

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

It was going to be another scorching day today.

I generally rise quite early, so I was tasked with getting the greenhouses and veg plots watered before the heat of the day set in ... and before 30% had hauled her backside from her bed!

After taking care of the plants, I wandered over to the garage and unlocked the door.  As I stood in the doorway I paused, and took a moment to appreciate the space. It was warm, but cooler than outside, and has that certain smell of recently used machinery. There is that change in light levels as you move in to the shaded space, and it is also incredibly quiet in there. Weirdly, I would liken it to a monastic cell, or a church, somewhere of solitude and concentration.

I grabbed my mechanic's stool, a few rags and some metal polish, and set to work on the Guzzi's exhausts.  After a few minutes of polishing I could see that they could be restored, but it was not going to be a five minute job.

Over the course of the day I alternated between spells in the garage, and other matters that required my attention.

I fed the bees in Hives #2 and #3, and attended a dental appointment midway through the afternoon.

The dentist advised that the recently filled tooth may feel fine at the moment, but the tooth will crack at some point in the near future. Her advice was to proceed with a crown, or risk loosing the entire tooth ... Appointments were scheduled and payments were made!

Going back, for a moment, to my motorcycle cleaning activities.  I mentioned that it is "not a a five minute job." I can easily spend a day or two cleaning one of my bikes. There are so many nooks and crannies, with intricate components that need to be washed and polished.  I've mentioned previously that inspecting my hives induces a sense of calmness or zen. Cleaning my bikes produces a very similar state of mind.

As I focussed on polishing my exhausts, my thoughts turned to Bubbles' steadfast refusal to clean the R nineT.  I don't think he appreciates the satisfaction of cleaning a bike properly, neither does he understand that it makes you focus on every external component, checking for wear or damage. Instead the silly sod pays some random bloke fifty quid to do a half-arsed job.  Oh well, we're all different!

So, we end this day with a very shiny set of Moto Guzzi exhaust headers. I just need to wash and polish the rest of it now.

A ride out with Buzzer

When we met up with Dot 'n Dave last week, Dave and I arranged to go out for a ride on our bikes, and today was the day.

I selected the Moto Guzzi for this outing as there was a possibility that we would swap bikes at some point in the ride, and the R1250R is a little on the heavy side for Buzzer.

I left home at about half past nine and headed over to Alcester via the new Service Station. Twenty quid's worth of E5 was poured in to the Guzzi's tank, and I then rolled up to Dave's house. His new Enfield Interceptor had already been extracted from the garage, and was sat on the drive.

Our route today was very similar to the one we rode at the beginning of March. The weather was perfect, and the traffic was relatively light. We took a coffee break at the cafe at Wellesbourne Airfield and watched the light aircraft coming and going as we chatted about the usual biker nonsense.

The ride on the Interceptor didn't happen, as Dave is having problems with his left hand, and didn't fancy the long reach to get hold of the Guzzi's clutch lever.*

I was home by about half past twelve and soon had the bike tucked away in the garage. As I parked her up, I noticed that she could really do with a damned good clean.  The stainless steel exhaust is in a horrific state, and badly needs polishing.

However, the temperatures were now well in to the 30's, and we both decided to do very little this afternoon. 

We did have a chap call round to provide a quote for new gates, but that was about it. I made up fiev litres of sugar syrup for the bees, and that was it.

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* Many, many years ago Dave had an argument with an industrial router and lost the top joints of three fingers on his left hand. Only the thumb and index finger are fully intact. This doesn't stop him playing lead guitar, nor from riding a bike, but he is, understandably, very particular about how his guitars and bikes are set up. 

Bits and pieces

We've entered another heatwave, so the first job this morning was to make sure everything was watered, and that the butts were filled.  I took the opportunity to check the level of water in the well. I estimate that  the current water level is about twenty feet below ground level.  

The well is about fifty feet deep, so we still have plenty of water, but we need to be cautious, as there is no sign of the drought ending. I should also add that the well level can be just below ground level in the wetter months, so the water table is very low at the moment.

After pottering in the garden, I made up a couple of litres of syrup for the bees, before breaking for lunch.

In the afternoon I finally got around to cleaning my shotgun. I am embarrassed to say that it has been a good  while since I last put a cleaning rod down the barrels, so I spent a good while giving it a damned good clean.

I also got around to making headway on my next little project.  30% would like a water feature in the ornamental greenhouse, and we have a drilled piece of slate that would be perfect for a little bubbling fountain. However the water feature will need an above-ground reservoir to house the pump and support the feature stone. Unfortunately most water feature reservoirs are unattractive plastic units, and that simply will not do.

Yesterday I found an eBay seller with a selection of lovely granite and sandstone troughs. One of these would make the perfect reservoir. I gave her a call today and she is going to check her stock. Hopefully I will be able to get one ordered later in the week.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that that is all I managed to achieve on Monday. In my defence, it is quite warm.

Bailey Frame Change: day #2

 I had great plans for Sunday, but actually achieved very little.

The day started with a dog walk. My blood sugar was quite low, and I really didn't want to exercise, which would exacerbate the problem, unfortunately 30% seemed to ignore this concern!

Fortunately the walk was short. I would have preferred it to be non-existent, but short was better than bloody miles.

On our return, I wandered up to hive #2, and removed the two supers. The clearer board had been effective and they were virtually empty of bees. They didn't contain much stored honey either.* With the supers removed I placed a crown board over the two brood boxes and placed a feeder on top. Four litres of syrup were poured in to the feeder and an eke** was added to support the hive roof over the feeder. The bees should use the syrup as food and also the raw material to drive wax production. Hopefully they will start to draw out the wax foundation in to comb in the next few days.

The hive will be checked in about a week. At that point I would hope that the queen has moved up in to the upper brood box and started to lay.

In the afternoon I had plans to clear another area of the herbaceous border at the back of the house. Unfortunately 30% and I had artistic differences about the plans for the border, and that little job was abandoned for the time being. 

Instead, I grabbed one of my ladders and repaired a joint in the guttering that had come adrift.

In the evening we popped over to share a Chinese Takeaway with Bubbles and Bobbyn. We had a pleasant enough evening, although Bobbyn was her usual self, and we both had to bite our tongues on a couple of occasions!

I will end this Journal entry on a more positive note. As I wandered around the garden this afternoon I noticed that the huge Ivy bush has just started to flower. Ivy is a fantastic source of both nectar and pollen, which bodes well for my three hives.

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* The bees are really struggling to find any nectar in this dry Summer, hence the decision to feed them and perform a frame change, rather than hold out a futile hope for a late honey harvest.

** An eke is a shallow lidless and bottomless box built to the same outer dimensions as the hive. It is used to increase space. In this situation to allow a feeder to be placed on the hive and allow the roof to be replaced.

Post Script: A few days ago I mentioned that my little honey stall is doing great business at the moment. Well, a couple of days ago a couple from London called at the gate and asked for another jar of honey. They had taken all four jars from my stall, but wanted to add a fifth. I gladly provided another jar and waved them off.  Initially I was delighted until I realised that they had paid with a Scottish twenty pound note, and they can be a bit difficult to use round here. Anyway, they appeared at the gate again today and requested another five jars! Apparently all they can get locally is commercial supermarket honey, so they had decided to stock up.  They paid with proper money this time, so I was happier about the transaction. I also found out that Tesco will take Scottish currency, so I will be using the dodgy notes to buy sugar for syrup feeding.

Bailey Frame Change: day #1

Saturday morning was spent pottering in the garden. The main achievement was that we prepared the small bed in front of the store room and transplanted a number of Beard Iris rhizomes.  A white specimen was planted in the centre of this narrow bed with a fabulous, almost black, variety planted either side.  They should look fabulous next year.

In the afternoon we went out in search of a stone bowl to act as the reservoir for a water feature in the ornamental greenhouse.  We thought we knew of the perfect supplier, but it seems that they have offloaded their stock, as they got fed up with moving the damned things around ... Oh well, back to the internet, I guess?

Later in the afternoon I reconfigured Hive #2 for a Bailey frame change. A second brood box was added, filled with fresh foundation. A clearer board was placed over that, and the supers were returned to the hive. Hopefully the bees will clear down from the supers overnight, and I will be able to replace them with a feeder filled with syrup tomorrow.

In the evening we headed out for dinner with a friend of 30%. I don't think either of us were particularly looking forward to the evening. Whilst the friend is good company, her husband can be a little overbearing and tends to spend the evening regaling you with tales of his previous heroics, be they in a boardroom, a sailing yacht, or his workshop! He is one of this people that isn't really interested in anything anyone else has to say, so you just have to sit there and listen to him drone on.

The evening panned out pretty much as expected. The greek themed, barbecue food was beautiful and the summer pudding desert with homemade ice cream was a perfect balance to the grilled meats and greek salad. A cheese board rounded off the meal and we were able to make our excuses and head home shortly before nine o'clock.

The husband was his usual self, and it was nice to make an early escape.

I will see my future through varifocals

We had a play-date arranged for this morning. Dot 'n Dave were dog sitting for their son and daughter-in-law, and had invited us over, with the dogs, for coffee and a chat.

We had a lovely morning sat out in the sun and the dogs seemed to enjoy it too. The play did get a little fractious at one point, when both Hobson and Wilson wanted to play with Django. Django, on the other hand,, had had enough of two boisterous youngsters and made that quite clear. Overall they interacted really well and soon settled to a level of play appropriate on the baking sun.

In the afternoon we headed over to Alcester for yet another trip to the Opticians. I wanted to arranged for my prescription sunglasses and spare readers to be updated to my new prescription. I soon had the new lenses ordered, and was made aware that I really need to be wearing my spectacles all of the time now* ... I wonder whether that is why I have had a few headaches recently?

It was then time for a quick whizz around the supermarket before calling in at Botany Bay nursery for some bags of rotted cow manure.

We popped in at Mummy Sheila's on the way home, to drop off some eggs, and I ended up with yet another sonly duty.  A floor fitter had just finished in her living room, and I was roped in for a spell of furniture moving, before I was rewarded with a cup of coffee.

We eventually made it home, and I dug a bag of the manure in to the area of bed made clear by the recent removal of the Juniper.

That'll do for today.

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* I'm frustrated with swapping back and forth between readers and long distance specs already.

Sonly duties

It seems that I may have acquired a mum!*

After yesterday's "Can you just mince this meat for me" visit, today I was scheduled to drop by Sheila's house at eight thirty, so we could drive, in tandem, to the local Tip.  I had the trailer in tow, filled with Sheila's living room carpet, and she had a quantity of old tiles in the back of her little runaround.

To be fair, all of these sonly duties had been prearranged, and I am more than happy to give her a hand. She has a great sense of humour, and is always good company.

I was back home by ten o'clock, and 30% and I set to removing a dwarf Juniper from our herbaceous border.  It is a lovely specimen, but has outgrown its spot.  There was no chance of relocating it, so loppers and a spade were deployed to cut and dig out its major roots.

In the afternoon I dug over the space previously occupied by the Juniper, and 30% volunteered to give the ground a good soaking later on in the evening.

In the evening I met up with Bubbles for our regular fishing session.  Bubbles selected a peg immediately downstream of Jubilee Bridge. We had a pleasant time chatting nonsense and laughing, but we caught nothing at all. I had a couple of bites at my luncheon meat bait, whilst poor Bubs had nothing at all.

Oh well, better luck next week, perhaps?

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* My mother died in the February of 1997. Although it could be argued that I lost her back in the Summer of 1974.  She was involved in a car accident and suffered life changing injuries, including brain damage that resulted in a complete personality change.  She was comatose for several weeks, and attended the Rivermead Rehabilitation Centre down in Oxford for many months. The person that came home to live with us was definitely not my mother, and we, as a family, became her carers. 

I could go on at length about my mother, but I don't feel the need anymore. She is long dead, and the years after her accident were as difficult for her as they were for us. I grew up quickly and these circumstances probably led to my fiercely independent streak, and willingness to have a go at anything.

As for my mum, post accident, try to imagine an individual that has had all of their filters removed. Think about all of those little social veneers that we have. Now imagine loosing them and saying exactly what you think, whilst also having absolutely no empathy for those around you. That goes a small way to describing her.

You become quite hard, with a black sense of humour when you're in your early teens and you have to clean up your own mother's shit!

Butchery and Bees

This morning 30% headed off to Stratford-on-Avon with the WI. Apparently they were going to have a behind the scenes tour of the RSC, and then lunch on a floating restaurant ... I was to be left home alone.

Mummy Sheila picked up 30% and Jules shortly after nine o'clock.  She bade me a cheery "Good Morning!" and presented me with a blue carrier bag, containing a three joints of lamb.

It seems that 30% and Sheila had had a conversation that went along the lines of ...

MS:    Have you got a mincer?
30%:  Why?

MS:    I've got all of these joints of lamb in my freezer, and I've gone off roast dinners. I thought I'd mince it and make a lovely Shepherd's Pie.

30%    Yes, we've got an electric mincer. Badman uses it for sausage making.

MS:    Perfect, do you think he'd mince up the lamb for me?

30%    You'd better ask him. You know he gets pissy, if he thinks I've been committing his time without asking him first!    

So, most of my morning was spent boning out the lamb joints, and converting them to a couple of kilos of minced lamb.  By the time I'd finished cleaning up, it was midday.

In the afternoon I grabbed my beekeeping gear and headed up to inspect the hives.

Hive #1 is doing much better. I could see four frames of brood and there are sufficient stores in the supers. I think any plans for a late Summer honey crop should now be abandoned. The bees are bringing in less nectar than they are using, and I need to keep a close eye to make sure they don't starve.

I moved on to Hive #2 next. It is doing really well, but, again, the colony is relying on honey reserves to maintain it. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't run short of food in the next week. There are six frames filled with brood and the hive is rammed with bees.

Hive #3 is also doing well and has four frames of brood. The bees have taken down the syrup, that I fed them last week and this has been stored in the brood chamber. I gave it another couple of litres of syrup and left them to heir own devices.

I had spotted all three queens during my inspections and I am reasonably happy with the condition of the colonies.  They need to build up their numbers and their stores in preparation for the colder months, so I need manage them accordingly.

As I mulled over the state of my hives, I gave consideration to carrying out a Bailey Frame Change on hive #2. If I'm not going to take a honey crop, there is no problem with feeding them, and they would benefit from fresh brood comb.

So that was Wednesday ... and the dogs got the bones!

Like hot cakes

I last bottled a batch of honey on 29th July, as I had sold the last couple of jars a day, or two, earlier.

Back on the 29th,  I did my usual couple of batches, plus a special order of five jars of set honey. That amounted to 25 half pound jars of honey.

Yesterday I realised that I was down to my last three jars of honey for my little stall. It has been selling like crazy over the past week, and I definitely needed to bottle a couple of batches today.

The observant of you might note that I have made no mention of colony inspections this week.  The weather has been far too windy, and I am hoping that Wednesday's weather will be fine enough to take a look.

Over the past week I have taken a couple of peeks at the feeder on Hive #3.  This doesn't disturb the colony at all, and I have noticed that they have emptied the two litre feeder of syrup.

I therefore made up a batch of syrup first thing this morning. If the weather does improve, it will be ready to top up the feeder. If the weather stays breezy, ti'll be ready for tomorrow.

The only other matters of any import from today were the honey bottling, and that Whiffler and Hobson needed to be taken to the Groomers.

The Grooming salon has relocated to a different part of the town, and it is much trickier to get there.  Its new location is down by the Marina, only about half a mile further, but it involves negotiating the town centre.

Now Stratford-on-Avon is always busy. There are the locals and there is the endless swarm of tourists, both on foot and in cars.  Add in a street layout that has its origins more than five hundred years ago, and you have the perfect recipe for motoring hell!

The locals drive like arseholes because they are, rightly, annoyed with the tourists clogging up the town, and the tourists drive like arseholes because they haven't got a clue where they are going ... Oh, and because they are arseholes.

I should also add that both the natives and the grockles have a tendency to just step in to the bloody road without looking, and then stare at you like you are dog shit on their shoes!*

The Groomer's new location has the potential to be a complete and utter pig to get in and out of when the traffic is at it's worst.

I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I have a gut feeling that things will go very bad at some point in the future.

I should also add that this was Whiffler's last professional clip. He is now in his twelfth year, and a day at the groomers is very tiring, especially for an older dog. He has now been retired and, in future, will sport what is affectionately referred to as a daddy haircut.**

I can also report that Wilson will be going for his first clip, along with Hobson, in the middle of September  ... I'm sure it will be fine!

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* I'm not keen on Stratford-on-Avon

** one of my efforts!

Even better than that!

The Southern edge of Storm Floris blew across the Midlands today, and the morning was grey and windy.  Rain was forecast, and we really hoped that the garden would get a good soaking, but, again, we got a few drops, that did nothing other than settle the dust.*

Phil the Postie arrived at the gate this morning and delivered my cabbage plugs.  I had originally planned to plant them straight in to the veg patch, but it is still very dry and they are tiny plants. I potted them on in to 3" pots and will leave them out in the cold frame for a couple of weeks. Hopefully they will grow on, and, fingers crossed, we will get some much needed rain

Our ornamental greenhouse is starting to be used on a regular basis for tea and coffee breaks. It is lovely to sit out there, particularly in cooler weather, and enjoy the outside, but inside experience.

The windy weather was not conducive to gardening, so we headed out in the afternoon to complete a few errands.

We attempted to locate the premises of a company that we would like to come and quote for a new pair of gates. We failed to find them, but we did have a pleasant drive through the lanes around Hanbury. Next stop was at a local upholsterer, as we want to get new covers made for the conservatory chairs we recently acquired.  The Upholsterer advised that "she only did curtains," but she did provide contact details for a colleague that made seat covers.

We then headed over to Astwood Bank to talk to another Upholsterer, and she was happy to make them, but she was going to charge the same price as a set of covers from the chair's original manufacturer.** 

At this point we agreed that we weren't doing very well with our errands.

As a pick-me-up we decided to pop in to a local Nursery to see if they had a particular variety of Achillea that we would like to plant in our Herbaceous Perennial Border.  We drew another blank, and were about to give up when 30% suggested a trip to Golls Nursery.

Golls was a great suggestion, and they actually had the Terracotta variety we were looking for, but, even better than that, they had two huge, later flowering Kniphofia specimens. One was in the usual red, and the other was a  yellow variety ... I have just the spot for them.

In the evening 30% made contact with Upholsterer#3, and it seems that her prices are far more reasonable. We now just need to decide on a fabric.

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* Our Herbaceous Border has really suffered in the dry weather. We had great plans for it, but have not planted anything, as the plants will just scorch in the current drought ... We are just hoping that the Autumn weather is more clement.

** 30% had already obtained quotes from them

Day of rest

This week seems to have been quite a bit busier than expected, so I am pleased to say that Sunday was much more sedate.

This morning we hitched the trailer to the car and headed down in to town* and parked outside Mummy Sheila's residence. Sheila is redecorating her lounge and we agreed to help her lift her carpet and take it to the local tip later on in the week.

We were finished and back home shortly after ten. The trailer was unhitched and wheeled in to the carport and the rest of the morning was spent pottering.

In the afternoon 30% had planned a trip to Rowberry's Nursery. Apparently Sheila is looking for an Hibiscus and was hoping that she would find the perfect one at the Nursery. Unfortunately she didn't, but we did find some beautiful Salvias and a fabulous red leaved banana plant.** Sheila insisted that the banana plant should be a present, for our assistance with the carpet. It now takes pride of place in the greenhouse.

We were home by mid afternoon and my blood sugar had plummeted. I responded to this medical emergency by stuffing an almond croissant and several peanut M&Ms down my throat, before taking a long nap on the sofa.

The early evening saw us take the dogs for a walk around the recently harvested fields uphill from the cottage. It was a lovely walk in the evening sun and the dogs had a great time exploring the hedgerows and stubble.

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* This is an unfunny witticism we deliver regularly, now we have moved away from the village. Any visit to the village centre is referred to as "going in to town".

** We also found lovely little Mimosa plant that is now sat on a shelf in the greenhouse. Back in 2018 30% and I found a huge Mimosa bush when we were holidaying in Costa Rica. I brought some seeds home, and actually managed to get them to germinate, but the little plants didn't survive very long.

I am not a good shot

It is the first Saturday of the month, so I was booked in for the monthly 80 sporting bird shoot at the Cotswold Shooting Ground.

I arrived just before nine o'clock, found Bubbles, and we wandered in to the reception to pay for our morning's clay shooting. We were somewhat befuddled when we were asked if we wanted to enter the Fab 5 competition. Our first point of confusion was that there were only two of us, and, secondly, I am not a good shot, so would be detrimental to any team's performance.

The shoot organisers decided that we simply must be part of a team and were linked up with three other chaps. At this point I should add that two of the team were Instructors at the Shooting Ground and one was the son of one of the aforementioned Instructors.

By this time I was feeling well out of my depth, and starting to make my excuses.*

And so the competition started. I did quite well on my first couple of stands, especially compared to my very experienced team mates, and this streak of luck seemed to stay with me as we continued around the eight stands.

The last stand was a bit of a disaster for a couple of us, but, overall, I felt that I had had a reasonable day.

The scores were totalled up and I had scored 62/80 (77.5%). That was an absolutely unbelievable score and a personal best. I was only two shots behind Bubbles, who is a far superior shot to me, and mine was not the lowest score in our team.

When the completion results came in we found that our team had come third overall ... I felt as proud as a dog with two dicks!

In the afternoon I finally got around to some much needed work in the garden. The new potting shed lighting was connected up and illuminates the bench brilliantly. I then headed out to the greenhouse and tied up the tomato plants, taking the tops out of those with six or seven trusses. Next I wandered over to the raised beds and watered the beetroot and carrots.

The leeks, I had planted out in the first half of July, seem to be doing reasonably well, although the fresh growth on a couple of them looks a little pale.  I gave them a good watering with a phostrogen additive and hope that this will make up for any deficiencies in the soil.

The final job in the garden was to attend to the raspberry canes. I picked the fresh fruit and was delighted by the quantity and quality of the berries. A bowl of them was put in the fridge for later. I then grabbed a ball of string and tied in the fresh growth of the Summer fruiting raspberry canes. These will bear fruit next year and needed to be tied in to the supporting wires.

Midway through the afternoon 30% gave me a shout, and asked if we had any more honey labelled. A gentleman had called at the gate, and asked if he could buy five jars. I happily labeled up another jar, and wandered up to thank the chap for his purchase.

Over the next few minutes we learnt that he had grown up in the cottage, before leaving sometime in the early 70's.  We invited him, his wife and daughter in for a look around, and spent an hour getting to know a little more about the fairly recent history of our home.

I must take some time to jot down what he told us, in the next few days. But I will add these two nuggets now ... 

He was delighted to see Rose Cottage still standing, although now in the orchard. He advised that this had originally been a little corrugated iron garage sited at the front of the property where the 2014 timber garage now stands. It had also been referred to as Rose Cottage, even then. Clearly it had been relocated to the orchard at some point in the more recent past.  

He also filled in a few gaps about Tessa's gravestone.  It was actually the discovery of this gravestone that led to the Gentleman's visit today.  A few months a retired Judge from the village called on us to buy some honey. He advised that his cousin had lived here from the 1950's. At that point we asked if they had owned a dog called Tessa, and he confirmed that he thought they did. The Judge took a photograph of the gravestone and advised that he would send the picture on to his cousin.  The letter was sent and the cousin decided to come down from York for a trip down memory lane.

Now, on to the dog. Tessa was a mongrel acquired by the Gentleman's mother. She was a single mother who brought up three children in this little cottage with no running water and an earth closet toilet. It had been suggested that she have a dog, as she was living a good way out of the village on her own, and a dog might deter the attentions of vagrants and ne'er do wells.

Tessa came to live with the family and, when she died, she was buried with love up in the orchard. The rather posh gravestone was hewn by the gentleman's grandfather. Apparently he was a stonemason from Stratford-on-Avon and this was probably one of his last pieces of work before he died in the early 70's.

I finished my day with another dog related activity. 30% had decided that we should take the dogs up to a local exercise field to let them have a run. I must admit to thinking "why the hell are we paying to take the dogs to an exercise field when we live on three quarters of an acre, and have miles of empty lanes for them to run along?" Anyway, some times I just keep my mouth shut and go with the flow, so we spent an hour in a fenced paddock hurling tennis balls around for Wilson and Hobson to retrieve. Whiffler just ambled around sniffing at stuff and The Rat chased a few balls, but got pushed out of the way by the two youngsters.

So that was my day! Definitely not was I was expecting to happen!

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* I went with the blunt, but honest, "I'm a shit shot".

T-shirt slogans

This morning 30% and I needed to be in Alcester quite early.

First stop was at Screwfix for a few electrical components, and we then nipped down the road to the Alcester Heath Centre for my annual diabetic eye health screening test.  With the eye test completed, I donned a pair of natty shades*, and 30% chauffeured me in to the town centre. There we headed in to the Optician to collect our new glasses, followed by a quick whizz around Waitrose, before heading home.

30% suggested that we should go out for lunch, as TP would be heading off later this afternoon. We settled on The Why Not, up on The Ridgeway.  A rather good, light lunch was enjoyed by all of us. It has been several years since we last ate there, and we left wondering why we had left it so long

TP headed off for a weekend in Somerset shortly after lunch, and I settle down for a snooze, followed by several hours of very little. Guilt set in late in the afternoon, and I made a start on wiring in the new lighting for the potting shed. I didn't actually finish the job, but, as they say, "broke the back of the work".

Now. the title for today's Journal entry comes from a lunchtime discussion.

I feel that I have a knack for coming up with some superb, but unprintable, T-shirt slogans and today I delivered another. 

As we chatted over lunch, TP had mentioned that one of his friends might have got his girlfriend of six months pregnant. This major announcement was made to TP in a very "by the way" fashion.

There is a very narrow range of responses to that situation,** so I went with "car crashes are great to watch, but not so good to be in." 

It's a bit long for a T-shirt ... maybe it needs a bit of work. The discussion continued and we recalled a day when we were in Las Vegas. TP was only ten years old, and we were wandering around a touristy shop that sold T-shirts. TP spotted a shirt and declared it simply perfect for me.  It bore the legend, "Do I look like a fucking people person" ... Even at that tender age, he knew his father too well.

I'll end this missive with my personal favourite for a t-shirt.  This little beauty came about after many long years working in the IT outsourcing industry. It is, wait for it ...

I used to be a fanny magnet, but now I just seem to attract cunts!

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* The eye test involves dilation of one's pupils. This makes bright lights very uncomfortable for a few hours, and driving is not permitted. 

** This, most definitely falls in to the category of SEP - Someone Else's Problem. Over the years I have found that people get dreadfully worried about SEP's. Personally, I find this a complete waste of time. Other people's problems are theirs to resolve. Worrying about another's problem, especially where one's input is both unwelcome, and probably intrusive, seems to be completely pointless?

Another busy day

Thursday morning started with a walk down the lane. 30% had decreed that it should be a family outing, so TP joined us, and we had a pleasant amble. The dogs had their usual fun and games, taking in the scents from the comings and goings of the nocturnal wildlife.

After lunch I headed out to the potting shed and installed a LED strip light over the potting bench. The light in the shed isn't great, and the lower light levels of Spring and Autumn make improvements necessary.  I should point out that I only installed the light fitting today ... connecting it up to the lighting circuit can wait for a day or two.

In the early afternoon TP and I headed over to see Dot 'n Dave on our bikes. We swapped machines, so TP had his first run out on my R1250R, and got to ride TP's recent acquisition, a very nice Honda VFR 800 in a stunning red livery.

The roads were busy, which was unfortunate, as TP's VFR was just begging to be opened up on the twisty road towards Arrow.  I'm certain he would have liked to explore the BMW's capabilities too.

We had a lovely afternoon with Dot 'n Dave, catching up on each others' news. There was, predictably, a lot of motorcycle based conversation. Dave has recently re-acquired his Honda 50th Anniversary VFR 800 and has also managed to swap his, much disliked, BMW F800 for a Royal Enfield Meteor.  It is good to see that he is now much more positive about his bikes, as he was considering stopping riding a few months ago.

Later in the day I met up with Bubbles over at Barton for an evening of fishing. 

Last week we fished at Fladbury and I caught nothing at all. Bubbles was slightly more successful, bringing in a large olive green bream, but that was it. I suggested that we should try a change of venue because our recent successes at Fladbury were giving me the expectation that we would catch a decent fish every time. I was also slightly suspicious that we were catching the same fish repeatedly, so I thought fishing a different section of the Avon would be a good idea.

We had a fun evening, chatting nonsense and watching the antics of a lovely young robin that was very confident. It flitted from rod to rod and even perched on my fishing chair and took crumbs from my hand.

As for the fishing, I had plenty of bites, but Bubbs had very little interest at all. I was using luncheon meat, marinaded with garlic and chilli powder. Bubbles was using a commercial Red Robin boilie. Of the two baits, the Barton fishy community seemed to prefer the luncheon meat.

Over the course of the evening I managed to bring in a very small chublet and a slightly larger skimmer bream.  Unfortunately there were no monsters, but the bite rate increased the later it got. I would have happily fished for another hour, but Bubbles had work tomorrow, so I thought it only fair to call it a day at half past ten.

Many little things

I had nothing in particular that I wanted to achieve today. 

I have just about finished the potting shed reorganisation. The greenhouse has been cleared and is ready to move from the practical to the ornamental, and a large quantity of rubbish has been removed to the tip.

So today I amused myself with little things.

I wandered out to the tomato greenhouse, checked the plants for side shoots and removed the lower leaves. I can report that our Sweet Aperitif plants now have ripening fruits. This is about fifteen weeks from sowing to first harvest, and, according to the internet, exactly the timescale expected.

After sorting out the tomatoes, I refilled the water butts and tanks from the well, and then headed indoors.

My next job was to prepare a batch of sugar syrup for hive #3. The syrup recipe is 1.2 l of water to 2 kg of granulated syrup and it was soon prepared and left to cool.

With my bees foremost in my mind, I then headed up to the orchard and cleaned out the wasp traps. I estimate that the four traps produced a litre mixture of fermenting syrup and wasp corpses. It is truly incredible how many of the damned things I have caught.

The traps were reassembled and refilled with some partially fermented syrup, left over from a couple of years ago. I also gave hive #3 a couple of litres of syrup. It will be interesting to see how quickly they take it in to the hive, and whether it has any effect on colony size.*

The morning was drawing to a close, so 30% and I lunched before heading over to Powick with our little trailer in tow.  30% had found a couple of rather nice wicker chairs for sale on Facebook Marketplace, and we set off to see if they were suitable for the greenhouse transformation.

On arrival we decided that they would do nicely. They will need new cushion covers but the chairs are of a decent quality and will warrant the expenditure on new covers ... I can see some exotic plants being procured in the coming weeks!

We arrived home to be greeted by TP. He had just come back from a short holiday in Ireland, and was to spend a couple of days here with us.

As we caught up with TP's news unexpected visitors arrived. The chap who had ordered a few jars of set honey had turned up with his wife to collect them. We invited them to join us for afternoon tea and had a pleasant hour with them.

Later in the day TP and I headed down the lane with the dogs, and we realised that it was actually far warmer than I thought. We kept the walk relatively short, but I have noticed that Whiffler is now starting to show his age and is probably better being given a couple of short walks than a couple of miles.

My final activity was to use the potting shed for the first time. I planted out a couple of trays of Durham Early Spring Cabbage ... let's hope they don't get eaten by Whitefly, Pigeons, Slugs, Snails ... I sometime wonder why I grow veg!

So that was my Wednesday. An alternative title for today's Journal entry is, Does anyone have a recipe for a litre of candied wasps?

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* This colony is far too small to produce a honey crop this year, so there is no risk of contaminating a honey crop with sugar syrup.

At last!

"Tip run" has been on my to-do list for several months.

During this time at least three piles of unwanted materials have been created around the place, and they were long overdue for disposal

As already mentioned, the trailer was filled on Sunday, and, this morning, the tow bar was attached to the car. Today had been selected as the perfect day for a Recycling Centre Tip visit, as we assumed that it would be quiet.

As we drew near, we had a casual wager on how busy it would be. 30% confidently declared that it would be empty, whilst my guess was that there would be a couple of cars. As we drove on to the site it was clear that my guess was in the ball park, but it was also clear that we had arrived just in time ... by the time we had unloaded there were cars queuing to gain access to the skips.

Who are these people, and why aren't they at work?

The rest of the day wasn't particularly exciting.

The wine we ordered at The Game Fair arrived and is now cluttering up the hallway.  

I had my second visit to the dentist. The tooth is cracked, and has been filled to see if that resolves the sensitivity. My dentist isn't confident that it will be effective, and a follow-up has been arranged in two week's time. A crown is predicted to be the final solution.

The rest of the afternoon was spent bottling another batch of honey. This included a special order batch of five jars for a local chap, who loves the velvety smooth texture of a set, rape flower honey.  I must admit that he has good taste, as I, too, think it is far superior to the runny honey* that I sell. The only problem is that it is really challenging to bottle it. It needs to be warmed sufficiently to be able to get it in the jar, but not too much, or it becomes liquid. It also has the potential to get everywhere, making a mess of the jars.

Bloody customers!

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* Over the years I have found it virtually impossible to sell set honey from my little roadside stall. I can sell runny honey by the bucketful, but no-one wants the set stuff. On the rare occasions that I can get someone to try the set honey, they are generally converted by its luxurious feel in the mouth, but most plebs just want "the runny stuff, like they get at the supermarket"

Bees and the Dentist

Monday started with a check of the hives.

Hive #1 certainly looks no worse than last week, and possibly a little better. It is no longer plagued by wasps, which seems to suggest that my wasp traps are helping reduce the problem. In fact, so effective that I now need to empty them of wasp corpses and refill them with syrup.

Hives #2 and #3 are also doing well, although I noted that hive #3 is running short of stores and will benefit from some sugar syrup in the next couple of days.  The other two hives have partially filled supers left on after the May honey harvest, so they have plenty of reserves.

There doesn't seem to be many nectar producing flowers at present, which is possibly a result of the very dry Spring and early Summer. I am starting to think that my May honey crop will be the only one this year, although there will be some ivy nectar later in the year to help keep the colonies going through the Winter.

After checking on the bees I applied myself to bottling some honey.  I have had a surge in sales over the past few days and supplies for my little stall need to be replenished.

The only other thing worthy of mention was a trip to the dentist. A few weeks ago I bit down on something and felt a significant crack in one of my teeth.  It has taken me until today to get an "emergency" appointment.  Fortunately I have not been in pain, just very sensitive to hot or cold food and drinks.

The dentist is unsure whether I have simply broken a filling, or cracked the tooth ... I have another appointment scheduled for tomorrow, to investigate matters further.

That looks better

Having doused the wasp nest with a liberal dusting of permethrin powder on Friday, it was now devoid of life.

I was therefore able to remove the beautiful papery construction and dispose of it. The nests are quite incredible things. It is just such a shame that they are home to such nuisances.

The removal of the nest allowed us to finish sweeping up in the shed and completing our reorganisation.  It is quite remarkable how the removal of the central partition has made the shed seem larger and the space much more usable.

With 30% lending a hand in the shed, I was able to attend to the pile of unwanted rubbish that we seem to have accumulated over recent months.* 

I had used our trailer as a dumping ground for items cleared from the shed. It was now empty again, so I made a start on filling it for a tip trip.** Over the next few hours I cut up the various pieces of sheet material and slotted it in to the trailer. Oddments of weld mesh and short sections of aluminium extrusion were gathered and stacked in there too.  Various items of miscellaneous crap were collected from the car port and we finally got to the revolting table that dominates the lovely greenhouse to the side of the house.***

It was with great pleasure that I smashed the legs and frame from this vile thing, and I then took out my circular saw and reduced the 8' x 4' top in to four manageable sections. These were stacked in the trailer and the load was carefully roped ... the tip trip is planned for Tuesday.

My final job of the day was to take the circular saw to the wooden partition that had divided the shed. I had originally hoped to recycle the timber, but I could see that I would just end up with a lot of split oddments.  The now manageable sections were wheeled up to the orchard and will be the basis of a bonfire in the near future.

So that just about sums up a rather busy and productive Sunday.  The potting shed and Greenhouse both look fantastic**** and we can't wait to find some decent chairs and plants for the latter. As I said a couple of days ago, "I think my next project may be some tiered greenhouse shelving."

The only other thing worthy of mention was that the cereal crops in the fields around us were harvested today. As the straw was being baled, 30% called me upstairs to take a look from the bathroom window ... we were delighted to see hares running across the stubble. 

It is lovely to see these marvellous animals so close to home.

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* When I say "recent" I am probably pushing the definition somewhat. I am certain that some of the bits and pieces have been piled up for a year or more.

** This had been on my to-do list since March!

*** The shed refurbishment had always been part of a long term plan to clear out this greenhouse and enable it to be used as a home for more exotic specimens.  It has always had a large table that was aways cluttered with general gardening debris and potting miscellanea. Hence I needed to construct a new potting bench and then find the space to site it.

**** The car port looks a lot better too.

A wedding

 I feel a little churlish about how I feel about today's main event ... it was a wedding.

The problem is that it was the wedding of two people that I am not particularly close to.  The couple live just down the High. Street from The Pile, and we have been casual acquaintances since they moved in to the village about seven years ago.

30% has a much closer relationship, as the female half of the couple is a manicurist, and, the two of them have bonded over nail painting sessions.

I know them both to say "hello" to, and they are a pleasant couple, but we are not part of their friendship circle, so I felt that we would definitely be cast as extras at todays event.

Having said all of that, the ceremony was at the local church and the evening do was at the village sports club, so it would have been very antisocial not to make the effort.

Basically we were to attend the church ceremony at two clock and then make a second appearance at the party in the evening.

As a result the wedding consumed most of the day. We needed to be clean and tidy for the church, and, really, maintain that level of freshness for the later party. 

So the morning was taken up with gentle pottering, we lunched, attended the ceremony, and then had a damned good snooze in the afternoon. After a light supper, we headed up to the sports club for a drink and to be sociable, and headed home after the firework display.

It was a pleasant enough experience, I just wish that I had been more emotionally and socially connected to the happy couple.

The Game Fair

For the past few years we have been regular visitors to the annual Game Fair.

Last year it was held on the Blenheim Estate, and we had a pleasant enough day there, despite the fact that their traffic management, signage and general organisation was piss poor!

One highlight of last year's visit was the encounter with a small scale wine merchant. They dragged us in to their stall and asked about our tastes in wine. I sampled the best red* I have ever drunk, and promptly ordered a case of twelve. From that point on the relationship was established and I have a lot more good wine in the house and a lot less money in my bank account.

The merchant in question would be present at this year's Game Fair, which was being held on the Ragley Estate; a few miles down the road from home. We, therefore, decided that a tasting session would be one of the main reasons for attending the show.

After attending several, we have decided to give future Game Fairs a miss. It is very much a case of a "been there, done that, got the shooting jacket" event ... They are all very similar. Another reason for this year's attendance was as a training session for Wilson; to see how he performed on the lead with lots of people, strange noises and countless other dogs.

So, let's get back to the narrative. 

We arrived at Ragley around ten o'clock this morning and were soon wandering amongst the stalls and exhibits. Wilson was performing reasonably well, although we still need to curb his tendency to pull on his lead. 

We eventually spotted the wine merchants stand, wandered in and introduced ourselves.  Their sales approach is very much based on relationship management and we were welcomed in like old friends. A long sampling session followed, and we ended up ordering a couple of mixed cases.

By now the day was becoming very warm, and the dogs refused to drink from any of the water bowls present in front of the stands. We decided that we would lunch and then head home. The obligatory pies and ice creams were consumed, before we endured the four mile run back home.

On interesting point about today's event was that it we learnt that the Organisers had deployed signal blockers. This meant that they could charge the exhibitors an exorbitant fee for the Wifi service! One benefit of this was that we were unable to link up with Bubbles and Bobyn ... Bobyn is most definitely not a people person!**

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* a 2020 Governo

* She can be bloody hard work, and we really didn't want to spend the day in the company of a woman who is generally monosyllabic, yet bloody arrogant at the same time.

I see

Thursday turned out to be a relatively lazy day.

30% and I walked the dogs in the morning and then tidied ourselves up for an afternoon trip in to Alcester.

Obviously my priority was to purchase some wasp nest killer, and we had both also noticed that our eyesight had deteriorated, so a trip to the Opticians had also been arranged.

After the usual battery of tests I was informed that there was only a marginal change in my left eye, but there had been a significant drop in my right eye's vision. 

I was slightly concerned at this, but the Optician took a long look at my retinas and the scans of the back of my eye and advised that they were in great shape; particularly for someone who was a Type 1 diabetic for more than fifty years.

New lenses have been ordered, and we'll be back in a few days to collect them.

Wasps don't like marmalade

Today I continued my "Marie Kondo" transformation of our garden shed.

At some point in its history the previous owner had installed a central partition in the back half of the space we use as our garden shed. Now the shed is only about 8' wide, so the back half had been split in to two narrow spaces that were difficult to use for storage and to access.  We think they may have used them as bunkers for logs and kindling, but there are far better spaces on the property to store firewood. It is probably best that I don't waste any more time trying to make sense of this ... the previous owners just did some really odd things.

Anyway, back to the partition. I was home alone today,* and my plan was to remove the partition. I had given it a brief inspection and it seemed to be held in place with a multitude of screws and coach bolts. I had a suspicion that I might need an angle grinder for the floor fixings, but there was nothing that seemed overly complicated.

Fortunately my half-arsed assessment was correct and I needed nothing more than an impact driver and a half inch socket to remove the majority of the fixings. I soon had the top half of the partition unscrewed, removed and stacked in the car port.** 

The lower half of the partition was more firmly fixed at the rear of the shed. This gave me an excuse to deploy my reciprocating saw to hack through the ½" boards, and cut the rear section free. With that removed, I was able to move on to the final phase, which was to remove the oddments*** of sheet material that had been used to clad the rear wall of the shed.

All was going well until I moved on to the final piece of MDF. As I was removing the screws holding it to the back wall of the shed I managed to get stung by a wasp. It was only a minor sting and I carried on, unaware of this portent. 

The final screw was removed and the final sheet was tugged away from the wall. As it dropped to the floor I found myself "face to face" with a wasp nest, and its inhabitants were not amused by the disturbance.

My tactical retreat was immediate and rapid ... I added "buy wasp nest killer" to my virtual shopping list, and left the job for another day.

Whilst on the subject of wasps, a couple of days ago I mentioned that my hives have been pestered by wasps, and that I had set up some wasp traps in the orchard. A couple of the traps had been baited with watered down raspberry jam and had been very successful. I then made up a couple of traps using old 2 litre plastic bottles. These had been baited with some old marmalade, that had been kicking around in the kitchen, and had been nowhere near as good at trapping wasps.

During my shed clearing activities I had come across a container with some sugar syrup that had been left over from feeding my bees. I decided to add this to my wasp traps and was amazed at the result. Within a few hours the traps were buzzing with trapped wasps.

Clearly wasps don't like marmalade.

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* 30% and her "crew" had, strangely, decided that they should take a trip to Bletchley Park. I say "strangely" because Alan Turing and decryption of Nazi Germany codes are two subject that I would never expect to be discussed by my dear wife.

** I am, as yet, undecided whether to try to recycle the timber or just burn the damned thing!

*** A piece of blockboard, and a few pieces of MDF that had been badly affected by damp ... yet another bodge job!

A bargain

I knew from the outset that this morning was going to be mostly taken up with a trip to visit Mr & Mrs Tweedy.*

The reason for the visit was that Mr Tweedy had kindly offered us a cold frame, and we had arranged to collect it today. Now I am delighted to be given a cold frame, but the thought of spending a couple of hours in the company of Mrs Tweedy is not my idea of fun, and I knew that coffee and chat was going to part of the bargain.

Whilst on the subject of bargains, 30% had brought some runner beans and a couple of cucumbers for her Mum and Dad. I made a joke about exchanging five of the beans for a cow, and then rapidly recoiled from this transaction when I realised what "cow"** I was likely to get in return!

We eventually got around to wandering down the garden for the cold frame and I was gobsmacked to see that we were being given an absolutely fantastic aluminium framed cold frame. It must have cost a pretty penny when they bought it and it will be an absolute boon when we are hardening off plants next Spring.

Our morning outing also included a quick trip to the supermarket for a few groceries and a couple of pairs of jeans ... I need replacements as I seem to have worked my way through the knees of most of mine in the past few of months.

We were home by lunch time and first job of the afternoon was to thin my beetroot crop. An internet "expert" had recommended using a pair of scissors to snip off the unwanted plants and I must admit that it seemed to make the job very straightforward.

The rest of the afternoon was spent making more space in the shed and moving the potting bench in to position. I then applied a second coat of finishing oil to the bench top and compost hopper, before calling it a day.

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* My in-laws

** Mrs Tweedy.

The next project?

I had a few minutes spare before Monday morning's priority, so I headed out to the shed and re-fitted the shelves in the shed. They are now in a much more sensible location and I get the feeling that 30% is itching to get the rest of the shed tidied and reorganised.

Monday's priority activity was a trip over to Littleton Auctions to pick up an impulse buy from Saturday's auction.  I had been browsing the lots last week and a three African hunting spears had caught my eye. I do have a penchant for spears. Don't ask me why, as I can't explain it. I just have a thing for spears*.

Our commission bid had been successful, so we headed over to Littleton to pick up our spears. I was a little concerned, as these had been purchased without viewing them. For all we knew they could be broken or dreadful reproductions. As it happens they are quite splendid and I now need to think of a way to display them at home.

We next headed over to The Valley in Evesham, as 30% needed to return a purchase. Then we headed home via Alcester, as I needed to pick up some wood filler from the fabulous little hardware store at the bottom of the High Street.

In the afternoon 30% grabbed my shop vacuum and made a start on the decades of cobwebs and dust in the shed. I mixed up some wood filler and filled the holes on the work surface of the potting bench. While that was setting, I headed up to the orchard to check on the bees.

I can report that hives #3 and #2 are both doing very well. I saw both queens and the brood nests are increasing in size. Hive #3 has about three frames of capped brood and #2 is magnificent with about half a dozen frames filled with brood.

Hive #1 is doing reasonably well, I think. 

The queen was seen and there are two good frames of capped brood. This is alright, but not brilliant. There are a couple of factors that may have slowed the growth of this colony. Firstly the old queen had been failing for several weeks which meant that the new queen was introduced to a colony with older workers.** It is possible that the older workers have now expired and the colony has contracted slightly. The colony has also been suffering from robbing by wasps which could have impacted the colony size. I reduced the entrance size a fortnight ago, and have set up wasp traps in the orchard. These measures seem to have reduced the number of wasps entering the hive.

I may transfer a frame of capped brood from hive #2 to hive #1 next week to boost the colony size

After finished with the bees I returned to the potting bench. The wood fills was now set, so I got it sanded and applied a coat of finishing oil to the top and sides.

I then retrieved my workshop vacuum and spent a very noisy half hour sucking up the dust and shavings from the workshop ... It now looks reasonably tidy, and ready for the next project.***

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* I have an Assegai that leans against the wall in the hall, and many years ago I purchased five spear heads from the same action house.  I mounted these in a box frame and I really must get around to hanging it, as it looks quite splendid.

** A worker bee lives for about six weeks at this time of year.

*** That is likely to be some tiered plant stands for the "posh" greenhouse

The Perfect Spot

 Having finished the potting bench, I now need to find somewhere to put it!

Actually I had had the perfect spot in mind for quite some time. The problem was that the perfect spot was filled with garden shed junk and detritus.

Hence, today's first job was to empty the front half of the shed.* The contents were unceremoniously dumped in the car port, giving me enough space to work.  I then attended to the perfect spot. 

We moved in back in 2021, and I hurriedly threw up some shelves in the perfect spot, just to avoid dumping stuff on the floor.** These shelves now needed to be taken down and relocated much higher on the wall.

This was not straightforward, as I needed to insert a section of timber studding to support the shelving brackets.

By the end of the day I had inserted the aforementioned studding, and relocated the shelving brackets.

30% is very pleased with her new potting bench and is keen to start using it. She even offered to get my workshop vacuum out and hoover up the mess in the shed.

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* We call it the shed, but it is actually a room in the large outbuilding that sits alongside of the cottage. The "shed" is the room that sits between the garage and the car port, and is so named because its contents are, most definitely, what one would keep in a garden shed ... mowers, the rotamatiser, forks and spades etc

** At that point the back half of the shed was filled to chest height with logs and kindling ... it was a bit of a state!

Home Alone

I was home alone for most of Saturday, as 30% and The Cinema Club had headed in to Birmingham to see a stage production of Micheal Morpurgo's War Horse.

Most of my day was spent in the workshop and carport finishing off the potting bench. The main activity was to fix the back and sides to the bench. These will form a compost hopper, and, hopefully, stop compost falling on the floor.

I started with a scrappy sketch 

Added a few more details

... and finished with this

After finishing the bench* I headed down the lane with Wilson and Hobson. We had a pleasant enough walk, but the weather was warmer than I thought, and we were glad to get home for a drink.

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* When I say "finished", there is always something else to do! There are a few screw heads that need to be filled and a coat of protective oil wouldn't go amiss either.

Wilson's Bumper Book of Crimes - No 1 in an occasional series

Many years ago a similarly titled series of Journal entries addressed the misbehavings of Pippin,* our much beloved, and greatly missed, brown poodle bitch.

It now seems that I need a new series to cover the antics of Wilson.

As I was travelling to Hodnet today my phone rang.

It was 30% calling to advise that Wilson had managed to clear the four feet high gates at the entrance to the cottage, and then engaged in some rather "boisterous" play with Ronnie, a black Labrador retriever from just down the lane.

It looks like a new set of gates will be ordered, sooner rather than later!

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* Her alias was "Marauder"

 

Differing Tastes

Friday started early.

I was out of bed by six o'clock, and getting on with my usual morning routine. The chickens were let out of their coop, and I then emptied my fishing gear from 30%'s car.  It was then time for a quick cup of coffee before I got myself fed, and ready for the day.

The reason for being up early was that Bubbles had arranged a clay shooting session at the West Midlands Shooting Ground at Hodnet in Shropshire.

The plan was for seven of us to meet up at the grand around ten o'clock and then shoot 120 sporting clays, before lunching and heading home.

I have shot at this ground once previously, and found it challenging, but very enjoyable. On the last occasion I managed to score somewhere in the region of 50%. I shot a lot more frequently at that time and, frankly, thought I would be lucky to get anywhere near that level of competence today.

Bubbles picked me up around eight o'clock, and we were soon on our way. Bobyn and Ben were shooting too, so there were the four of us travelling together.

I'd like to say that it was a pleasant trip to the wilds of Shropshire, but Bubbs' musical tastes do not align with mine. A two hour car ride set to a backing track of really shitty dance music ... God, it was fucking awful!

As for the day, it was splendid. The weather stayed warm and fine and the company was great too. There was plenty of light hearted banter and I actually shot reasonably well.* My final score was 60/120, and I have no complaints considering that it is a National standard ground and, nowadays, I probably only shoot once a month.

The journey home was just as melodic, ** and I was glad that I managed to fall asleep for some of the drive.

Overall, I had a great day. It's just that I should have made my own way there.

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* for me

** If you actually listen to the rave music, it becomes apparent that it has all the sophistication of a child's nursery song, sung over a 130 BPM track, comprised of cheap synthesised noise