That's gotta go!

At our first encounter with Wilson, we both noticed that he had a rather peculiar clip. 

He had a fairly short topknot which extended down the back of his neck. We both agreed that it made him look like he had a mullet.  Now neither of us are particularly stylish, but there is no way that any of our dogs is wandering around with the world's worst hairstyle.

As the title of today's post makes clear, it had to go!

After several days of nagging, I finally got out the clippers to remove the offending mullet.

I was aware that Wilson is used to being groomed, but I had no idea how he was going to respond to me sitting him down and attacking the back of his neck with my cordless Andis. It only took a couple of minutes to trim back his coat and I can report that he was quite happy to let me do it. 

Of course, a complete clip is a different matter, and I think I'd like to do that myself before we take him to the dog groomers. After all, I want to be certain of his temperament, before he is inflicted on an unsuspecting trainee.

I have already mention that I had been nagged politely requested to get rid of Wilson's mullet. This nagging request was multi layered, and I had also been instructed asked to trim Whiffler and Hobson's faces.  This was achieved without a fuss, but there was one more Herculean labour to be accomplished ... Dog #4 aka The Rat needed a complete clip!

I have previously documented the fact that The Rat does not like going to the groomers, so will not bore you again. She does not like being groomed, so today was not going to be fun! However the weather gods had smiled upon her, and she had earned a reprieve.

30% had foolishly taken the dogs out for an early morning walk and they had got quite wet. Now a quick face clip is no problem, but there was no way I could clip The Rat until she was completely dry.  We have discussed this at length, and it is the view of Ratty that she won't be fully dry "until the back end of July!"

Now the preceding paragraphs are usually sufficient for one day, but today turned out to be more productive than expected.

The bees were overdue for an inspection, but the weather would not oblige. It has either been sunny, but very windy or cool or showery. Neither of these are ideal conditions to open up a hive. But, after a wet start to the day, the weather finally cleared in the early afternoon and I managed to work my way through all three hives.

I can report that the young queen in Hive #3 was spotted, but there is still no sign of eggs or brood. I am reasonably confident that she has been mated, so, hopefully, she will start to lay in the next week.

I then moved on to Hive #2. This would be the first inspection since I took a shook swarm from it at the beginning of May.  After working my way through half a dozen frames in the brood box, I was delighted to see a frame of capped worker brood. The queen had hatched, mated, and returned to the colony. Clearly she was also laying well. As I continued my inspection I actually caught sight of her wandering across a frame. Satisfied that all was well, the hive was reassembled and the colony left to rebuild.

I finally checked the third hive. For the past few weeks I have found it challenging to locate the queen, and there has been very limited quantities of brood. Today's inspection yielded the same result. I located the queen and there was a couple of frames of brood, but, at this time of year, the brood box should contain six or seven frames rammed with brood.

I think I may have a failing queen. I am now faced with a dilemma; do I attempt to re-queen the colony, or do I leave them alone and hope that a natural supersedure will take place?* The fact that I will be away in Germany from next Friday makes re-queening challenging. On balance I think that I will leave the colony alone. I can always buy in a new queen when I get back, if there is no signs of supersedure.

Right, I'm almost finished! On the subject of the motorcycle tour to Germany, I have purchased a larger touring screen to make longer trips a little more comfortable. The screen arrived today, and eventually got fitted to the R1250R.**

I've finished now ... I promise!

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* As has happened with Hive #3

** After a call to the retailer to got a copy of the correct fitting instructions.

Lazy Day

If it weren't for the fact that I affixed a UK sticker to the number plate of the R1250R,* I would have achieved absolutely nothing today.

Instead I did some more socialising, as we hosted a local art group this morning. 

The Dormston Doodlers are a delightful group of, mostly senior, ladies. The use their hobby of sketching as an excuse to get together, chat and eat cake. 

This morning our garden and orchard was their chosen venue and the weather Gods smiled upon them.  They dotted themselves at various locations around the garden, and, were soon making preliminary sketches.  Over the course of the morning these were developed in to some accomplished works. Their chosen mediums included pencil, pen and ink and watercolours.

I was particularly taken by the watercolour of Rose Cottage, and the pencil sketch of the huge Bramley apple tree up in the orchard.

They really were a lovely bunch of people and many of them have considerable talent ... both at doodling and also at making cakes!

So that was the morning. 

My afternoon was incredibly lazy, and was spent snoozing on the sofa. I blame the weather for this slothfulness. It had turned cool and blustery, making me put off the planned inspection of my hives.

I did make it to Tai Chi this evening and had a good session. Swotty Caroline only occasionally impeded my view of Kung Po Fran. I also made a slight adjustment to my assessment of Jane. She has been upgraded from "the woman who just doesn't listen" to the more succinct "moron". She achieved this promotion when she told us all that she had a smartphone, but was insistent that she did not want apps loaded on it!

Is it me? 

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* A legal requirement for driving in France and Germany, apparently. 

Good Mates

The weather was cool, grey and wet this morning, and I was home alone.  30% had a very early appointment at the hospital in Kidderminster, so I was left in charge of the house and pets.

After checking out the weather, I made an executive decision and our normal exercise routine was cancelled; instead we had a literary morning, and I finally finished Terry Pratchett's Small Gods.*

Guilt then set in, and I headed to the kitchen, where I attempted to assuage these feelings by making the room look less like a blender explosion had just happened.

30% arrived home shortly before lunch and reported that all was well. She was very complimentary about the service received from the NHS, and we are both rapidly coming to the conclusion that parts of the NHS work brilliantly, and wonder why the rest is so appalling?

My afternoon was spent in the company of Grandad Jack.  We had attempted to link up with Judge Dread too, but he had bailed; claiming a leg injury or some such Southern Softy nonsense! Instead, Jack pitched up here and we spent a pleasant few hours drinking tea, talking nonsense, playing illness Top Trumps,** and taking a tour of the garden and sheds.

Jack left laden with eggs and honey. He later reported, via the medium of WhatsApp, that our eggs must have health giving qualities as he had managed to eat two of them for his breakfast. This is the first time that he has eaten this much since his treatment started.***

It was lovely to see Jack, who, for some strange reason, seems to enjoy coming over here, being leapt upon by the dogs and having the piss taken out him mercilessly by me.

We both agreed that we should do it more often.

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* I know! I really do need to broaden my literary choices.

** Jack won, he has just been given the all clear after cancer treatment!

*** This is brilliant news as he is still having problems eating as a result of the radiotherapy treatment to his neck and throat

Finally, they're in the ground

For the past six weeks I have been religiously putting my brassica seedlings out in the garden, and then returning them to the shelter of the greenhouse overnight.

They have grown reasonably well, but I am not delighted with the young plants. I don't know whether it is the seed compost, the containers, or my watering regime, but they just aren't great.

Anyway, today I finally found the time to get them in to the ground. A row was marked out in the veg plot between two areas recently mulched with horse manure, and the plants were spaced at 18" intervals. The row is planted with a dozen savoy cabbages, and a couple of cauliflowers were added to complete the row.

I had another four small cauliflower plants, and these were planted in a mini row over by the French Beans. 

A keen gardener once told me that it was a waste of time growing cabbages, as the crop would be destroyed by pigeons and cabbage white butterflies. Now I love savoy cabbage, and I was not going to be put off by this negativity.  I purchased some metal hoops and insect netting, and I haven't looked back. Our cabbages have won first prize in the any other vegetable class at the local Horticultural Show.

As for this year's crop prospects, we'll just have to wait and see.

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* BBQ Dave; he doesn't have a positive bone in his body!

The air show weekend

Saturday was most definitely a day of two halves.

The first half of the day was spent cleaning, tidying and preparing food for our planned get-together.  By three o'clock the house was reasonable presentable, and we even had time for a short snooze before our guests arrived.

We were joined by C&S and B&H in the late afternoon for the more relaxed half of the day. We settled in the garden to chat, drink and occasionally get the binoculars out to check out the aeroplanes from the airshow. 

I can report that the coffee cake was a great success, although we quickly moved on to alcoholic beverages and savoury nibbles, and by the end of the evening we had consumed a lot of wine!

B&H left late in the evening, and the rest of us eventually made our way to our beds around midnight.

It is fair to say that very little was achieved on Sunday.

We breakfasted out in the garden; demolishing home cured bacon sandwiches and eggs; collected from the coop that very same morning.

After copious amounts of tea and coffee, we managed to summon the energy to take a walk down the lane and out along the bridleway. C&S departed late in the morning, and we were left to have a very lazy day.

One thing worth mentioning about the weekend was that Wilson was absolutely amazing. He was a little noisy when our guests arrived, but settled down within minutes and was relaxed for the rest of the time.  The boy has only been with us a dozen days, but is rapidly fitting in with us and our little pack. He still has his moments, and can be a little possessive at times, but, overall, seems to have the makings of a lovely dog.

Coffee & Walnut Cake

With guests arriving tomorrow, I thought it might be a nice idea to bake a cake.

The Air Show weekend does tend to involve a fair degree of sitting in the garden, and refreshments are always welcome. I therefore decided to extend my baking repertoire and have a go at a coffee and walnut cake.

I used Nigella's recipe, and upscaled it to suit my two 9" baking tins. The ingredients and method are summarised here.

Ingredients

• 65 g walnut pieces
• 285 g caster sugar
• 285 g unsalted butter
• 255 g plain flour
• 5 tsp instant espresso coffee powder
• 3 and a bit tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 5 large eggs
• 1 - 2 tbsp milk

and for the buttercream

• 440 g icing sugar
• 220 g softened butter
• 3½ tsp instant espresso coffee powder
• walnut halves to decorate

Method

1. Lightly butter two 9" baking tins and line with baking parchment
2. Pre heat the oven to 160℃ (fan)
3. Add the walnut pieces and caster sugar to a food processor and pulse it until is is a fine (ish) powder
4. Add the softened butter, flour, coffee, baking powder, bicarb and eggs, and blitz it until it forms a smooth batter.
5. While still mixing, gradually add some milk. The aim is to produce a soft dropping consistency.
6. The divide the batter between the two pans
7. Bake until the sponge springs back when pressed, or a skewer comes out clean. It took about 40 minutes for a 9" cake.
8. Once baked, leave the cake to cool in the tins for about ten minutes, before turning out on to a cooling rack.

Buttercream 

1. Pulse the icing sugar in the food processor to remove any lumps
2. Blend in the softened butter to produce the buttercream frosting
3. Dissolve the espresso powder in 1 tbsp of boiling water and, while mixing the buttercream, slowly introduce to the mixture; to produce a coffee flavoured filling and topping.

I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow

The afternoon included a bit of hoeing in the veg patch and it's worth noting that it's not every day that a Lancaster bomber does a low level pass right over one's house. We also had a few strafing runs by the Red Arrows.

Cooking

 Activities took a culinary turn today.

It is the Midlands Air Show this weekend. It is centred on Ragley Hall, near Alcester in Warwickshire. This is conveniently only a couple of miles from us as the crow flies, or rather as the splendid display of aircraft and hot air balloons fly.

There is no forking out handfuls of cash for tickets and overpriced refreshments. Us cheapskates watch from our garden and do get a rather splendid view with all the comforts of home.

This weekend we will be joined by C&S, and B&H will be joining us for the first time at what is becoming an annual event.

This intro was a little long winded, but explains the reasons for my culinary activities. We have guests this weekend and it's only fair that I do my share of the cooking ... I also then stand a chance of doing less of the house cleaning that will definitely need to take place!

It had been agreed that we would be serving a honey roast ham this weekend; obviously basted with this year's honey harvest, and I was on the hook to prepare the it.

30% had purchased the gammon joint earlier in the week and, after the obligatory walk with the dogs, I put it on to simmer for three hours. While it was cooking, I headed in to Alcester and picked up a few essentials from the supermarket, including a disposable aluminium roasting tin.*

I started the afternoon by sticking cloves in to the ham, followed by a sprinkling of soft brown sugar, and a coat of this year's honey. After 40 minutes in the oven it was finished, and simply needed to cool, before being refrigerated.

That was pretty much for today. We did take another short walk with the dogs and I also adjusted the ingredients of Nigella Lawson's coffee cake recipe,** as I plan to extend my baking repertoire tomorrow.

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* The couple of quid price for one of these is well worth paying, to avoid having the clean the sticky mess that results from honey roasting a ham.

** From an 8" baking tin up to a 9" tin. Basically it's about a 25% increase

What flavour is your dog?

 Today I did close to bugger all.

In the morning I rinsed out the extractor and uncapping tray, and can finally declare that I have finished the clean up after Sunday's honey extraction.  The extractor was reassembled later in the day, and the store room is now accessible, once more.

I also finished repairing the super that I started yesterday. Basically there were two areas where the cedar sides had split, and small sections had broken away. One of these was large enough to allow ingress of bees, and this is not a good situation. Honey bees are not beyond robbing weaker hives of their stored honey, and a hole in a super would give them easy access to free food.

The repair wasn't particularly complicated. The damaged areas were cut away and routed to make regular, rectangular cutouts. I then fabricated an oak dutchman, and glued and screwed it in place to fill each of the holes. I'm rather pleased with this little repair job and it will be interesting to see how the super stands up in use.

As I said earlier, I did close to bugger all today, and the bulk of the afternoon was spent snoozing on the sofa. For some reason I felt absolutely shattered. Looking back, I suppose I have had quite a demanding few days in the preceding week.

I did also make it to Tai Chi this evening, but it was more an exercise in frustration than mindfulness ... Basically Swotty Caroline virtually glued herself to Kung Po Fran,* and it was very challenging to follow her lead for much of the session.

Finally, the recent arrival of Wilson got me thinking about the dogs in general. 

Wilson is described as a red Standard Poodle, but I think he would be better regarded as a dark apricot. Thinking about his coat colour led me to think of ways to describe him and I landed on "almost caramel" in colour.

This led me to bestow each of the dogs their own particular flavour. Wilson was, of course, salted caramel. Whiffler is a pale cream and is now definitely vermilla.** Hobson is a pale apricot colour, but he is, without doubt, banana. *** Finally we get to Dog #4 aka The Rat. Her flavour, without fear of contradiction and based on considerable evidence, is fox shit!

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* Our most excellent tutor

** It's how we say vanilla in this household

*** In the UK "nana" is an abbreviated form of banana, and is used as a gentle and affectionate rebuke for someone who is daft. Hobson is adorable, but can be an absolute fool at times.

A good day

The weather forecast for today was not pleasant reading. After a mediocre start, rain was expected to arrive by lunchtime and stick around for the rest of the afternoon.

This is far from perfect beekeeping weather, but my hives were due for an inspection.  At this time of year they need to be checked once a week. The inspections are for a variety of reasons including swarm control, disease, and, surprisingly at this time of year, starvation.

I have just taken a honey harvest, which has removed stored food from the hives. We are also about to enter a period in the British beekeeping year known as the June gap.  Basically June is surprisingly short on nectar bearing flowers. We have had the flush of fruit blossom and oilseed rape in the Spring, and now there is an interval before the Summer flowers make an appearance in July. It is, therefore, vital that the bees are checked to ensure they have sufficient food to keep them going.

I wandered up to the hives after breakfast and judged that they were sufficiently active to allow an inspection. I then headed back to the store room and gathered my equipment. This included some brood frames packed with stores, and the six supers that had been extracted on Sunday. 

The frames in these supers are still sticky with a film of honey that cannot be mechanically extracted. But the bees will collect every last sip, if the supers are placed atop the hives' crown boards ... this was my primary objective for today.

Hive #1 is currently my only hive with a laying queen. I quickly removed the two supers, noting that the lower one had a reasonable amount of stores. I then took a quick look through the brood box.  I didn't see the queen, but did spot a few larvae, so am reasonably happy that all is well. I also replaced a couple of empty brood frames with two filled with capped honey.

The hive was then reassembled with three wet supers on top of the crown board. These will be left on the hive for a few days and the bees will clean them up.

Hive #2 had a swarm cell when inspected on 6th May.  There is little point in carrying out an inspection for another week, or so. At that point I will be looking for signs that the queen has hatched, mated and started laying.  I am also aware that the colony's demand for food will have reduced, as there have been no fresh brood for three weeks, and the number of mature workers will have dropped too.  I did, however, give them three wet supers to clean up.

I was about to finish up when my eyes fell on hive #3, and I thought "Sod it, I'll have a look, it's probably not going to come to anything anyway."  This hive contained a shook swarm; taken from hive #2 on 6th May.  A subsequent inspection had shown that the queen had disappeared and a supersedure cell was found on one of the frames. The colony had then been left for nature to take its course.

I flicked through the frames, noting that there was plenty of food, but no sign of brood or eggs. As I reached the last couple of frames I spotted a very pretty queen wandering across the cells ... Fingers crossed that she will start laying in the next week or two.

The rest of the day was spent continuing the clean up of the extraction equipment and a repair to the woodwork of one of the supers.

I also had a call from the hospital regarding the results from my MRI scan.  The news is good. There is no sign of prostate cancer and no further tests are needed at this time. There will be a follow up appointment in six months time, and I will need to have a PSA test completed at that time.  If the PSA is normal I will be discharged.

This is obviously good news. I hadn't become overly worried in the past couple of weeks, and had just got on with my life.  There was little point in worrying when I hadn't even had a diagnosis.  I'll admit there were moments when I did think about a future that involved cancer treatment, but these were few, and I need to get on with other shit anyway.

The clean-up commences

It doesn't take a genius to work out that my priority for today was to clean up the sticky mess in the store room.

I rolled up my sleeves, got a bowl of hot soapy water and made a start. 

My approach was to deal with the easy items first. The honey buckets were stacked in a corned, and I then focused on the messy clutter of sieves, uncapping tools and so forth.

Over the course of the morning I made some progress and the extractor is now unbolted from its base and partially dismantled. It hasn't yet been cleaned, but I'm working myself up to that task.*

I dipped in an out of cleaning up over the course of the day. I know it needs to be done, but after the long day yesterday, the last thing I wanted was to be dealing with more sticky stuff.

Fortunately the afternoon had a welcome diversion, as 30% had invited Bubbles and Bobbyn over for coffee, a catch-up and to meet Wilson for the first time.

And that just about covers Bank Holiday Monday. I did manage to get the extractor frame and honey sieves in the dishwasher ... so they'll be nice a clean by tomorrow morning.

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* The extractor is about four feet in height and is approximately two feet in diameter. It is a large stainless steel drum on legs, with an electric motor unit to drive the central shaft. This shaft supports the cage that holds the honey frames. I am not blessed with long legs and I can only just reach the bottom of the drum when cleaning it. A few years ago I actually managed to crack a rib leaning over the edge to get it cleaned after extraction.

The Extraction

Sunday really did have an early start.

The honey supers needed to be removed from the two hives before the bees started flying. This meant that I was up there just after seven o'clock; loading the supers on to my wheel barrow.  They were quite a weight, which boded well for a good first harvest. There were also very few bees present. This indicated that my new clearer boards had worked too. I wheeled the supers down to the store room and stacked them, ready to be extracted.

It was then time for breakfast and a short walk down the lane with 30% and the dogs.

I was now at the point when I could put off the extraction no further. A bowl of hot soapy water and a towel were collected* and TP and I made start.

For the next few hours we worked our way through six honey filled supers. Each super contains ten frames of honey, each frame is double sided. That is sixty frames that needed to be uncapped before being loaded in to the centrifugal extractor.

I think I have already mentioned that the bees cap off each cell with wax once the stored nectar has been converted to honey.  These wax caps need to be removed. This is done with a knife that has a long serrated blade; very similar to a bread knife. 

This may sound straightforward, but the face of the combs can be quite uneven, and the frames can be heavy; making it a the most arduous, and tedious, part of the process.

Loading the frames in to the extractor, pressing the start button and operating the speed control are a piece of cake by comparison.

By the end of the day we had about 120 lbs of honey; filtered and stored in plastic honey buckets.

I was pleased, but every piece of extraction equipment is covered with wax and honey. I now have a monumental clean up to "look forward to" in the coming days!

Now that should have been all of the new today, but I also noticed that my carrots have made an appearance in the raised bed.  These were planted on two weeks ago, and I was concerned about the viability of the seed, but it seems that there was no need to be worried ... they are coming up like weeds! 

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* This is the most vital piece of equipment. Honey extraction is very messy, and I cannot overstate how much of a pleasure it is to, briefly, have clean hands.

The Toms are in

The new relatively* early morning routine is that we all take a short walk down the lane with the dogs.  We tend to cover a mile, or so. The aim is for the dogs to be emptied, and for the new boy to become familiar with us, his new pack and his new surroundings.

He is making good progress and can now be walked off the lead.  His recall seems to be pretty good, and he is unperturbed by horses, traffic and other dog walkers.

However we were a little concerned by his behaviour later in the morning, when TP turned up for a weekend visit.  The new boy, Wilson became quite agitated and very noisy.  He soon calmed, once TP sat down and gave him a stroke, but the behaviour was repeated each time Wilson encountered TP afresh. 

Matters improved slightly over the course of the day, but he was clearly not as comfortable with TP as he is with me and 30%.*** We can only assume that it is a response to a new person in his new territory, and that he is being somewhat protective ... Let's hope he calms over time.

Right, that's the dog news update, now on to the garden.

I got my tomatoes planted in the greenhouse, and mowed the lawns at the front of the cottage.  The garden now looks reasonably presentable, but I do have to say that my tomato plants look very small considering that it is almost June.

TP and I then took a walk around the Three Miler with Wilson, Hobson and The Rat.  This was the first time Wilson had completed this loop and he performed really well.  He did pull a little on his lead through the village, and he seemed to recognise when we were close to home; pulling to the limit of his extending lead.

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* 30% is not an early riser. She says she is and will present some waffly narrative about rising at the crack of sparrows to let the dog out for a pee. The problem with this tale is that it will not include the fact that she then returns to her bed and has a lie in until seven thirty** at the earliest!

** Eight o'clock is her more usual time of rising.

*** Apparently he shared his last home with his owner's brother; a young man with alleged anger issues.  It may be that he is wary of younger men.

Honey harvest preparations

Friday turned out to be another busy day.

After an early morning walk down the lane to empty the dogs, we loaded Hobson and his brother in to the car and headed over the Cheltenham. 

I wandered in to the Motorrad showroom and was promptly relived of a couple of hundred quid. My bike was brought from the wash bay, and I was soon heading back down the M5 towards home.

I then turned my attention towards the upcoming honey harvest, and got the extractor assembled. Then it was a case of preparing the hives.

I planned to take three supers from each of Hives #1 and #2.  Obviously honey extraction is a whole lot easier if the supers are free from bees, so the hives need to be configured to get the bees to move out of them.  The hives were given a few puffs of smoke to calm the bees, and then the three supers were taken off the hive. An empty super was added to hive to give the bees space to move in to. I then added one of my newly constructed clearer boards and replaced the three honey filled supers.

All being well, the bees will move out of the supers overnight and be prevented from returning by the clearer boards ... fingers crossed!

The rest of the day was taken up with watering the veg patch and mowing the lawns at the back of the cottage.

Apparently the forecast for the Bank Holiday weekend is not great, so I wanted to get the lawns trimmed before they got out of hand.

Today was, shall we say, unusual!

 Today can be summed up very concisely.

I got up and got busy. Then I got clean, after which I got stoned. I then got scanned and, after that, I mostly slept.

I you'd like a little more detail here we go.

The "getting up and getting busy" was because I needed to ride the R1250R over to the Motorrad Dealership in Cheltenham for its first service. 30% followed in her car,* so she could give me lift back.

The "getting clean" bit really doesn't need elaboration, but I should clarify the bit about getting stoned.

I am a claustrophobe. I really do not like being constrained in restricted spaces. Shit, I don't even like wearing polo neck jumpers! 

I have an MRI scan scheduled for this afternoon, and, on previous occasions, I have panicked, hit the alarm button and started to crawl out of the damned things, midway through the scan. I really am quite claustrophobic.

In order to reduce the "get me the fuck out of here" urges, I have previously consulted my General Practitioner and been prescribed Lorazepam.  These little pills do work a treat, and I have been known to actually sleep during previous MRI scans.

The downside is that I talk rubbish, see double, claim to be a most excellent driver and have a tendency to fall asleep at the drop of a hat.

So, having dropped off the bike, I showered and, at around eleven o'clock, I treated myself to a coffee and the prescribed medication. Within half an hour I was a little unsteady on my feet and very calm.

Mummy Sheila picked me up just before one o'clock to give me a lift to the hospital and I was definitely very chilled by then.

The scan went well. I didn't panic and, if I am honest, I was half asleep for the entire process.  I kept my eyes shut tight most of the time. I did open them on one occasion, and a mild sense of alarm started to bubble up in my addled brain by the proximity of the scanner tube. 

Anyway, I got through it, got home and was sent straight to bed by 30%. I woke around six o'clock in the evening and was so confused, that I briefly thought it was the following morning.  

It is fair to say that the rest of the evening was spent semi-conscious on the sofa.

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* With Hobson and his brother coming along for a little ride out

A quiet day, with preparations underway

 Wednesday was another quiet day spent mostly in the garden.

Our canine guest has been doing well, and is slowly integrating in to our pack.  He can be, shall we say, a little over possessive when it comes to his toys, and we have adopted a confiscation tactic to calm things down.  Overall he seems to be settling well. 

We took him for a short walk down the lane with the other three this morning and he behaved well.  He will walk to heel on a lead, but he really enjoyed walking on a longer lead, and checking out the scents in the verges.* 

We also took him for a short run in the car, as he will be having a ride out tomorrow. Again, he behaved perfectly and simply settled and snoozed.

Now moving on to the bees.

I inspected my one queen right hive yesterday and spotted the queen for the first time in three weeks ... phew.  The colony seems to be doing well and there are three supers crammed with honey, and ready for extraction.  

I plan to harvest the honey over the coming weekend and will also be removing another three supers from Hive #2. I haven't bothered inspecting this hive, as, if all has gone to plan, it has a young queen in the process of maturing, mating and taking on her regal role at the heart of the colony. There is little point in intervening in this process, so I'm leaving well alone.

The rest of my day was spent in preparing the store room for honey extraction. My honey extractor was dismantled and the interior was given a damned good scrub. It was cleaned after I last used it, but it needs to be spotless for the production of foodstuffs.

I did the same with the uncapping tray,** and then arranged the various stands and tools to create a compact, and hopefully efficient workspace. My honey sieves have been put through the dishwasher and we just need to get the honey storage buckets clean, before we're ready to go.***

The thought that my profit margin will soar when I'm selling my own honey has not escaped me!

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* and adding his own to the mix!

** The honeybees seal each cell of honey with a capping of wax. These caps need to be cut away before the frames are inserted in to the centrifugal extractor. Uncapping can be quite a messy job and an uncapping tray is a worthwhile investment to make honey harvesting a little easier.

*** That is not strictly true. I need to get spare supers and clearer boards added to the hives, and leave them for a day or two. I then need to remove the filled supers, which will, hopefully, be bee free.  THEN I will be ready to start the extraction. DO NOT get me started on the faffing around once the honey is out of the frames! The clean up is a mission in its own right.

He's not perfect, but he's very good!

 Well! The new boy settled brilliantly last night. 

He curled up on the floor alongside the bed and made no fuss at all. He did stir every early in the morning, so 30% did take him out in the garden for a 4 am wee ... just in case. But, other than that, he had the perfect first night.

Today has gone well too. We have spent the day in and around the garden and he has been able to explore and play at his own pace. There have been a couple of occasions when we have had to remove toys, in order to calm down the level of excitement, but overall we couldn't have hoped for a better first day.

In summary he is a little nervous, but he is happy to explore and interact with the dogs and us. 30% nipped out, and at one point he gingerly climbed up on the sofa and curled up on my lap for a snooze. He wants to play, but it is clear that he hasn't been well socialised. We are hopeful that his social skills will improve as he spends more time with us. and integrates with our little pack.

Oh, and he definitely prefers the ladies. This is no surprise, as his owner was a single young woman, so he has definitely shown a preference for 30%'s company.  This is not overly concerning. He is happy to come over and be fussed by me. He will also follow me around the house and garden, but he does seem to want to be by his new Mum.

So that is the dog news. I think I said that this is a trial fostering period, and he will be staying with us, provided that there are no issues with integration and behaviour.  

Based on what we have seen, I will have to decide on a suitable alias for him.

In other news, I spent a chunk of today in the store room, setting up the equipment for the first honey harvest of the year.

The extractor is now bolted to its base and was briefly switched on to ensure that there were no problems with its motor. The uncapping tray has been mounted on a Black & Decker Workmate and various other items have been removed from storage.

It looks like tomorrow will be taken up with making sure that all of the equipment is spotlessly clean, before the extraction takes place at the weekend.

A quick catch up

It's been a few days since my last Journal entry, and I've finally found a few minutes to rectify this omission. If I'm honest the lawn really could do with a cut, but I really can't face wandering around the lawn for three hours, so here's what I've been up to.

Saturday, 17 May 2025

The day started with a wander around the Three Miler with the dogs.  Whiffler is now sufficiently recovered to be exercised, and he really seemed to enjoy this morning's trot around the lanes.

Having exercised the dogs, 30% and I tidied ourselves, and headed in to The Regal in Evesham for a lunchtime comedy gig performed by Chris McCausland. We were familiar with Chris from his panel show appearances, and his triumph in last year's Strictly Come Dancing, but were not familiar with his stand up material. We both really enjoyed his engaging persona and his take on some of the, quite frankly, ridiculous aspects of modern life. It was a well deserved 8/10 gig.

The only downside to the gig was that 30% spotted the parents of an old school friend of TP, and insisted on making contact via the wonderful medium that is WhatsApp.  We hadn't had any contact with this couple for at least twelve years and it was definitely one of those relationships that has been and gone. 

30% refused to go along with my suggestion that we steer clear of them, and the end result was a tedious kerbside chat after the show. As we walked away 30% commended how boring "Trish" was, and I was somewhat frustrated to reiterate that my suggestion had been to avoid her like the fucking plague!

The odd scheduling of the comedy gig meant that we were home before four o'clock, and I was able to spend a little more time in the garden. I thinned out my celery seedlings and sowed a crop of Early Nantes carrots in the other half of the large raised bed.  I am not convinced that the Autumn King seeds sowed last Tuesday will be viable, so these were sown as a contingency against the first sowing failing.

Sunday, 18 May 2025

I am not very good at keeping in touch with friends, but I had managed (in my half-arsed fashion) to semi-arrange an outing for today. 

Over the past couple of months I had exchanged occasional WhatsApp messages with an old Frolleague; Tel,* with the aim of meeting up.  Tel had suggested Westonbirt Arboretum as it is roughly midway between our homes.

A picnic at the arboretum seemed like a good idea, and when 30% discovered that it was very dog friendly we leapt at the idea.

We met up with Tel and his good lady; Deb around eleven oclock and had a fabulous day there. The weather was perfect for a walk around the verdant collection. Coffee and ice cream bars were conveniently situated, when refreshments were needed, and we had our picnic in a lovely shaded glade. Whiffler, Hobson and The Rat had a wonderful time too; racing around, playing, and making lots of new friends.

We had had a fabulous day, and I should also mention the lovely Gloucestershire villages and countryside we passed through on our way there.  The drive was certainly not a chore.

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* I had worked with Tel for many years at The Neat & Tidy Piano Movers,  and we were the inseparable pair of cynical buggers in our team. We keep in touch by text or call pretty regularly, but don't meet up as often as we should.

Monday, 19 May 2025 

As mentioned on Friday, 30% has been in touch with Hobson's breeder.  A young dog from the same litter as Hobson needs to be re-homed. We have the space, the time and a modicum of experience with Poodles, so Hobson's breeder thinks that this young dog might fit in well with our little Poodle pack.

The back story is that this dog was bought by a young woman who thought that owning a young Standard Poodle would fit in quite nicely with a career working away on cruise ships.  The dog was abandoned with her Sister when she worked away for ten months last year, and she is booked for another cruise in a few week's time.

Fortunately she has finally seen sense and offered the dog back to the breeder.

Today saw us head over to the Swansea area to collect the poor boy.  At first sight we were a little concerned as he seemed very nervous and his tail was down, almost tucked between his legs.  We introduced him to Hobson and one of his breeder's bitches and the dog seemed reasonably friendly, but it was apparent that he had not been properly socialised and was clearly lacking in canine confidence.

It was also apparent that his diet hadn't been particularly good as he is significantly smaller than Hobson and much less well muscled.  The boy definitely needs feeding up, an exercise regimen, and the company of some well adjusted dogs.

After a tearful farewell, the young boy was bundled in to the car to sit alongside 30%, and we headed back towards the Midlands.

Now I would have expected the dog to be incredibly stressed. He had just been separated from his owner, and lifted in to a strange vehicle with unfamiliar people and dogs.  In fact he settled down almost immediately, lying  down and enjoying 30%'s affections all the way home.

It almost seemed that the further we got from Wales, the more relaxed he became.

The introductions to our three have gone as well as we could have hoped. He is understandably apprehensive, but there has been no aggression and, again, he has relaxed and settled down to snooze in the same room as Hobson and Whiffler.  He also had a massive dinner.

Let's hope that we all have a quiet night.

Planting

 I finally got my arse in to gear this morning, and got the beans planted.  

I can now report that we have eighteen runner plants and about a dozen French Beans in the veg patch.  The runners are Lady Di. A variety that we have grown successfully for the past couple of years.  The French beans are a variety that produces a purple pod.* 30% suggested this, as she feels they will be far easier to spot amongst the foliage when harvesting.

The bean planting took up most of the morning, and the afternoon saw the obligatory post-prandial nap.

On waking, I returned to the vegetable patch and decided to get a row of parsnips** planted.  I have never grown them before, and have some doubts about how they will perform in our clay soil.  However,  nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I carefully sowed a row of seeds, watered them in, and covered them with a row of cloches.***

Apparently parsnips like a warm, moist , stone free soil, and can take up to two months to germinate.  Warm and moist is not a problem, but the way weeds grow in the garden, how the hell will I spot the seedlings?

So that's the gardening news. I also have to report that 30% has been in communication with a young lady from Wales, who owns one of Hobson's litter mates.  Apparently the young lad needs to be re-homed, and it looks like we will be going down to see him on Monday!

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* Apparently they turn green when they are cooked.

** Variety: Tender and True

*** We bought about twenty of these from a Market Gardener over in Bretforton a couple of years ago.  They are no longer used in the Market Gardens, having been made obsolete by modern horticultural fleece materials. They are perfect for our vegetable garden but quite frightening to assemble.  They comprise four panes of 3mm glass, three wire clips and a single heavy duty wire support.  Putting them together involves juggling the glass, support and clips, whilst avoiding slitting your wrists on the sharp edges. If you get it right they suddenly become a rigid structure as the last clip is pushed in to place.  If you get it wrong, you could bleed out!

A day in the workshop

There was a chilly wind this morning, and I did not feel like planting out the beans.

Instead, I crammed a wooly hat on my head, and took shelter in the workshop.  I spent most of the day in there making a pair of rhombus clearer boards.*  They could have been thrown together quite quickly, but I had the time, so I milled the necessary timber framing from pallet wood, rather than buying it from the DIY store.

The job took most of the day, but I enjoyed every minute of it, and am quite proud of my two hand crafted clearer boards ... Also,  30% was delighted to see a huge pile of wood shavings on the workshop floor.  At her request, these have now been swept up, and will be lining the chickens' nest boxes before the week is out.

This evening saw us head over to the Redditch College restaurant for an à la carte evening with Mummy Sheila. The food was quite splendid. I started with a salmon and prawn salad. My main was a chicken Kiev, served with green vegetables and pan fried potatoes. The dessert was a lovely crème brûlée, served with raspberries and mini shortbread biscuits.

I know that I will sleep well after a busy day in the workshop and with a large meal inside me.

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* If you can bear it, take a look at yesterday's Journal entry. I go on, at length, about clearer boards! 

Preparations

This morning I selected the longest and strongest of our bamboo canes from the car port roof space. I then headed out to the veg patch with them, some string and my trusty Swiss Army knife.

The next hour was spent assembling bamboo teepee frames, which will act as supports for our Runner and French Bean plants.

Having put up the teepees, I really should have made a start on transplanting the bean plants from their pots in to the ground, but I really couldn't get motivated. Instead I watered the ground at the base of each bamboo cane, in preparation for planting, and then found something else to do instead.

That "something else" was to make a start on tidying up the store room. It is in a bit of a state at the moment, and really needs to be clear and tidy so that we can extract the first of this year's honey.  The tidying took a good chunk of the afternoon and I can now report that the floor is clear and the room just needs a vacuum and dusting before I get my honey extractor set up.

Preparation for extracting honey got me thinking. 

 A day or so before extracting the honey, I will need to place clearer boards on the hives. A clearer board is inserted immediately below the supers* that are to be removed from the hive. It acts as a one-way valve. The worker bees will descend from the supers down in to the brood box in the evening. They will pass through the clearer board and, theoretically, will not be able to ascend back up in to the supers the following day.

This means that the supers should be free from bees when they are removed for honey extraction. Trust me, one does not want any bees in the extraction room. Extracting honey is hard enough work, without having frantic, stingy little sods trying to take it back up to the hive.

Now I have had mixed success with my clearer boards. I have removed supers that are totally free of bees, and I have removed supers that are still crammed with the little sods.**

I therefore decided that I should make a couple of rhombus clearer boards. It is alleged that these are far more effective at clearing bees from supers ... we shall see!

I had the plastic rhombus bee escapes, but I needed a sheet of 6mm ply wood to make the clearer boards. It was therefore a quick run in to Redditch to pick up a quarter sheet of ply from the DIY store.

I arrive back and had a while to relax, before I headed in to the village for this evening's Tai Chi session.    The class was very quiet this evening with only six of us in attendance.  It was a brilliant session and we managed to complete all five stages of The Infinite ... It is amazing what can be achieved when the noisy members of the class are away.***

All in all, I think that today was a productive day ... clearly my chi is centred

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* Honey Supers: the sections of the hive where the honey is stored by the bees.

** Each frame needs to be removed, and the bees carefully brushed off it, before it is put in another lidded super ... quickly, before the little sods get back in there!

*** I find it very surprising that one of the attendees still hasn't managed to work out that a Tai Chi session is about mental and physical focus and control. The bloody woman has been going for years and sees it as an opportunity to talk!