Low Key Wassail

Yesterday was Christmas eve, digging up Christmas dinner day and poo trailer day. I went up to the lottie and harvested Christmas dinner, Spuds, Sprouts, Parsnips, Leeks and some Beetroot. The soil is in lovely condition. The plants just pulled out. I topped and tailed the veg that needed it and cleaned up the others. All the trimmings went into the compost bin. The wind was bitter but the work easy so I did not get hot and sweaty. Not getting sweaty meant I did not get cold as soon as I stop moving as usually happens. I did have to swap my new Trilby for my beany because my ears were freezing off. It was quite nice trimming away watching the cows in the fields watch me. A shooting party strolled through the adjacent field blasting at mythical birds and having their dogs run all over. I had a chat with one of the beaters. It was not a very well planned event. I sorted out a basket full of veg for the stable owners and trundled off to get the poo trailer.

The last act before I left the lottie was to get my hip flask out and drink a little toast to the lottie. In time honoured fashion I splashed I bit of the Sloe Gin on each of the plots. A low key wassail if ever there was one.

The trailer run was uneventful. I saw Angie & Chris to wish them seasons greetings and pass on the basket of veg. They had just turned up from a ride out. We had a chat about the horses and I had a close look at their tack. I ran the trailer back to the lottie to empty to it and then ran it back to the stables. Degsy is running beautifully. I went over the Swad to get this months ration of petrol and to pump up the tyres. I think I have a slow puncture in the nearside rear. I will have to do somethings about that.

Wet whips

Sunday was work party day. 1pm was the appointed hour. I collected the poo trailer in good time and trundled over to the lottie. I topped up my muck bin then top dressed the Rhubarb patch.

Steve and two other lottie holders turned up just as I was dressing the Rhubarb. They went off to see what the remained to be done after the planting up of the new bund. The society was given a 200+ three old whips by the county council. They were very nicely grown. During the past few weeks a couple some of the lottie holders have taken on the job of planting up the new bund with whips. Steve went to sort out some bricks, Pete, Mr W and I took the 30+ left over oaks and organised ourselves to dig the holes, plant the trees and put the rabbit guards round them. I dug the hole, well stabbed the spade in the ground and opened up a slit. Mr W put the whip in and firmed the roots in. Pete fitted the guards. Now this was not a hard job except that as soon as we started it began to rain cold hard rain. We pushed on and got finished. As we finished the rain stopped but its work was done. We were soaked. We decided that an hour in the cold rain on cold and dark December Sunday was worth two or more hours at any other time of the year. And with that we went home. However I had to run the trailer back to the stables.

Harvesting spuds

Today got a chance to go the lottie. I got wrapped up but as soon as I started working I got too hot. The first job I tackled was to tidy up the patio. I had left some brassica stalks to dry out on the patio. I got a couple of bags out of my lottie store and bagged up the remaining stalks. The wheelbarrow was full of Huckleberry plants that I dug up on my last visit. I bagged them too. Next I went to brassicas bed [Bed3] and dug up the remaining cabbage and broccoli plants. I trimmed the leafy bits off into the compost bin. The stalks went to the bags. I have given up on the wormry at the lottie. I shovelled the contents of the wormry into the adjacent compost bin. It was good stuff but very few worms in it. It topped the compost bin up nicely.

The last but most important job was to harvest the last nine rows of spuds. The haulms had died back months ago but the straw like remain marked the rows. I worked along each row. Despite the rain we have had the soil was still quite dry a few inches below the surface. The spuds came out clean. The soil is light and dry so I was able to rifle through the it for the spuds. I put the harvest into trays and the tray in the back of Degsy.

It had started to rain, slowly at first but getting steadily harder. The trays were in Degsy, then I put in the bags of stalks in. They are going in my green recycling bin at home. I put the kettle on whilst I secured everything. The patio area of the lottie looks nice a tidy. The beds are covered in weeds. I have decided to leave it that way for the winter. My idea is that the weeds will hold onto the nutrients. When I prepare the beds in the spring I will put the weeds in the compost bins which will recycle the nutrients. The compost now in the bins will end up in bean and pea trenches next year. I have lots of manure cooking down which, depending how I feel, will be spread over or dug into certain beds over the winter. If the weather is mild I might get a head start of the spring digging.

Next Year

I have decided upon the special crop for next year...Barley. All the reading I had done over the summer on beer has inspired me to see if I can brew my own beer. Beer needs Barley. I draw the line at growing hops. I found a chap in Ormskirk that sells Barley seed in small quantities. It should be in my hands tomorrow. There are two questions that I have to resolve:
A. Can I sow the seed this autumn?
B. Which bed do give over to the crop?

This time next year I should be drinking a clear crisp bitter.

True then, True now.

Two centuries ago John Stuart Mill declared that there had never been a labour saving device invented that saved anyone a minute's labour.

True then, true now.

Literary Appreciation

Today I had a lie in so I was up at 9am. I had my usual breakfast. I read my book a while. I came to a decision on what I would do today. The poo trailer was still at the lottie, I had a number plate in the garage and spuds in the ground. There's a plan. I went to the lottie and emptied the poo trailer and in the process buggered up my back. I soldiered on very annoyed with myself. I had decided to to dig up the remaining Charlotte spuds. Bending down did not hurt my back so I plugged on. The soil is still on the dry side of moist. The spuds came up clean. I dug the three rows up which leaves nine rows of Cara left to be dug up. I went round the Calebrese one last time and found another dinner worth of heads to harvest. They are pretty much spent. The Calebrese have performed very well over the year giving me three harvests. I will be planting them again next year.

I dropped back in at the house. I removed the number plate off the trailer. Using the old number plate as a template I drilled holes in the new number plate. Holes sorted I screwed the number plate back on the trailer. The trailer now has the number plate of Degsy. I had picked up a trailer safety strap at Melton market the last time I was there. The "strap" is a plastic coated steel cable with ring at one end and a carabinar at the other. I just had the loop the wire through the ring to secure cable to the trailer. The carabiner hooks onto Degsy when the trailer is hooked up to Degsy.

I have been reading a book by Pete Brown about beer. I have come to appreciate the pub, its history and even the unspoken rituals more than ever. I had run the trailer back up the the stables. Whilst in the area I popped over to see the Bees. H came with me for the ride. The Bees were flying freely despite the colder nights we have been having. On the way back we spotted that the front door of the Railway Inn was open so we stopped. We sat in and had a pint, me a Guinness and H had half a Pedigree. Just in the sense of literary appreciation you understand.

paaaand a bowl

I have been off work this week. I have to use up my holiday entitlement or loose it. Tuesday H and I went to Melton Mowbray to the Livestock market. There is a general market on that day as well. You can buy, at auction, anything from a Hereford Bull to a Matchbox toy car by way of; Pigs, Sheep, work clothes, animal foodstuffs, feeders of every kind and every sundry item that could be needed. There is a general market to where there is all manner of delights. It is like a massive car boot sale but more professional. Then there is the "Fur and Feather" auction. There is game such as Hare, Rabbit, Pheasant, Partridge and Quail. Live ferrets, fancy birds [budgies, finches and parrots to name to ones I recognised], and all kinds of fowl, chickens, ducks and geese. It is an assault on the senses but a great morning out. We had a wonder round the town as well. Market day there too. We found a super little cafe over looking the market. A quintessentially English Tea room, Tea served on a China service, two tier cake stands, waitresses in black and white livery and service with a smile. No wonder it was voted the best Tea room in Leicestershire for 2011.

Yesterday H and I went to Oakham. Malc & Penny bought us a afternoon Tea as an anniversary present so we decided yesterday would be the day. But first we went to Barnsdale. Barnsdale is five miles the far side of Oakham so having got up at a reasonable hour and had a nice breakfast we trundled over to Barnsdale. Geoff Hamilton was a TV presenter of Gardener's World from 1979. Click HERE for his obituary. In a change to TV production the BBC made Geoff the main presenter. Geoff used his garden at Barnsdale to show the TV audience how to set out gardens and how to do all manner of garden related tasks. The gardens are still there and that is what we went to see. Not the best time of year to see garden...never mind, we had the place to ourselves, more or less. I don't know if it was the weather or time of year but the gardens had a quite sad feeling. It was like a memorial to Geoff. Still, he gave us gardening TV as we know it. Gardener's World remains a firm favorite with many people. Geoff cottoned on the a more natural way of gardening, we call it organic. Geoff was an early promoter of the idea. After we had had a look round the nursery we came inside for a brew in the very nice cafe. Geoff's DVD were playing on the TV. It was a bit surreal. Still, worth a trip.

Afternoon Tea was booked for 3.30 at The Whipper Inn, Oakham. We got to Oakham a couple of hours early and took a spin round the town. It a splendid little town. THe market was on in Butter market right in the middle of town as it has always been. There were good stalls. The great fish stall but all I wanted was the brown shrimp. If had been able to find some quality butter I would have bought the shrimp and made potted shrimp. It would not be as good as Morecombe Bay potted shrimp but I am sure it would serve. I got a turned wooden wedge for a quid. H got a loaf from the baker's stall. The veg man was having a hard time, " paaaand a bowl", any offers, paaand a bowl". In Leicestershire vegetable stalls have a system were they have shallow stainless steel bowls and in the bowls is produce. The bowl has a price for whatever is in the bowl but all the bowls are the same price. Oakham market the bowls had fruit or veg or what I call stew mix ups, any combination of carrot, parsnip, potato, swede. There is enough for a good stew from the contents of the bowl. On Oakham stalls a bowl was a "paaand" [one pound]. The previous day in Melton the bowl has all the same things as Oakham but also bowls of Strawberries, another of mushrooms and so on. Melton bowls were two quid. Same stuff just different price. That is the perfect market for you.

One of the stalls at Oakham sold hats. All kinds of hats. I ended up getting a crushable felt Trilby. I blame Nick Crane. I read his book "Clear Waters Rising". He wore a crushable felt Trilby on his travels. I got one for the same reasons, more or less. The brim keeps the sun out of my eyes and it keeps my head warm. I hope that if I should be outdoors went to rains it will shed the rain off instead of soaking it up as my wooly beeny hat does. The only thing it does not do is keep my ears warm. Perhaps if the ears are cold I should retire indoors or get out the beeny. The Whipper Inn is on the market place so it was the shortest of walks to the front door.Click HERE for there website. It is a Inn of two halves. The main entrance and main room is dark and timbered and looks like it has been there forever, which it probably has. The other room is a modern bistro. We sat in the old bit and ordered a couple of Sherries from the Hungarian waitress. We read our books for a while then tucked into our afternoon Tea. Sandwiches with crust cut off, seed cake and scones and off course Tea. It was quite nice. Thanks M & P.

Cecily

I have been waking up early these days but H was still up before me. H was off to Donnington le Heath, click HERE for the website, to take part, as a actor, in a medieval day. Her alter-ego is Cecily. When I had finished at the lottie I popped over to see her to lend some support. I drove there in Degsy. He needed a run after being stood her a few weeks.

Back at the lottie I decided to tidy up the plot and harvest some more spuds. I took down the bamboo frame for the French beans. I just left the vines on the soil. I went through the Pumpkins and harvested the fruits. They are not so big but big enough. I got the wheelbarrow and chucked in the spent bean vines. Pumpkin vines and Sweet Corn stalks. The ended up in the big compost bin. The compost I made last year just have had seeds from Don's Huckleberry plants. They grew very nicely but they are weeds. I worked through the top end of Bed1 cleaning up the Huckleberry plants, other weeds and the remains of the Pumpkins, Beans and Sweet Corn. The soil is still as dry as a bone but it makes weeding easy.

The nice job was to harvest the grapes. Not as many as last years as they got hit with a late frost whilst in blossom. I also dug up a another row of spuds. I still have twelve rows to dig up.

Before going to the lottie I had to empty the back of Degsy as it contained a load of Bee hive parts. I was given a hive a few weeks ago. When I got back from Donnington le Heath I parked Degsy back onto the garage. I took the harvest round to the back of the house. I tipped a couple of tubs of weeds from the lottie into the green bin at home. Then I set about cleaning up the "gift" hive. I got the blow torch out and the wire brush. I played the blow torch all over the hive boxes burning away the cobwebs and hopefully any bugs. The heat also softened the propolis which I scrubbed off with the wire brush. The hive parts were stacked up in the garage which required tidying up that side of the garage.

I noticed that Degsy was ticking over a bit quickly. When all the other jobs were done including sweeping out the back of Degsy I warmed up Degsy then backed off the throttle stop screw. When a fraction of slack could be felt on the throttle stop I then adjusted the slow running screw to set the tick over proper. I brought the tick over down until the "charge" light, on the dash board, started to glow. After a quick spin round the estate the tick was proved to be spot on.

Mojo

I seem to have found my mojo. This weekend I; fettled bees, sorted Steve's Landy and mine, fitted a fan to the down stairs loo, refitted a cupboard in the garage, took time to walk down to the local car boot and had a brew on the way back, patched some holes in the garage brickwork, emptied Degsy and tidied up the garage. The weather is mad hot with high humidity. Any work was sweaty but it did mean that I could leave all the doors in the house open, even if H does not like it. It does let me get the work done quicker.

I even got the watch the Moto GP and ran Steve's landy back to him.

Bee brush

This weekend was very warm and sultry. I went to the apiary on Saturday to "bed down" the bees for the winter. However I think I shall be visiting again before too long. I closed down the left hive to a double brood. It is full of honey but no Queen. In the few weeks the hive will be dead. At least I will get another honey crop.

The hive on the right is filling up with honey which is not bad thing. There is a viable queen and she is laying although the brood area is much reduced which is as it should be. I put feeders on both hives and removed empty super and moved them to share area.

H and I went to Moira car boot sale on Sunday. Whilst wandering round I spotted a stack of plastic feeders. I had to ask the chap what he wanted for them. One pound for the bag was the answer. A pound was exchanged. The bag contained six feeder with lids, A bee brush and a capping fork. I bought a capping fork earlier in the season. I had decided to buy a bee brush so getting for free was a result.

Summer Time & harvest time

The summer has been very busy at work. I have had very little time for anything else. Despite the weather at the moment it has been a very dry summer. I also have several big Willows growing in the hedge and it roots have been found in Bed A. The trees have sucked all the water out of the bed. The crops in that bed have done very poorly. We did get some nice peas but not as many as we should have.

The spuds have done well enough. I did go to the trouble of watering them now and then. The nice thing is that we not see any sign of blight this year. When the spuds were dug up and the soil being so dry, the spuds came up clean, not needing washing. The crop has been better than fair. I dug up a two rows of spuds today and despite all the rain we have had over the past few weeks the soil an inch down is still bone dry.

The Calebrese did really well. I got a second and third cropping before digging them up this weekend. The freezer is full for the winter. We had a fair crop of French climbing beans. The freezer is bulging with them.

We have a small crop of Pears from the tree at home. They are a bit small but Pears after only a couple years is encouraging. My neighbour gave me access to their Pear tree. It has given us a big crop of really nice Pears. H made several jars of smashing Pear jam.

The bees have come good. One hive lost its Queen but the other two are on double brood boxes. This makes them very strong. I have had a decent crop of Honey. because all the Rape round the hive means the honey solidifies in the combs. I have damaged the super frames trying to extract the honey. In order to extract the honey I took to extracting the honey much earlier in the year and before the honey solidified. It has worked well. The farmer tell me they have sown Rape this autumn, so it is likely I will have adopt the same strategy next year.

The poo runs have continued throughout the summer so I have fair supply for winter digging. The wind has given the netting a beating so I have a repair job to do.

Hazel's blog

H has started a blog covering her walking the Dales Way. The link to the blog is on the listing on the right of this blog.

A bit of rain

I managed to get to the lottie for an hour today. There have been heavy showers over the past few days. It has not made a great deal of difference to the soil. We still need some more rain. I dug up the Broccoli and Lettuce that had bolted. I chopped the plants up as I put them in the big compo bin. I watered the peas and beans. They are looking very poorly.

I had a trip to the bees as well. Hive B is fantastic. It has big brood pattern. Brood at all stages and evidence of successional laying. I put on an extra supper. The two that are on are only part filled. I will just leave that hive alone to create stores for the winter. Hives A & C show signs of day old eggs. I did not see the Queens which is a bit worrying. I think hive C has a laying worker but there are lot of bees. I think Hive A may have had a queen which has now swarmed again or not. It is hard to tell. There are not many bees though. I will have to find the queens in those two boxes. I have to think about combining the two hives to make one good colony to see out the winter.

Weeding and talking

The evening was so nice and the Calebrase won't stand much longer so H and I went to the lottie. H harvested the Calebrase whilst I did did a job over at the new plots. When I came back H was chatting with our lottie neighbour whilst they weed their respective plots. It's a trait amongst lottie friends - weeding and talking. There was also a tray full of Calebrase and a few Lettuce sitting on the front of the plot. H had a bin full of weeds and was still pulling them out by the hand full. I emptied the bin into one of the compost bins and gave the empty one back. H set about weeding the Leeks and Onions patch. I got busy digging up another row of spuds. After that I tidied up the french beans. A few leaders were not running up the canes properly. To finish with I watered the peas and squashes.

The weekend before last.

This summer is flying by without me. I have been up to the bees each weekend. Hives A and C are giving me trouble. They are queenless at the moment. I hope that will resolve itself by my next visit. if not I have a plan B, pun intended. Last weekend I took my honey extractor up to the apiary. It was quite nice extracting honey in a field with the warm sun on me. Then I was able to put the wet supers back on the hive straight away. I might do that again. It felt quite efficient. The bloke combining the wheat field across the River Mease from the apiary stopped. We had a shouted conversation across the river and over the sound of the combine harvester at tick over.

The allotment is struggling in this prolonged dry weather. I don't have enough time to water as often as I should. The good thing is that the hoeing I did and the dry weather is keeping the weeds down. I have started harvesting the potatoes. They come out of the ground nice and clean. The dry soil just falls of them. My Sprouting Brocolli has bolted and and I am up to my armpits in Calebrese. The Caulis and sprouts have been hit with whitefly.

The new allotments should be finished at the weekend. That will be a load off me once that is signed off. Steve, Pete and I had an impromptu work party to set up the path edgings on one of the new plots. Pete was especially chuffed to get out his power tools. His circular saw made short work of trimming down the pegs.

Work has been a pain, I even had to work a weekend recently! It is easing up again. It is the lottie bbq in a month. That will mark the turning of the year.

I still have a load of stuff to plant out from the greenhouse. I must trying and do that this weekend. I said the same thing last weekend and the weekend before that!

Ickle Peas

Saturday I went up to see the bees. The queen cell in Hive A has emerged but there are no sign of eggs but that is to be expected. Hopefully next week. The bees in the middle hive "B" have been busy. The honey filled Brood box has been emptied, well nearly, and the queen has laid at least a third of the frames. Hive C is a pain. The queen is missing but why? There is so much honey I have put the bee escapes in to empty two of the supers. I am going to try to recover them, extract the honey and replace them on the hive during the week. I could keep my smoker going but even without smoke the bees were ok to handle. Hive "C" was a bit shirty but not that bad. I only got stung once.

I had a lot on my mind today. H and I went to the lottie about 5pm. Whilst H harvested petit pois [ickle peas] I weeded the top end of Bed3. Despite the rain the soil was fairly dry, dry enough not stick to my boots. It broke up nicely under the fork. It took little time to clear the bed of weeds. I dumped the weeds into the nearest black compo bin. The compo bin had been filled twice during the season. The bin had only about a foot of nice compost in the bottom of the bin so had plenty of room for the new batch of weeds. The bed is ready for the brassicas that are growing on in the greenhouse.

One of the white grape vines has given up the ghost. It never recovered after being hit by a late frost. I need to find a replacement. However one of the red grape vines [Hamburg] is going mad but the other not. The red grapes are at the end of the plot and whites down the side. Whilst H podded the peas, sitting on the bench at the top end of the plot, I finished the weeding and set about digging up the remainder of the first row of spuds. As soon as you turn up the Robins arrive to sit on the fence and await the soil to be disturbed and then they are in amongst the freshly turned soil. The evening was quite still and warm. Just to H's liking. H marvelled at the Robins who are getting quite tame now. There were lot of other birds about. We seem to have a small rodent running about the plot. Mouse sized but without a tail. He dashed through the cabbages and the wind netting. Close inspection of the netting showed a small hole he had made previously made for just such an escape. The main crop spuds [Cara] and in flower. Lets hope we get more rain to bulk up the tubers. Jobs done and feeling a bit pecking we went home.

We had a lovely tea of spuds and peas from the lottie and a nice bit of Lamb complemented with H home made redcurrant jelly.

Gooseberry Saw Fly

The weekend seemed last forever. It was the allotment society meeting on Friday. Even without Steve I still did get home until after midnight. Not surprisingly I did not get an early start on Saturday morning although the Blackbirds had other ideas. I had a slow breakfast and read my book for a while. I took a watering can to the greenhouse and gave everything a dowsing. I decided to go for a spin on my push bike. I had to fettle the steering head bearings as they were slack. They probably worked loose from the relentless pounding the bike has had on the roads. I used a Internet site called RunKeeper to plan a route. Click HERE for their website. I settled on a 18 mile route. I was not sure I could do it but I set off at an easy pace. When I arrived in Snarestone I stopped for a few minutes to look at the allotments. They were very neat and well ordered. I stopped in Swepstone, under a tree on the green, for a proper rest and bite to eat and a drink. I had a look at their allotments. They are quite big and look a bit random. Back at home I got got Degsy ready for the next day. I went up to the lottie to take some measurements. Then I had to take Miss L to Loughborough for a night out.

Sunday was bright and sunny as was the day before. Miss L was still out, H was out walking. I decided that I had to make a start on the downstairs loo. I got all the gear together and cleared out the room. I had reserved timber from the previous stud walling. I made a frame to fit the whole in the wall and fitted it. Then I cut plasterboard to size for either side of the frame. Next it was the job of taping over the joints. It is a tedious job be necessary. I filled the holes and defects in the walls. The last job was to plaster the big holes in the walls where other things had been fitted of where the fan had been. I had to leave the front door open to get air to circulate the plastered areas to dry them.

No more cycling today. I went over to see the bees. The field I have to drive over has been cut for hayledge. It smelled lovely - warm cut grass. I got my smoker going and wander up the meadow to the bees. They were flying well. Not surprising really as it hot as hell all day and even now it was 25 degrees centigrade. The artificial swarm has worked. The old queen on the new site is laying. The old hive has a sealed queen cells so I should have a queen by next week. The middle hive is charging on and has no queen cell. This one is performing amazingly. I put on a brood box with eleven frames of foundation last week. This week it nearly all frame are drawn out and filled with honey. Now to persuade the bees to empty the honey into the supers so the queen can laying in the brood chamber. The other two hives are piling in honey. I think I am going to have to extract some frames to make room for yet more honey.

On returning home H and I popped up to the lottie to harvest goodies. The Gooseberries have not been attacked by Gooseberry saw fly so we have a nice crop of sweet, yes sweet Gooseberries. H picked Peas and I pulled up a Lettuce. The H picked a few stalks of Chard. The best job was harvesting the first of the spuds. We dug up a few plants and left the remainder to grow on. Whilst H worked on I took several trips to the water trough to fill the cans to water t the spuds. The main crop and second earlies are in flower so now is the time to water them.

H had been up earlier in the week and weeded the Asparagus bed and the bottom end of Bed1. The Hollyhocks are looking good. Tall and pale pink and white. Almost every flower has a bee in it. We had a chat with the few people that were there then Degsy took us home. We had the freshly harvested veg for dinner.

Busy bees

The bees are getting busy. One hive is absolutely thriving. It is showing signs of swarming so I put the hive on to double brood. The box has a lot of foundation so I can only hope the bees will draw it out quickly enough. The artificial swarmed hive has had the queen emerge and she is laying. There is tons of honey on the hive but the bees are not drawing the foundation. I put another super on and hope that the bees will decide to get drawing. The Queen in the last hive has died but luckily there are a couple of sealed queen cells so I will leave them to run their course.

I set up a fourth hive and hope it will act as a bait hive for a swarm. The bees look very healthy and despite the upheaval I caused they were calm. When I finished and as I walked back to Degsy I decided I should cut the grass round the apiary. I left my bee suit on and with the shears I had in Degsy I worked round the apiary on my knees cutting the grass. I hope the bees appreciate it. I am going to have to etract some honey soon as I am running out of suppers.

Bostin

Friday evening was the first time the society had had a visiting speaker. his talk was on composting. He was very entertaining. Was was from Hales Owen so had a proper Brummy accent. H sent half the time giggling and the other scribbling down his words that were stranger to her ears, Goowin, Bostin, Wench [he was always bribing them apparently] to name but a few. He had some good ideas and reinforced a few that I had. He supplied the prizes for the raffle. H won some worm compost...black gold by all accounts. It was a good night not just for us but also for the society.

What a change day on day. Saturday, wet and miserable, Sunday scorching. I was out early on Saturday, errands for Degsy all the way to Cannock, Rolliston for allotment stuff and Newall for goodies. I needed a couple of spreaders for gate. They were only a fiver a set. I had to get some Onion fertilizers. The chap were good enough to break the bag they sold it into two smaller bags. Again another fiver. They had a bin end of four foot canes so I had a couple of those too. They will come in somewhere. I could not stay for a chat I had to drop in on the farmer and get home for some lunch before a meeting at the allotment.

The weathermen said Sunday would be mad hot. It turned out to be so. I have been collecting miss L from work and since she works in a bar it has been some very late nights. I was at the lottie for 10am. I had the place to myself. I gave bed1 a good hoeing. It was covered in a green fuzz of weed seedlings. The hoe made short work of them but the sweat was running off my nose by the end of it. I had 35+ Broad beans ready so I planted them out and watered them in. The Peas I sowed two weeks ago are through. I heo'd as close as I dared. Next up was Bed2. I had to hand weed the newly planted Leeks. The Leeks have taken well after the planting out last week. Whilst I was at it I kept on and hand weeded the onions. It was really hot by then. I was flagging. I had a brew took the hoe to Bed3. The brasiccas have taken off but they have not closed up to smoother the weeds yet.

After the lottie I went to the bees.

More peas

I have a wedding to go to at the weekend so there will be no allotmenting. However there are things that need doing. I have half a dozen Pumpkins and half a dozen Butternut Squash. I also had a dozen Sweet Corn to plant out. Several weeks ago I emptied the big compost bin on the top third of Bed1. This evening I went round weeding the area. It was not too onerous. After weeding I spread the piles of compost round the plot. It spread to about three inches deep. I went round the edge of the bed and created a trench. That gave a little more depth to the bed. I laid out the Pumpkin in their pots. When I decided the spacing was right I planted them out. The plants look a bit lonely inthe bed but pumpkins and squashes make big unruly plants. I made a shallow dish round the planting to catch any rain. I did the same with the Butternut Squash. I used the hoe to level off the area. Then I gave the plants a good soaking. I will not be seeing them again until next week.

As I was on my knees planting the Robin keep diving in to grab worms and such that I had turned up. A very big and black cloud floated across the lottie. Luckily it did not dump on me. Once it went by the sun put in an appearance. The wind dropped and gave a nice sunset under broken clouds. Since it was so nice I decided to plant a couple of rows of Peas. I dug out two shallow trenches reserving the soil. I soaked the bottom of the trench then sows the seeds. I put a whole packet of seeds in each trench. One for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow. I think even the mice will be feed up with the amount Peas I sowed. I covered up the Peas and watered them again.

I could not walk away without running the hoe round the rows of peas and beans. It was more of a tickle with hand weeding the weeds brave enough to stick their heads up. I tipped the weeds into one of the black compo bins. The bins are working out. The last job was to give the french beans a watering. They are safe now since they were planted out at the weekend.

Rain and lots of it

It was raining went I got up and it did not stop until tea time. I went round to Steve's in the morning to fettle his landy. We rigged up the basha over the landys to keep the rain off whilst we fettled the motor. That took me through to 1pm. I had a spot of lunch and watch the MotoGP from Silverstone. It was raining there as well.

After a sandwich I went over to Shepshed to get a new number plate but got there half an hour too late. Next a popped over to Boundary Store to pick up some posts for the lottie. When I got home I still had some of the day left. I tidied up Degsy and hung the basha up in the garage to dry. I have been putting off sorting out a few hive frames so I got the gear out to clean up and refurbish the frames. I had to build three super frames which was easy enough. I had a brood box than needed organising. The box came from the double brood hive which I broke down. Five of the eleven frames came with the first nuc. They needed changing and today was the time. I cut out the comb from the frame then cleaned off the remaining wax from the frame. Then I fitted a new piece of foundation and re-assembled the frame. Now I have a brood box ready for the next swarm.

So despite the rain I got a bunch of stuff including a rummage in the loft. I found what I was looking for and other treasure.

Looking Good

I have given up wrestling with my conscience about using bamboo canes. I dropped in at the garden centre at Newton Regis on my way back from Cannock and bought a couple bags of canes. When I got back home I loaded up Degsy with Bee keepery stuff.

The job today was to find out how the bees have responded to the artificial swarming last week. At first glance bees are coming and going from all three hives so that was encouraging. I smoked the hive and popped the roof off. This the hive that has the queen cell. It was nice and busy but there were few foragers which is what is expected. The queen cell has been torn down. That makes me think the new queen has emerged. It will be another week until she is mated and starts laying. In the mean time the bees are emerging leaving empty cells for the queen to use. A few drones have been trapped above the excluder. They made a right noise when they were released by me breaking the hive down. I put another super on the hive seeing as how the bees had been drawing comb.

The middle hive, the one showing no signs of swarming last week, is still the same. Lots of bees and lots of new comb. I put a fresh super on the hive and poured some syrup onto the candy that they have not yet finished off. The bees are mad for the candy. There is lots of new comb, bees and new honey. I put a fresh super on just in case.

The end hive that had the old queen was my main concern. There are plenty of bees. The queen has laid all the free cells but the bees have not been able to make new comb fast enough so it was no surprise that there are new queen cells. I have a few day to puzzle out what I am to do. I think I will use the new queen cells to make a nuc [nucleus]. I dribbled syrup on the candy to loosen it up. Again the bees were all over it. The bees are drawing wax be not in the right place or fast enough. I reassemble each hive as I was done with them. It was a bit breezy today but the hedges went the worst of the wind off the open hives. The clouds were gathering over Clifton Campville. There were a few showers about and even whilst I had the bees open I could feel spots of rain but the shower passed by. I packed up and made my way back to Degsy. Degsy was looking good sitting in the meadow which is covered in grass eighteen inches high.

Back at home I swapped out the bee gear for allotment gear. I took the seedlings and canes up to the lottie. A prolonged shower wafed over the village. I made a brew whilst I waited for the rain to pass. As the sky brightened up I went over to the lottie but it was late afternoon so time was short for what I wanted to do. I hoed and raked the area that was to have the climbing french beans. I dug two parallel trenches and tossed in some of the compost I had dropped on the plot a few weeks ago. I also turfed in a half wheelbarrow of manure. I back filled the trenches and ran th erake over the area to tidy it up. Next up was to set up the canes for the french bean. I selected the strongest ten canes and set them out along the trench in pairs. I fixed the tops together then fixed diagonal canes to brace the frame. After that I planted out the seedlngs and just for good measure I sowed two french beans seeds beside each cane. To finish with I gave the rows a good soaking. My time was up so a I packed up, cut a few stalks of Asparagus and went home.

I got a lot of items ticked off my things to do list and with luck more of the same tomorrow.

Elderflower must

This evening it was time to move the Elderflower must from the mash tun to the fermentation vessel. That sounds fancy but it just a case of straining the must [Elderflower flowers, lemon, sugar and water] through a sieve into a big bowl then pouring the liquid into a demi-john. I took the specific gravity and recorded it in my little book. Then I put some water in the air lock and fitted the air-lock to the demi-john. I put the demi-johns aside whilst I cleaned up. When I can back to the DJs the air-locks had started to bubble.

Starting SG :
DJ A 1.092
DJ B 1.088

Monster dibber

I did not have lot of time today for the lottie but I had to plant out my Leeks that I started in the greenhouse. The leek-lets are overdue being planted out. They are quite sturdy but a little small but the roots run is healthy. I had manured the area in Bed2 for the leeks sometime ago. I did the usual process of spot weeding and hoeing I then raked the surface level.

I used to have an old spade, one with a wooden handle. Somewhere along the way I broke the handle off the spade. The business end of the spade has been sent for recycling ages ago but the handle has had several jobs. Recently the handle has been a perch for the Robin or a row marker. Today it got a new job. I used it as a monster digger for the leeks. I put my plank down to mark the line of the row would take. I then jabbed the dibber [spade handle] into the ground at regular intervals. I got 25 plants per row. Into each hole a dropped a leek seedling. I planted six rows so that is 150 leeks. That should hold us. It was hard work in the hot sun. To finish up with gave the leeks a good soaking.

I had prepared a larger area of the bed than I needed for the leeks. I drew out two drills and watered them. Next was to sow a whole packet of Silver skin onions. They will be my pickled onions at Christmas. I then covered the drills up and soaked the area. I will not get back to the lottie this week so I can only hope it will rain or not be too hot during the week so the seeds have a chance to germinate.

I started some Californian Poppies in trays ages ago. They too need planting out and today it was their turn. It and easy enough job if hard on the knees. As I watered in the Poppies I gave the flower seed bed another soaking. I had a walk round the plot and pulled up grass. The grass is types of cereals so the plants are quite big. I just had the grab them at the ground level and "lean" on the plants. The plants just eased out of the ground. The paths look a lot cleaner for the effort. The weeds went in the black compost bins. I had a look in each one. The bins are only half full now as the high heat in the black bins have accelerated the composting process.

In other news, the Parsnips that I planted out are looking well as are the Sweet Peas. The brasiccas have got established and are starting to grow. I dug a little hole on the brasicca bed to find out where the soil was moist. I was not expecting the soil to damp so close to the surface. The plants have got their feet in cool damp soil. The top inch of the soil is dust dry. That has helped keep the weeds down but I still ran the hoe round the plants to see off the last of the weeds.

Back to work net week so no further workon the lottie until next weekend.

Good ideas

After a rushed breakfast I did the poo trailer run. Whilst at the lottie I had a job to do on the new allotments and met a chap interested in Rat eradication by the fishing ponds. All that took up time.On

As promised I went to the bees today with the two jobs in mind:
A.Artificial swarm the big box
B. Mow the grass

I have been reading a couple of books on managing swarms. As you may recall I have a new regime this year. I have not fed the bees any syrup this year. The big box is expected to swarm but I think it for brood box congestion rather than over stimulation. Mr Internet supplied some insights, Ted Hooper's book "A guide to bees and honey" written in 1976 and C de Ribeaucourt's "A manual of rational beekeeping" written in 1876 provided a more considered guidance. It was only when I checked the publishing dates for the blog did I discover that the two book were written a century apart. When I turned up at the apiary at 11am the sun was shining and a gentle breeze wafting across the site. I did as a combined wisdom suggested; I split the hive in two, the frame with the queen cell and all the brood and the bees on the frames were put in a new hive and moved to a new position in the apiary. The "old" queen was left in much depleted hive with any many drawn brood frames as I had available. The remainder of the brood chamber was filled frames of foundation. I put a super back on to provide food. The other super went on the new hive. The books say leave the hives alone for a week. OK then. The old queen's hive will be reinforced during the day and tonight by the returning foragers and those foragers that are currently in the new hive. Once they go out to forage they will return to their old hive not the new one.

The grass is getting very long at the apiary so I took the scythe with me and gave the grass a haircut. Well it was more of a beating. I scythe could do with sharpening.

After a spot of lunch we decided to drive over to Woodhouse Eaves. The village was having an open gardens event. There were 22 homes that opened their garden for charity, the local church I think. The allotments, in the middle of the village, were parts of the open day. They were opened in 1913. I picked up an idea for our lottie. We saw some very nice gardens. Folks really went to town on them. I might have persuaded H to have a summer house or rather a "garden room". The other good thing I saw was angle brackets on the roof of a greenhouse to which a bamboo cane was attached. To the cane was top fixing for the canes supporting the Tomatoes. I smart idea. Pity I did not think of it.

Screening

I had a short visit the lottie today. I cut down the big roll of chicken wire to make of fence across bed2. I planted out the 18 pots of sweet peas to grow up chicken wire. The sweet pea, when they grow, will form a screen. Behind the fence I have placed a paving stone as a base for the bee hive. The base is placed towards the edge of the bed. I drew several drills in the remaining bed and sowed them with flowers.

During the week I went over to Rugby to a small beekeepers suppliers. They do not have a wide ranging or large stock. I bought a proper hive stand and flight board. It is really nicely finished. The chap gets the stuff from Poland. The prices are interesting too.

It was really hot today and it promises to remain so for a few days so I decided to give bed1 & 3 and the top end of beds 2 a good hoeing. My preferred hoe does a great job both when pushed and pulled. I had a bit of a faff round the broad beans of bed 2 and the brassicas of bed3 but it flew through the the open areas. The hot weather should cook the hoed off weeds.Something has eaten a few of my brassicas. Luckily I had some Calebrase seedling that I could use to fill the gaps.

I also drew out a couple of drills and sowed Beetroot. I had a look through seed box and decided that what else I should sow but I was running short of time. I resolved to sow lots of seeds on my next visit.

Stung for my troubles

I dropped into the lottie and fixed the leak on the new trough. The new chap was tending his plot. I said hello. He wanted to talk but I had yet to visit the bees.

I trundled over to the bees via the petrol station for this months quota of fuel. The weather was perfect, sunny yet not blisteringly so with a gentle breeze. I am happy to report that both hives are doing very well. The bees are drawing wax and making honey. The smaller colony is filling out nicely. The larger colony is showing signs of swarming. I must go again on Saturday and sort them out. In the week since I put the fresh super the bees have drawn out most of the frames and filling them with honey. There is a very well placed queen cell which will form the basis of the new colony.

After the bees I went on the search for Elderflowers in bloom. I found a green lane which I trundled down and was rewarded with a massive hedge studded with elderflower. I got a big basket of flowers in a short forage. As I collected the flowers I was showered with pollen. Luckily I am not sensitive to pollen. But I am sensitive to nettles and got stung royally for my troubles. When I got home a set about making Elderflower and wine and champagne. H had got some elderflower too but made elderflower cordial.

An experiment

I had a run out to the the lottie today. It has been a bit neglected of late as I have had to do other allotment things. Today I managed to get time to push the how about. The weeds are loving the recent downpours. The potatoes are dong very nicely however the chickweed has started again. I got the hoe going. When I got the ground loose I dragged the soil up under the smaller potato plants. By the time I had finished that job the kettle had boiled. I sat in the back of Degsy, out of the wind, and watched the world go by.

Next up was to plant out the dozen brassicas I had been given. I had to spot weed a few volunteer spuds. Then I ran the hoe over the area. I got the plank out and put it across the plot to use as a straight edge. It took a few a few minutes to do the job. I used the hoe to scrub out my footprints. Whilst I had the hoe in my hand I kept going and did the rest of the bed.

The final job is an experiment. Everyone says that you cannot transplant Parsnips. But by the same token sowing them out doors is risky. I sowed two deep trays worth of seeds in the greenhouse. They are now ready to plant out. They germinated and grew on quickly and strongly. I did the usual process of spot weeding, hoeing, levelling and the straight edge. I just broke up the seed trays and using a dibber made a deep hole in the seed bed and dropped the plantlets in, one at a time. I back filled the hole loosely. It took a while to do be it was a zen type job. I finished off with a good watering. It will be interesting to see how things progress.

It's done

Epic day at the lottie today. It was really windy, not too cold and quite warm in the wind shadow of the trees. I was at the lottie for 9am with brew gear and trays of seedlings. I also had a plan. The top half of Bed2 is the last to be weeded. Last week it looked bad. This week it was worse. We had had rain rain during the week which weeds loved. I did the usual process, spot weeded the big or tap rooted weeds and got on my hands and knees to clear the ground cover weeds. I did not know where to start so I just jumped in. A direction of weeding developed as I went a long. It took no time to fill two wheelbarrows worth of weeds. Weeding was slow as I worked through the rows of Garlic which marked the end of the last weeding session but picked up as the I worked towards the middle and end of the bed. The weeds, despite their obvious downside, had kept the soil in good condition and sort of mulched the soil through the dry spell. About 11am I stopped for a brew. As soon as I stopped the Yellowhammer, Robin and Dunnock were in to see what I had turned up.

The black compo bins had really come on. The contents had started to compost with the result the volume had reduced bu 40%. I had plenty of weeds to go in the bins so they got a top up. Whilst chugging along with the weeding something moved. I stopped what I was doing stayed still. A little mouse ran through the the undergrowth. He hid under the edging. I could see him looking out. Eventually I had the last of the weeds cleared. I had dug out a gutter along the timber edging. I got the rake out and levelled the surface of the bed and evened up the edge of the bed by the gutter.

I decided that that I needed a barrier near top of Bed2. I have loads of Sweet Pea at home so a set about digging a deep trench and filling it with manure. The trench is about 4 foot from the top of the bed. The trench is manure filled, back filled and ready for plants. The sweet Pea will from a barrier for the bee hive that is to be sited near the back fence.

Next up was to plant out all the brasicca seedlings. I have been walking over and running the wheelbarrow over bed3 since I weeded it. The idea is the compact the soil. Brasiccas like a solid footing. It actually makes sprouts form solid sprout buttons. I ran the hoe over the bed then raked out the soil to form a level surface and even up the edges of the bed. Last year the bed contained spuds so it was heavily manured. It always a toss up between digging in manure and loosening the soil in the process. I find the soil has plenty of heart after the spuds for the brasiccas. I planted out Early cabbage [greyhound] then a load of Calebrase. Calebrese is called broccoli in the supermarkets. I also planted out some Brussell Sprouts and Rainbow Chard. The Chard makes a big plant so the plantlets have been given a lot of room. I inter-planted between the rows of Chard with lettuce. I will catch crop them before the Chard over power them. I will set Sprouting Brocolli seed soon as as to plant them out when the Greyhound is harvested.

I was getting hungry but I pressed on. I watered the newly planted brasiccas then moved on to the broad beans and peas. I noticed that some of the grape vines have bee hit by the frost. No Grapes on those runners! The final act was to run the hoe between the rows of the spuds. The Chickweed is trying to make a come back. The spuds are playing the game this. First earlies are up and growing on. The earliers have barely broken ground and the mains are nowhere to be seen as yet. I tried up tools and Degsy.

Other job I knocked off was to run the paving stones and pegs over to the water point on the new plots. I had a chat with the Sagely one and Mr P. Mr P gave me a hand to measure up the working area on the new plots. All things considered a very long day [finished at 17.30] but the plot has benefited from it. Next week is my birthday so after the poo run nothing else will get done at the lottie.

I harvested a bit a Asparagus and Rhubarb. I watered the Gooseberries and the the Onions. Hopefully the Onions will fill out and the Gooseberries will avoid the attentions of the Gooseberry saw fly. So far so good.

Rain at last

It is raining at last. we have has a few showers today but now it has set in properly. I did the muck run today, harvested some Asparagus and Rhubarb. The top end of bed 2 looks like it needs weeding.

Clear Paving

H is still away today. She was in Manchester completing the Shine Walk, click HERE for the website. Whilst H was away I had the morning to find something to do. I decided to go to the lottie and do a few jobs. I needed to sweep the paved area to clean up the last of the stone and dust from the wheelbarrowing yesterday. The weather continues sunny but with a cold breeze. Half the dust I dislodged with the brush blew away. I got another half wheelbarrow from the sweeping which I dropped into unfinished path.

Since I had moved the black compost bins a few weeks ago the contents of the bins in their original positions where still piled up like sand castles. I drew the wheelbarrow near and forked the compost stack into the barrow. I riddled the compost as necessary. The old black compost bins yielded six barrow loads. I tipped the barrows onto the top end of bed1. This where the Sweet Corn will be planted in due course. I was left with the green bin.

I had intend this bin which is 600mm square to be place in the free corner by bed4. I had to make a stand to provide a level footing for the bin. I found a pallet from which I could cut out a stillage. A few minutes with the saw and the stillage was ready. I found a couple of the bricks the level up the stillage then it was just a matter of reassembling the bin on the stillage. The green bin yielded another three barrow loads. I dropped these barrow fulls on the end of where the peas and bean trenches are to be dug. The compost was over a year in the making and was worth the wait. The compost was made from all the weeds from the plot. It was out with the brush again to remove the last remnants of the compost.

Which all this was going on a resolved to get rid of the bale of spoiled hay I had been given over a year ago. The hay had been getting in the way since then. I had left it on the paving for a few weeks to dry out. I got the brazier out fluffy up the hay and filled the brazier and set a match to it. it set alight but it burned slowly. During the morning a steadily fed the brazier as it burned down. The stiff breeze fanned the burning hay which did not get above a fierce smoulder but it was getting through the bale, if slowly. I had intended to put the ashes into the big compost bin but it had burned out by the time I had to leave although it was not far off.

I had one other job to do. I had brought the six bins I use in the greenhouse at home that I use for tomatoes. I got them out of Degsy and tipped them into the big compost bin. Then I went over to the muck heap and three quarter filled each bin with manure. After that back in Degsy with the replenished bins.

During the morning I managed to have a brew. I sat in the back of out of the wind but also out of the sun. I decide not to start weeding the top end of bed2. I just have half of bed2 to weed then the whole plot is cleared. I had time to have a walk round. I went over the back of the plots to have look round. Everything is getting established even though, in places, the soil is very poor not even soil really. You can see the difference in the quality of the soil in the growth of the plants.

Steve came down en famile to do a bit. The youngest, Miss M, got tired of weeding and came over to talk snakes. After Steve left John came down. We had a chat. He seems to have recovered from is illness. He was telling me he is really enjoying his plot. I have to say the paved area is looking great. It is good to see an expanses of clear paving. I have an idea to put in a flower bed and have some seating. I have not figure how it is going to work yet.

Plot visitors

Something has been upsetting the bird feeders. Each time I have come across the feeder screwed to one of the posts has been cocked eyed and empty. When I pitched up today something was sitting in the feeder. I could not see what it was. I was I got closer I saw it was a Grey Squirrel quietly munching on breakfast. The Squirrel is probably responsible for the broken feeder I found the other day.

Yesterday a Sparrowhawk tore across the plots. Given all the small birds around the plot I was wondering when he would turn up. The Kestrels have been seen floating on the breeze. In the background is the sounds of Buzzards calling and wheeling high in the sky. Although I have not seen them, two different people have reported seeing the Grass Snakes.

The Robins have been flitting into the plot as soon as I step away from my disturbing the soil. I quite like seeing the Yellowhammers. They fly along then fall to the ground as if they have been shot. Whilst I have not seen any of the Cuckoos they have been singing everyday. Some seem quite close. The Swallows and Swifts have arrived. It is nice to see them whirling about. The trees are in leaf so it is hard to see the birds but they flit about the feeders so I get fleeting glimpses of them. I have not seen a Blackbird for a while. Not such a bad thing since they dig up my plot in search of worms.

I have also seen a couple of solitary Lapwings flapping across the sky. When looking across the pond Steve and I saw a wader picking its way along the margin. Steve said later that it was a common sandpiper. Not so common round here. The pond on the adjasent to the lottie has been pulling in water fowl. Nothing out of the ordinary, Mallard and Swans. It is a small pond for Swans.

What I have not seen is Toads or Frogs. The winter must have done for them.

A spot of rain

Since the last time I went to the lottie there has been one light shower. Not even a shower really. It was enough to stimulate the weeds. In the three days since my last visit the weeds in bed 3 has gone from a green fuzz to a foot high. The spuds still planting but the weedy bed3 needs dealing with. I took the same approach as with bed1. I got down on my knees, it saves my back, and used the green spade as a hoe. I grabbed handfuls of the hoed weeds and threw them into the nearby wheelbarrow. Where I came across tap rooted weeds I stood up and dug them out. It took most of the day to clear the bed but it completely clean. The black compost bins are filing up but are not yet full.

I had all of today to play with. I was at the lottie for 8.30. I started on bed4 which is the spud bed for this year. Back on my knees to clear the weeds. I did a wheelbarrows worth of weeds and consigned then to the compo bins. The clear area let me plant three rows of spuds. Then another barrow load of weeds. More trenches, more spuds. By 12.30 I had eight rows of spuds in, having shifted four wheelbarrows of weeds and four wheelbarrows of manure. I had a break for dinner. I went home made a sandwich and a brew as I watching the MotoGP from Estoril. Pedrosa won but he was not going to plant the remaining spuds for me.

Back at the lottie I finished off the two remaining rows of spuds. With weather being so dry I having give each trench a watering cans worth of water, 10 litres or 2 gallons in old money. The water went in after the manure and the spuds were set. In less than two days I have transformed half the plot. It was windy but sunny and I still loads of time left. I looked at the big pile of the stone that had been deliver to the end of my plot.

It was intended be my path long the side of bed2, the dividing path between beds 3 & 4 and as much of the the side paths alongside beds 3 & 4. The pile had not compacted since it had only been there a week so it dug easily. I just loaded the wheelbarrow and pushed it along the paths to the point by bed2 where the new path filler stopped. This where I got to the last time. I just tipped the barrow loads one at a time. With each loads I just kicked it about to rough level then did the gardener shuffle to compact it. When I finished the twenty odd loads to complete the bed2 path I gave it a light raking a shuffled the surface again. Next I filled the path between beds 3 & 4. This was a deep path so took some filling. After giving the this path the same treatment as the other I moved onto the path alongside bed3. More of the same, shovelling and wheelbarrowing. The big pile disappeared over a couple of hours. I finished just after 7pm.

In all this digging, wheelbarrowing, planting and shovelling my mind was clear. Uncluttered by work issues. At the end of this and last weekends work the plot has come together. Allotmenting is just a question of making an effort.

First opening of the Bees

I took the first proper look the bees last weekend. One box has always been stronger than the other. I decided to tackle the weaker box. The bees were feeding on the candy. The bees looked fat and healthy. I popped the crown board off and looked in. There was an earthy smell mixed with the normal warm wax and honey smell. I checked the super frames and found then fairly full and capped. That is not that a good a sign . Having removed the super and queen excluder I pulled out a couple of the brood frames from the upper of the two brood chambers. There was no new eggs or brood just dead bees, head down in the cells. A sign of starvation. I puffed a little smoke over the frames to clear the bees and removed the upper chamber. The lower chamber contained new brood and I saw the queen which was a relief. I removed the brood box to expose the floor. I cleaned the dead bees and detritus off the floor. The bottom brood box was restored to its position. I then took out the a couple of old frames replacing them with part drawn frames from my stores. I cleaned up the queen excluder and placed on the brood box then put a super back on, crown board next and the eke to space the roof above the candy. The verdict...a close run thing.

The stronger hive got the same treatment. As the stronger hive it is in better condition but again it was a close run thing. This hive has more brood, more new bees, more new honey and pollen. In rebuilding the hive I brought it back to a single brood chamber in the hope the colony will spread across the frames before moving upwards. Only the summer tell what happens.

The previous weekend I had a little time available and spent it in the back garden with all the hive spares and supers. I checked out the floors and doors were in good order. Then set the roofs aside. One needs a spacer fitting. I had some timber of the right dimensions. I cut it to size and nailed in position. So that is the top, middle and bottom of two hives. I reserved two crown boards. Next I went through the suppers making up full sets. I damaged a number of super when extracting the honey last season. I had to dismantle the damaged frames, removed the wax and clean the slots in the side bars. Not a hard job just time consuming. I had to refurbish 30+ frames. When I finished I had ten complete supers. I had to refurbish a number brood frames and makes up two brood chambers. I also had six frames in each of the two of the nucleus boxes. I made up spares into two hives.

I took the spare hives, with just one super each, up to apiary. The screwed the alighting boards to the stilage then placed the hives upon the alighting board. I grass the weeks were shooting up round the stilages so I took the billhook to them. With a few minutes the area was clear and completed the preparation of the apiary for the new season. I took a few minutes watch the bees. They had settled down quickly and going about their business. A few bees were buzzing about hive checking out the site, others bring in pollen and honey, no doubt.

Planting time

Last weekend we spent in Manchester with Miss L and her Gran. We went over to Liverpool to look at art. We went to the Walker, Fact and the Tate. H was much taken with all the galleries but Miss L was taken with the Tate. The river Mersey was looking great in the spring sunshine.

I had managed to get my early spuds in over the last few weeks but my main crop spuds, Cara, are chitting like mad so need to go in soon. The plot is looking weedy so it need fixing. I need to plant my peas and beans so I decided to start with clearing bed1. I started with spot weeding the dock and thistle. After that I got on my hands and knees and used my green spade as a hoe. The "hoe" cut a swath through he Red dead nettle and Chickweed. The Chickweed is coming into flower so the chickweed needs to come out. I cleared the plot up to the half way point and the double row of bolted Swedes. I went back to the bottom of bed1 and dug a trench, 12 foot long, 6inches wide and 8inches deep. Into the trench I tipped a wheelbarrow full of manure. I raked in half the soil from the trench back into the trench. I tipped in two watering cans of water into the trench. With the soil well soaked I sprinkled in handfuls of peas and pulled over the remaining soil. Then another two watering cans of water.

I repeated this process another four times. The first trench contains Twinkle peas, the next trench has Petit Pois, the next Witkem Broad Beans, the next Optima Broad Beans. In the final trench I planted out the Deadnought Broad Beans that I had propagated at home. The air was not very warm but the sun was bright and made for very hot working conditions. The last thing I did was to harvest the leeks that managed the over winter. It is suprising what good condition they are in. There is no sign of virus and the shafts are nice and solid.

Today I went back for more of the same. I did the poo run first. I did more of less the same process, spot weeding followed by clearing surface weeds. I cleared the bolted swedes, chopped them up and dropped them into the compo bin. There were a dozen or so Parsnips that had over wintered. Again they were in good order, no canker. It is a pity they did not decide to grow last year. I took out another trench, same as the day before, and planted out the other two trays of Dreadnought Broad Beans. If anything it was hotter today than yesterday. Sweat was dripping off the end of my nose and my clothes were soaking wet. H popped in early in the afternoon with sandwiches and tin of lager. Very nice on a hot day. Once H had left I set the onions. Planting of the onions is well overdue. I gave the area a good soaking. I pulled a few stalks of Rhubarb and trundled home.

Spuds v Chickweed

Saturday went off well. H raised a few quit to go that which she had already raised. The Sharpes Express seed potatoes have been chitting in the greenhouse. I resolved to get up early on Sunday and plant spuds. I even managed this time. I was at the lottie for 9am. It was sunny and pleasantly warm. The gentle freeze was quite cool. The winter had been so long and snowy I was not able to do my usual tidy ups. It has been fairly dry of late so the piles of wood that I made have dried out. I set up the brazier, screwed up the newspaper I had brought with me , broke up the small wood into sticks and set a match to the paper and stood back. The fire took hold and I fed it for the next three hours, in and out of the other jobs.

During the winter I decided to move the black plastic compost bins from the paved area. I tried the empty compo bin in each corner of the plot. The compo bins are different sizes and shapes. The two smaller round black bins ended up in corner by beds 1 and 2. The bigger round black bin went in the corner by bed3. The square green bin will go in the corner by bed4. I put the three black bins in their new position. The plot looks a bit odd with the bins in the corners.

The main job was to plant spuds. This year the spud will go in bed4. I had to weed the line of the spud trench before actual digging the trench. I used my narrow spade to pull out a trench 10inched deep. The spud trench cut across trench for last years beans. The manure that went into the bean trenches was still discernible in the soil. Even the lack of rain in recent times did not have a great effect on the soil. It is in good heart and moist where it counts. With the trench opened I put in half a wheelbarrow of manure from the manure heap I have been minding since last autumn. Then ten seed potatoes spaced evenly long the trench. Next I used a rake to back fill the trench. I did another four trenches with ten spuds in each one. Each time I came up to the muck bin I fed the brazier. When the five rows were done I gave the inbetween rows a good hoeing. The hoeing removed the last vestiges of last year humps and hollows of the bean trenches as well as what few weeds remained.

I managed to squeeze in a few brews with a slice of cake. Each time I sat on my deckchair, in the shade of Degsy, the have my brew and watch the birds. There are quite a few Yellowhammer around this year. Bed2 contains the over wintering onions. Unfortunately they are swamped with Chickweed. I got the three pronged cultivator out of Degsy. I used it to rip up the Chickweed. It was very hard work. A small area gave two full wheelbarrows of chickweed. The weed went in the newly placed compo bins. I think I have only discouraged it. The area is going to need turning over before the main crop onions go in. I did a bit of spot weeding to clear the few bigger Docks and Thistle. It was 1pm by this stage and it was very hot toiling under the sun.

My Savoy cabbages, which had weathered the winter, have bolted. I have left them in until next week. They are about the flower so a week or so of flower will give the bees and bugs will a little nectar. I do not mind a few spring weeds. They fuel the bumble bees.The two Sprouting Broccoli that barely weathered the winter have given a small crop. We had them for tea. The buds on the grape vines are beginning to swell despite the savaging I gave them with the secateurs. The Garlic is going great. I hope they fill out properly. If this works well I shall be planting Garlic in the autumn from now on.

I seem to have swapped weeds. It was Dock, then Thistle, now it is Chickweed. According to Mr Internet Chickweed is edible as a salad. I might have to have a try. I don't think I can eat my way through an allotment's worth of Chickweed. I wonder if anyone would buy chickweed?

New compost.

H's charity afternoon tea is taking up time as is finishing off the little jobs in the dining and in a busy time at work and the new allotments it is a wonder I have not passed out. I had the ticklish job of fitting the door threshold strips to do. It is slow and fiddly work.

A more pleasing job but even more fiddly was making a frame for a mirror. I got a frameless mirror from B&Q. I had the Oak strips cut down from the big plank a few weeks ago. There was lots of cutting, planing and sanding before I had a frame to suit the mirror. Having glued, screwed and set the frame aside to dry there was nothing that could be done until the glue had dried.

Sunday was Mothering Sunday, H's first without Miss L. H and I went down to the car boot then for a long walk via Albert village and Booththorpe but not before I gave the mirror frame a good coating of Danish oil. It was a beautiful day. It was good to be outside. Since Christmas I have spent every day either in the office at work or in the dining room at home with very few exceptions. We had a spot of lunch on our return home. The frame had taken the oil well. I put up the pegs to hold the mirror the wall then hung the mirror. H had a few picture that wanted hanging. Apparently this is called dressing the room. Having discharged my duties I got a brew and wandered off to the greenhouse.

Everything I needed was waiting for me, seeds, compost and trays. I filled a dozen or more deep trays and pillaged the seed box. I sowed Broad Beans, Leek, Sprouts, Calebrese [a special request from H], Parsnips, Rainbow Chard, Spinach, Kale, Swede, spring cabbage and Sweet pea. I also potted up eight Lavender and six Rosemary cuttings that had over wintered in the greenhouse. I am trying a new seed compost which is part soil based and cut with garden compost. It certainly wets better than peat based compost. It is good to see the shelves of the green house full.

H was out walking on Wednesday evening. I had another session in the greenhouse. This time Tomatoes, Red Alert. I think it is too late the sow vine tomatoes but I not fully decided. I sowed little gem and Cos lettuce as well. The broad beans have already started to crack.

A Peacock

The allotment quarterly meeting took place on Friday. The meeting was concluded quite smartly which left plenty of time for apres meeting drinking. Steve, the wise one, and his missus and Ali plus me and H had a very nice time over Guinness for the gents and fruit base drinks for the ladies.. The ladies retired leaving Steve and I to the tender mercies of Di the Land lady.

Saturday dawned too soon and in my head I had a long list of things to do and could be done. I cleared up the garden and got he chiminia going to burn up the rubbish and spare wood. I tidied up the garage and whilst the garage was clear I decided to fit a bit of carpet. When I cleared the dining room for the new wood flooring a reserved the carpet. I cut a piece out of the middle of the carpet and fitted it in the garage. Sorting the carpet made space in the greenhouse. I did not have time for lottie paths so set about the old wheelbarrow.

I have to walk over the 100 yards from where I now have to park Degsy over to the hives. Supers and brood chambers are heavy so I need something to ease the load. I put my feelers out for an old wheelbarrow. Alan, a friend of mine, found an old wheelbarrow in a ditch. The frame was sound but the bucket was shot and the tyre was soft. I took the angle grinder to the rivets holding the bucket to the frame. The used the hammer and dot punch to free the rivets and with it the bucket. With the frame released I pumped up the tyre. I had a two square piece of plywood, in the shed, which I bolted to the frame. I put a lip on the lower end of the plywood to stop supers sliding off the base. I happened to have some green panel paint. I gave the timber a good coating of paint and left it aside to dry. All the while I kept he chiminia going. I had a run out to the tip to drop the wheelbarrow bucket, junk from the garage and junk from the garden. After dinner H and I watched a DVD, The girl with dragon tattoo. We watched in Swedish language with sub-titles. It was an excellent film.

Sunday 1AM British Summertime started. I could use that hour. I heard on the radio that America has daylight saving and that started two weeks ago. Who knew? I need petrol for Degsy. I went over to Swad then to the stables, back to the lottie to empty the trailer. Whilst at the lottie I filled the bird feeders and put the house recyclables in the compo bin. I noticed that the weed killer is starting to have an effect. Then back to the stables to return the trailer. Next was to run up to the bees. I dropped off the bee barrow, as it is now named. Its new home is under the Holly tree by the fence by the Mease. I had a look at the bees. One hive is stronger than the other but that is to be expected. However both colonies are alive and that is good news. I took ten minutes to write in my journal and to revel in the peace. I had a look into the river. The Mease, although not very wide is quite deep. I figure it is at least five foot deep in places the ankle deep in others. Whilst sitting there I saw A Peacock butterfly. I had the check again to make sure what I saw. Mr Internet proved I was not dreaming. It was indeed a Peacock butterfly.

After lunch was a trip to B&Q for a few bits and pieces. I set up the chop saw when I got home. It was a short job to get the old architrave and skirting board off the door frames. Again a relatively short job to cut the new architrave and skirting to size and fit. Having cleaned up and still some daylight left I looked to the bike. Then it was dinner. A glass or two a clean cold Chardonnay and I was done.

Treasure for a pound

It is the spring equinox is upon us so time to visit the potato men of Newall. My order of seed spuds was ready and waiting. This year I am trying Sharpes Express as a first early. Then we have the old favorites, white Duke of York and Cara. H came with me. We sat there waiting for the old giffers in front us collect their orders. One chap had bags and bags of chemicals. Has he never heard of horse manure? As usual I have bought too many seed potatoes.

I went to the lottie for a few hours. I was trying to get the path adjasent to the ditch completed. By the end of the stint I had competed half of the path. It is heavy work so I was glad to get a text from H to say she was off to collect Miss L from the train station. Now Degsy is fitted out I was able to have a brew. My new lottie neighbours came down to start fettling their new plot. The plot has been well looked after for the past few years so it should not take them long to get the plot the way they want it.

Miss L was back home for the weekend so no lottie on Sunday. I ran the trailer back up to the stables though. When I got back I made breakfast. We went a car boot sale, Miss L was looking for something. I got a piece of treasure, a metal carrying box with a random collection of bits in it for £1. The chap was glad to be rid of it. At home I ferreted in the box and found some good items the rest of it went for recycling or the bin. I got three trays ready and tipped the seeds spuds into the trays, one variety in each tray. The Duke of Yorks and Cara went into the shed. The Sharpes Express were put in the greenhouse hopefully to bring the Sharpes on and hold back the the others.

H has been "tiding up" in the garden. H has cut back the jungle that ajoins the pond. Whilst surveying the devastation I cast my eye about and saw that the minarets Pear tree buds are bursting. It is couple weeks ahead of it neighbouring Apples. The clocks go forward next week so the evening will stay lighter for much longer.

The weary shoveller

I had half a day free today. I went down to do a job that I have been preparing for sometime. The ditch side of my plot is eroding away with weather and beasties digging holes into it. It is also full of weeds. I got a load of industrial carpet. It happens to be green too! I started at the bottom end. I went round to the ditch side of the lottie and pulled up the chicken wire and the grass and nettles entangled in it. Back round on the lottie side of the fence and unrolled the carpet strips. I then pushed them under the wire making sure the carpet hung down at least half way down the bank. Then I cut the carpet to leave it about half way across the path. Next I pulled the chicken wire to turn the foot of the fence toward the path instead outwards. After some heaving and hauling it got the wire in some kind of order. The wind netting was tucked into the bottom of the wire.

Then the heavy work started. I went up to the stone bund to fill the trailer, spade full by spade full. Then the trailer was run back to the lottie and the contents shovelled into the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow was tipped onto what was to be the path. I just had to spread the gravel about trying to make sure the wire was buried and the wind netting tucked in. I manged four trailer loads before I ran out of time and back muscles. I raked the gravel flatish and tramped it down. Between loads and two and three I made a brew. I have the Trangie in the back of Degsy so hot tea is available for the weary shoveller.

I finished shovelling but had only completed about a quarter of the long path. And there is the whole other side to do as well. I needed a bit a rest before going home. Having tidied up I sat in the back of Degsy for half an hour. The sky was very blue and the sun was low. There was chill in the air. There had been a sharp forst last night. This did not seem to worry the birds. I saw the usual characters, Tits and Robins. There were a few Long tailed Tits to be seen. Then the "peewit" of the Lapwing wheeling over the adjacent field. Then the lazy wing beat of the Buzzard. I was reluctant to leave but it was tea time.

Busy, busy, busy.

Friday a message was left on the home phone to say the tank and mudguards were ready. I went over to Swadlincote on Saturday to collect them from the painters. They have done a nice job.

I also got a call on Saturday from the farmer fretting about weed killer on the new allotments. I arranged to meet him and get the chemicals and knapsack sprayer off him. That done I went over to the lottie and following the farmers directions mixed the chemicals and walked up and down the new plots pumping and spraying. It was quite a still day and sun was shining so I took advantage of the moment. The wind, when it blew, blew across the plots carrying any over-spray away from the old plots. I gave the brambles a couple of doses. The contractors should be able to start the ground works in a fortnight. H and I went over to B&Q to pick up a few and pieces to finish dining room. After that I set about the fitting the remaining skirting boards. Then I fillered the holes and gaps. Next I fitted the oak capping on the stairs. I countersunk and piloted the holes. I screwed in the brass screws to secure the capping. It looks great.

Later on H and I went over to our friends in Measham for dinner. We had a lovely time.

It rained all night but brightened up towards the morning. After a pleasant breakfast and a short read of my book I started by sanding down the patched plaster in the dining room. I put some sugar and water on to boil. I was going to make some bee candy. Whilst the water warmed I mixed some wallpaper paste and liberally coated the new plaster. I finished off the candy and set it aside to cool. It prepped the room for papering. I had a eke that needed adjusting. I quick few passes with the electric plane and the job was done. I put the candy and eke in Degsy. Another brew and Degsy and I went off to collect the poo trailer and feed the bees.

The sun shone brightly but the wind was cold. As I walked up to the hives the wind dropped as I stepped in to the shelter of the hedges. The bees were flying and carrying pollen. That means the Queens are alive. When I took the hive roofs off I found that not all the candy had been eaten from the last feed. So regardless of my assistance the bees continue to do there own thing. I re-organised the ekes and feeders and dropped in the new candy. The bees were fairly active and a a bit cross but within ten minutes of finishing with the bees they had settled down. I picked up the trailer on the way back from the bees.

Another brew whilst a mixed the paste for the wallpaper. I set about the remaining wall. H had bought patterned wallpaper and it took quite a bit of work to get the paper to line up. In the end it worked out well enough but it was a trial. H got dinner going whilst I tidied up. I ran the poo trailer round to the lottie. I filled the bird feeders. I wanted to stay to a watch the sun set. It was very low but tea was nearly ready so I could not stay. I and drop in on Steve to collect some books. Tea was ready when I got home. We some very nice pork chops. That was a very busy weekend looking back on it. Day off tomorrow.

Mizzle

With H birthday a memory I could get back to sorting the dining room. This weekend I needed to move the radiator and sort out the wall. The radiator move was straight forward enough except:

A. The garage had to be emptied to get at the pipework
B. One joint insisted on leaking repeatedly. I sorted it on the second attempt. Luckily it was in an accessible place.
C. It started to mizzle.

My born and bred South Derbyshire neighbour came over to see if H and I wanted to join him and some other neighbours for a meal to celebrate the royal wedding. H and I have plans that weekend so had to decline the offer. Whilst chatting the weather was mentioned. In Manchester it would be drizzling. In South Derbyshire it was mizzling. I was in leak solving mode, with half the contents of my garage outside in the mizzle but he did not see my urgency. I was polite you will be glad to know. I dismantle the joint again, this time I daubed the joint with flux and tinned it then resembled the joint and ran in some more solder. That got it. I filled up the heating system again, no leaks so I was able to replace the lagging. Only then could I get all the garage goods back inside. There was not enough of the day to start the other big jobs so tidied out the garage instead, chucking rubbish into Degsy, and went off to the tip. From he tip I went over to the next town to get fuses and insulating tape for the bike.

I had a leisurely breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. I figured I would give my neighbours a chance to get moving before I started knocking the plaster of the wall. There was a dividing wall in the dining room. When I took it out I found that the original plasterers had plastered to different depths on either side of the wall. If I left it as it was it would show as a hump under the paper. I had to knock off only the plaster that was too high. Precision stuff with a lump hammer and bolster chisel. When I was happy there was no high spots I mixed up some plaster and make good the holes. I left it dry. There was a patch of wallpaper that could not be removed until to shifted the radiator. I got the trusty steamer out and in no time the wall was clear of paper. The another tidy up session.

With some trepidation I set out my stall to tackle the Oak plank. One of the many things I learnt as an apprentice plumber was to prepare your work space. Get all your tools to hand and set up where your power tools as needed. It is easier to do a good job when you are comfortable. I have been contemplating the plank this week. I figured it is not square. I pinged a chalk line one inch in the from the edge. Guess what? It was not square. I ran the circular saw down the chalk line. The strip of waste cut off was thicker at each end than in the middle. I now had a straight edge. I ran the plane down the new edge to remove the circular saw marks. H liked the chalk line. It as ancient tool. My chalk liner is just a modern application that re-chalks the line when it is retrieved. The Romans used chalked lines. My chalk liner is a metal case which contains a spool of string, just like a fishing reel, except the container is full of chalk, red in my case. As you can imagine the line gets covered in chalk. The end of the line, poking out from the case, is the end of the string with a tag so you hook the line at one end of the work. You just pay out the string to the other end of the work, place the string on your mark and pull the string tight. Then you pinch the string and lift it up whilst maintaining the tension then let in snap back on to the work. The slap of the string on the work transfers chalk to the work marking a straight line. You can mark very long, perfectly marked straight lines with a chalk string. Having cut down the plank I was able to make the wall capping. The last thing to do was to was drill the pilot holes for the screws. That done I gave the capping a good coating of Danish oil. It is in the greenhouse drying out. Then just a case of cleaning up.

H and I took Degsy up the the lottie. We dropped off the home waste for the compo bin. I filled the bird feeders. H had a sit on the seat at the far end of the lottie to watch the birds. I dug out the old big compo bin and tipped eight wheelbarrows worth of compost onto the Asparagus bed. with the Asparagus bed top dressed I tried up and had a walk round to see what wants doing. There is plenty to go at. Whilst I tidied up up the birds came in to feed. The stars for me were the Yellowhammer and Bullfinches.

H's new blog

Click HERE for H's new blog. I have added a permanent link on my blog too.

Bockelin

Just before Christmas I had to put the demi-johns of wine in the shed to be out of the way. I brought them back inside the other day. As they warmed up I was worried they might start fermenting again. I could not bottle the wine if it was not finished fermenting. After a couple of days in the kitchen the demi-johns were up to temperature. I judged that all but one wine had stopped.

I had been saving wine bottles over the Christmas period so had loads to sort through. I needed thirty bottles. I tried to find five matching bottles per demi-john. Having sorted through the pile and found pretty much what I needed. Then it was just a case of washing the bottles, syphoning off the demi-johns into the bottles, capping or corking the bottles, checking the specific gravity, writing labels. Then the small matter of washing out the demi-johns and cleaning up. And that was the bockelin done.

The demi-john that needed more time has been put in the corner of the dining room until it stops bubbling. This d-j is the wine made from my own grapes. The finished bottles were put away in the shed until the summer.

Quarter sawn

In the revamped dining room there is a ledge that needs a finishing touch. I was at Staunton Harold the other day with H and her sister and spotted a big plank of quarter sawn Oak for sale. I did not have the right car with us so I could not take away the eight foot by 18inch plank by 1inch. I went back the next day with the right car only to find a posh couple cooing over the plank. I went straight over to chap. He remembered me from the previous and was only too happy to have me press a bunch of fivers into his hand. The couple were a bit put out when the chap elbowed them out of the way and walked off with "their" plank and man-handled the plank into the car. The quarter sawing brings out the figuring.

I just have to run the plank down to size and fit it. Easier said than down. H wants a frame for a mirror from the planks as well.

It is really nice to think that we will have a bit of timber from the local forest.

Soggy stems

This weekend was H's birthday. H sister and hubby were to come over for dinner much later in the day so I had most of the day more less to myself. Miss L was home too so H and Miss L went off to do girly things. I went to the lottie. I filled the feeders and had a look round. I started by weeding the Asparagus bed. It had patches of grass over about half of the bed. It did not take long to pick the little tussocks out. A light raking over and bed was spick and span. Then I started the little flower bed next door. I was nearly finished when H and Miss L turned up. I and Miss L each had a little brown bag with them. A present for me. A cheese and onion pastie and a egg custard from Greggs, bliss but I am easily pleased. Miss L was feeling the cold so they went off again and left me to my pastie. I got the deck chair out of the landy and put my feet up to eat my repast and watch the birds on the feeders.

Time was getting on. I got the barrow out and walked round the vines with the secateurs. A snip here a snip there. Ten minutes later a vines were trimmed. I looked over the cabbage patch. The long winter and all the snow has put paid to all but the Savoy cabbages. I went round pulling out the soggy stems of the dead plants. They went in the compost bin. The soil was a bit wet for digging but pulling out all the stem disturbed the soil and it looked in good condition.

I am having a think about moving the black compost bins but where are they to go?

Fat Black Bees

I got a phone call at 11.30am on Saturday for the farmer I was supposed to meet at noon say that he had been up lambing so could we meet at 2pm. I had to say yes. That left me kicking stones for a few hours. I was supposed to be plastering the dining room but the re-schedule meeting put paid to that. The weather has been quite mild and today was sunny as well. The bees have been on my mind so I decided to make some candy to feed them with. Take one part water to four parts water and a half teaspoon of vinegar. Bring the mixture to the boil whilst stirring all the time. Then bring syrup to to 240 degrees. When it gets there take the pan off the heat. Whilst it cools sort out some containers. I use roasting tins, mainly because they are metal. I line them with greaseproof paper. When it cools to 200 degrees start to whisk the mixture. As the mixture cools the whisking adds air. Soon or later the mixture turns white. I find that when a crust starts forming it is about right. Then pour the mixture into the tins and set it outside to cool. When it is cold it turns pure white and has the texture of fondant icing.

Two o'clock came round so Steve ad I went to see the farmer. An hour later we were done. The sun was dropping but the sky was still blue. I decided to go and see the bees. I put the fondant and my bee gear fettling in Degsy and trundled off to see the bees for the first time this year. Because of the crop rotation I have to go different way round to the apiary. The old route is under winter barley. The new route take me down the other side of the hedge line. The trouble is there is a second fence which means I have a bit of a walk over to the hives. I got the three trays of fondant out of Degsy and strolled over to the hives. There were no bees flying but it was quite cold so I was not expecting to see any flyers. I looked in the front of the hives but there were just piles of dead bees but that is normal at this time of year. I put my ear against the hives but I could not hear anything.

I took the roof off one hive I tried to pop of the feeder and spare super off the top of the hive. It was glued on, again no surprise. I rummaged in my bees gear box for the hive tool but could not find it. I used my pen knife to loosen the feeder but had to walk up to Degsy and back for it. I was smart enough to put the feeder on top of a crown board last year. That kept the bees and the heat in once the feeder was off. The bees started nosing round the edge of the hole in the crown board. So they are alive in that box. I turned out a block of fondant onto the crown board. I cracked it in two and put it over the hole being careful not to squash any bees. I cracked the fondant block so the hole in the crown board was not blocked. The bees looked fat and glossy so they have made it through the winter. I put the roof back on and moved onto the other hive.

The same process, roof off, remove the extra supers left on over the winter. As I moved round the hive I found my hive tool. I must have left it there in the autumn. It is good to know very few people go to the apiary and if any one does go there they keep their hands to themselves. As soon as the crown board was exposed the bees started investigating. These bees where a bit more active and again fat , black and glossy. I added the two thin fondant blocks to this hive making sure not to block the hole. The hole provides ventilation. Bees need fresh air circulating in the hive to keep it healthy.

The tricky bit is to keep them alive until the spring. The bees will have been huddled together all winter eating very little. As the weather warms up the bees tuck into their stores. The hard part is to judge is how much stores do they need to get them through to spring and the first flowers. The fondant is a way to ensure they have stores. I think my mistake in previous year has been to add syrup [one pound of sugar to one pints of water] rather than fondant. Syrup mimics the composition of nectar. A flow of nectar stimulates the queen to lay which has led to the brood chamber being congested. That in turn triggers swarming. I may not provide any syrup this year and see how the build up and swarming goes.

I carried the extra supers in the back of Degsy. I will have to do something about lugging hive parts back and forth. I took a few pictures of Degsy standing in the field. Peculiarly it felt good to have my hive tool back in my pocket. On the way back from the Bees I dropped in to see the horse folk. Now I have Degsy back I can start back on the poo run. After t'horses I dropped in on the lottie. I filled up the bird feeders. The netting has taken a beating so will need repairing. The snow has put paid to the Broccoli although Savoy cabbages have wintered well as have the sprouts. The over wintering onion and Garlic are still growing. The weed cover has held the soil together and despite the weather the soil looks in good condition. The path however are a different story. The grass in the path seem to had a life of their own regardless of the snow. I think I have a job on there.

Sunday dawned wet and windy and stayed that way for the the greater part of the day. I had a job to do in the dining room, plastering. I set up self up, mixing place, mortar board, water bucket, floats and brush. Having mixed a bucket of finish I plastered the back wall of the dining room in no time at all. I decided over a brew that I would tackle the ceiling. I sorted a staging to get me close enough to the ceiling. Two buckets of finish were enough for ceiling. I took it steady. I remembered my plasterer's friend wisdom, " don't hurry lad". I worked methodically across the ceiling and left it to dry. I got an 18inch finishing float based on something saw on the TV. It was just the job, it polished up the plaster a treat. I managed to do the back wall ceiling and corner. Then I just had to clean up, me and the room, have a brew and wait for it to dry.