Eating Strawberries

Sunday dawned clear and early, too early for me. I made a cooked breakfast to help get me going. It was a lottery as to whether it rain on not. I went to the lottie first determined to do some weeding. I got a few bags out my store at the lottie and took my spade along to Bed2. This bed had the onions and leeks last year. There were a few Leeks left in. Unfortunately there a several Docks too and they are big. Just for a change they are being out completed so are not too strong. I got stuck in a dug out all the docks and bagged them to be taken off site for disposal. It is quicker said than done. With the Docks out I went round and pulled up the Thistles and the Sow Thistles. They came away easily from the wet soil but as you can imagine a was getting covered in wet soil. The job needed doing though. I stopped after and hour. I was soaked but I had three big bags of weeds to show for my trouble. The plot does not look any better but the weed cover is much thinner and since the Dock were bagged before they seeded I have saved seven years weed. If only that were true. I had a chat with a lottie neighbour and cut some Asparagus before packing up to go to the Bees.

The drive across the farm to the bees was very muddy. Degsy managed the mud without an issue. The chunky cut tyres are coming into their own in the mud. I put on  my bee suit on and wondered what I would find when I went through the gate. I had already seen the River Mease and could see that it had dropped since last week. It was relatively dry underfoot but the grass was wet. There is lot of tall grass in the apiary so I got a second soaking. The hives had weathered the weather and the bees were flying freely. One the Queens has emerged in one of the hives but is not yet laying. I will leave that one until next week. If there are no eggs I shall unite the Nuc with this hive. One other Hive has a plump sealed Queen cells. I hope to find that Queen has emerged by next weekend and with luck may have started laying. The other hives are in good order and are lying in honey. I have just got to be patient. I think the hives are in good shape to bring in a honey crop in the next eight to ten weeks.

Back at home I tidied up my workroom. H and I marshalled our camping gear. We have a wedding next Saturday evening which requires camping at the venue. I hope the promised hot weather turns up this week even if it just dries out the ground. Depending how it goes I might even use my Christmas present which was a non-stick frying pan for my Trangia! We even tried to sit out side to read our books and eat the Strawberries H collected from the garden. It too blustery and cold so retired to the comfort of the living room. H was not far behind. Blooming British summertime.......