Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
I’ve had a busy day already and it’s only lunchtime while I’m typing this. A quick swim in the sea first thing, followed by some work and then a nice surf ski paddle into the estuary at high tide. I then had some time for a quick inspection of the bees. Everyone else is reporting...
Having not left Ynyslas for about 2 months now, we were unsure whether or not to head off to catch a swarm of bees when the phone call came in last night. It wasn’t far away though and the person whose garden it was in was shielding so there shouldn’t be any unnecessary human contact....
There are quite a few flowers in the garden at the moment. The bees are loving the chives still and there’s even a surprise rose. I don’t know why it’s always a surprise as it flowers every year but I also do nothing to it and kind of forget that it is there until it...
With the sun shining and Spring on it’s way you’d think it was the perfect time for the bees and for beekeepers alike. It should be and would be if it weren’t for Ivor our local katabatic wind. He’s been blowing his socks off with wind speeds exceeding 50 knots for days on end. No...
The weather has been pretty good for the bees. There have been a few days that have been too windy for them to venture out and it has remained fairly cool most days but the afternoons tend to be getting up into double figures on the thermometer and there has been plenty of sunshine. I...
You saw my attempts at social distancing yesterday with a nice surf-ski paddle on the sea miles from anyone. Luckily we can self-isolate in the garden too. It was feeling quite Spring-like out there over the weekend. The sun was shining, I mowed the lawn for the first time this year and there was quite...
The good news is that our honey stores have been replenished. Jars and jars of gorgeous golden honey from the bottom of our garden. All stacked up to keep us going. The bad news is that we didn’t get any honey last year, there wasn’t huge amounts this year and there is no guarantee that...
Our bees have been ‘bee-having’ themselves fairly well so far this year. They had looked like swarming at the end of April so we split them first thing in May. That all seemed to go well and by the end of May we had a new laying queen and the colony with the original queen...
Don’t get too excited, I’m not talking about Anna and I, I’m talking about our bees. We’ve always had trouble getting newly emerged queens to mate. We perform an artificial swarm as the perceived wisdom dictates, but for some reason the queen that emerges from the queen cell never seems to be able to start...
As it’s such a nice day I just couldn’t resist lunch in the garden. Not the best time of day for photos but here are a few photos from the garden anyway. The bees were certainly busy. Not just our honey bees but all sorts of other bees too. It’s always nice to see the...
Fitness / Technology / Triathlon
Fixing the Altimeter on my Garmin Forerunner 910XT
Monday, March 17th, 2014
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