Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

dawnybabes

Happy birthday x

Twolabsandacat

Happy birthday SL 

Suffolk_lass

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, much appreciated. The birthday supper was a piece of fillet steak I sliced and stir-fried with (exceptionally!) a pack of ready sliced veg, cooked egg noodles and bean sprouts was lovely. I threw in a few frozen prawns and treated them as the "when it is cooked" moment. I confess to adding my own top-ups of garlic, red onion, chillies and sesame and ginger oils - not much, just a dessertspoonful (about 10ml). With the hoisin sauce I did not make, it is the most processed dinner for ages! No alcohol though.

Health
We have spoken to the appointments centre at the local hospital this week - a missed call (because my phone has stopped accepting a swipe to receive call; now changed to tap) got us through to this unknown place when we tried to return it. I guessed it was my audiology appointment (it was) but while on the phone I asked about Mr Sl's follow-up and offered to pass the phone to him, but the lady was super-helpful and confirmed he is on the list to be called by the end of March. The upshot is that we are no longer going to my Mum's for the week from Sunday, so that he can go in at an hour's notice. My audiology appointment is not until the third week of April.

Bees
I've decided to just take a quick look if the weather is still fine tomorrow. There is little to be gained in doing more than ascertaining that they are alive and with a queen of some sort laying. I can't do anything to replace a queen as no drones yet, so opening them up and going through them risks her (beekeeper squish when looking) at a time when I can do nothing sensible. Similarly if any colony is drone laying. The bees are too old to make another queen at this stage. So my intention is to check they have space and food, and observe to see if pollen is going in (indicator of eggs needing feeding as they hatch).

I presented on managing and anticipating swarm season to a group of beekeepers last night. Lots of follow-up questions so I had their interest, and the only feedback was a thank you for organising the sessions and keeing the group going.

Other things
I resisted the urge to buy 25% off six at Waitflower as with our reduced consumption of alcohol, but thank you @edinburgher for nudging me. We are drinking so little until Mr Sl has had his planned op (me in solidarity).

I checked my calendar and it is not for another two weeks that I will receive my occupational pension - I swear this month is longer than ever.

My CC bill is inflated by the cost of the fence materials to re-do the boundary of the V Hall. I also have 84 toilet rolls, replacement keys to the paper hand towel dispensers (we have concluded that the cleaners we sacked, took them out of vindictiveness), and a box of 12 packs of paper hand towels to be reimbursed for - the treasurer still has no account access. In addition I paid the man with the cutter and digger who spent a day and a half removing the hedge, from my bank account. About £2500 outstanding. Hopefully before the bill is taken or I shall be tapping the emergency fund!!

Right, time for a quick tidy and dust with my friend bringing his puppy over today

Suffolk_lass

My friend and their new Springer puppy came over. A very nice natured 6 month old. We took both dogs for a lovely, local walk, and he was able to let the pup off the extending lead in an enclosed field with our dog, so they ran and dashed, and played together until both were worn out. They had a lovely time and he was delighted that his dog came back then and sat while he reattached the lead (before we entered the next part of the walk with sheep on both sides). A lovely catch up but Mr Sl had to go to bed when we got back, he was so exhausted. 

I did almost nothing else and we eat the leftover veg that I had left in the fridge, uncooked from the night before for supper, but with a fillet steak tail rather than sausages. I have got two chicken thighs out for tonight. I could not be less interested in food, but I need it to be filling for Mr Sl to help him with his late night snacking habit. His tastes are changing with the diet, I think.

Suffolk_lass

Not much happening here but a few household bits to report on.

Grocery related
I confess that the shopping is not right this month, and Mr Sl's diet is not wholly to blame. Lesson to self on shopping when hungry!

There is a lot of fresh raw veg being consumed and I have one and a half avocados I intend making a padded out guacamole with. I realised yesterday that Mr Sl had eaten the last orange, so I might go to Sainsbugs this morning, for bowl fruit as the pears have gone from the fridge too. I also want some Matzos crackers (wheatflour and water only) to sub for the cream crackers that are disappearing from the cracker tin, and I know they sell them, while Morries do not. We have run out of marmite too - I always thought that was impossible as there are always scrapings, but apparently after using his universal spreader tool (finger) he is confident it is empty. I can get some low fat cottage cheese or creme fraiche while I'm there, to pad out the guacamole. I think I can remember the restaurant recipe we used to use.

Garden and growing
I fiddle-faddled around outside yesterday, without really achieving much. The good news is that one of the pots of gooseberry cuttings I took is top sprouting (hopefully roots at the same speed). It's the one I have grown for ten+ years with large yellow berries, the size of small apricots, that are sweet and delicious, the name of which is lost. I did buy two Leveller bare rooted berries and these need moving. Time to stop talking about it and actually to move them. It's raining here this morning, but due to stop. The ground certainly needs it. Very dry.

I popped to the garden centre where I have previously picked up lots of bargains around now (crocus and dwarf iris pots going over, snowdrops that have done for the year, even narcissi) with the intention of popping some perennials in the front bed ready for next year - nada, nothing. I actually asked a member of staff who said the new owner likes to recover any perennials to sell next year. Drat and double drat (as !!!!!! Dastardly might say). Anyway, I bought nothing. Several red hellebores starved of water or care were staring at me through the trellis as I got back in my car. Personally, I think he could cover his costs if he sold them on at wholesale prices, rather than them sitting there, impacting his cash flow as sunk money with no return for the year. Lots of plants sitting under benches looking very poorly. He's got to pay to store them too... anyway I will give it a go in a month and if not, buy in autumn when the bulb offers come round. I have some snowdrops I can lift and split and lots of lawn-seeded primroses I can move once they stop flowering this year.

Toilet-roll-gate
It seems the Village Hall cleaning contractor we sacked at Christmas (doing ten minutes a day and billing for an hour, twice a week) has taken all the keys to the hand towel dispensers in a final act of spitefulness. So I have bought 5 keys. One each in two of the dispensers with stiff locks and two for the locked cupboard, and I have the fifth, as an insurance measure. I also have a big pack of toilet rolls. It seems people were using these instead of the missing paper hand towels, hence none of either. I think I am going to see if I can fit the loo rolls above the false ceiling panels, so they are over there, and not in my little house. Seven packs of twelve were a bargain at 32p per roll for quilted, scented, branded loo roll. The hand towels will come with my big-river subscription, mid April. In the meantime the single remaining unopened pack can be eked out and shared.

Bees
I have several bee suits I have laundered ready for the Teaching Apiary. One suit needs a tear repair (looks like barbed wire) and a second needs a hood -> suit zip repair.

With our own bees, I really just need to check they are not in need of feed. It is too early to split them, because there are no new queens until the drones are ready to mate. If a colony is booming, however, I could add some space. I must do this and appreciate Mr Sl is not up to this at the moment. I could go early (in the season) and pop a box of foundation to be drawn on top, with syrup feed. Young bees can produce wax for less than a week, for their third week normally. If our queens started laying in February, there will be young bees. We just need the hive temperature to be warm enough too. Tomorrow night's forecast is for 1°C but after that it seems it will be a bit warmer, so Tuesday might be the day. I will have a fiddle so that there are one or two drawn combs in any boxes I want them to draw, to help a bit. I do want to change one colony, that is on the wrong system for us, and a Bailey Comb Change (BCC) is the way to go with this - putting a box that matches our other hives over the one that doesn't and encouraging them to move up.

Right, time to get going. Have a good Sunday, all!

Makingabobor2

A friend of mine keeps bees & I had never realised how complex & time consuming it is. 

Suffolk_lass

Makingabobor2 said:

A friend of mine keeps bees & I had never realised how complex & time consuming it is. 

I don't think it needs to be. I do like to understand the rationale for doing things at certain times though, and what the triggers are, as opposed to a simpler, time-driven approach

Suffolk_lass

Gosh, and here we are at Saturday already! Quite an eventful week. You might understand why I held off for a few days. Mild frustration, nothing disastrous!

Gardening

I lost all my tomato seedlings (about 40) - I went out to pot them on, only to find they had overheated in the greenhouse and the stems had all bent over, with the upper part white and devoid of nutrients. I tried potting the ones that looked saveable into pots but the following morning all the leaves had dried to a crisp and it was clear they are a write-off. In almost forty years of growing things from seed, this was a first.

Anyway, disasters aside, I have planted more seeds and the kitchen windowsill has two propagators squeezed on there. I have many trays of other seeds now too and although I wasn’t going to bother, I have a tray of deep root runners with sweetcorn in (and a cloche over them, in the greenhouse). I have also started cucumbers - two mini greenhouse varieties, mini-crisp and mini-munch, and two outdoor varieties; the spherical yellow heritage Crystal Lemon and Marketmore. I also tried planting a row of last year’s seed so I can try that again (none of my squashes germinated in 2024) that was Marketmore too - if they germinate they can go to the community garden or be sold at the gate. 

Lots of the seeds I bought for flowers are in cells too - all the ones that recommend sowing by, or from, March! (Just). Having bought using the RHS Members Seed scheme, I was keen to actually plant some. In addition, I bought seeds from a different place (Yorkshire Seeds) - so many flowers, ready to repopulate the front garden in due course. There is plenty of ground elder in there though, awaiting my attention before anything else is planted there.

I had also sprinkled the wildflower seeds in compost that sat ready but was not scattered or cast about last autumn as the area was never scarified. I sprinkled where the rabbits had scraped and in bare bits around trees and next to the hedge, anywhere there was bare ground. Then yesterday Mr Sl felt up to helping. This involved moving half a dozen paving slabs and replacing their original location with a large pallet, with bags of compost on top, which in turn cleared another area in part (lots of pots to clean still there). The slabs are alongside the greenhouse so at least one cold frame can go there, and the other two where the compost was. Anyway, being the engineer that he is, from being relatively straightforward it involved digging up turves, and moving them “I’ve used them to cover all the rabbit starter holes and the bare patches” (yes exactly where the wildflower seeds had previously been sprinkled… harumph). Talk about men are from Mars… the cold frame is absolutely level now though!

Other domestic things

Mr Sl and our gardener friend spent Thursday morning installing the barn rail and doors to the cart lodge. I can’t sensibly post a picture as they are too obviously here from the street and just too distinctive at the moment, as they are bright red, ahead of sanding and painting black, to fit in with the weatherboarding across the other doorway. They look fab too! There is some finishing off to do, for Mr Sl but he has promised to build my cold frames first (last year’s birthday present!) while I plant more seeds in situ.

Mr Sl has lost a stone so far. He is up for losing another stone minimum, but hopefully a stone and a half. Me? still using-up stuff he can't have so much slower -> non-existent, to date. It will come!

Bees

Tomorrow is D-Day, I mean Bee-Day - the temperature is set to rise, and new bees are beginning to emerge (so they will be set to draw wax shortly). We have held off for two weeks but tomorrow is the day for us to inspect for the first time. Fingers crossed there are fecund, laying queens, and enough to build up and forage. We will take brood boxes of new and drawn foundation, supers (honey boxes), syrup, a spare floor and roof and the usual things we forget, like the key to the gate, hive tools, smoker and fuel, and cover cloths. Fingers crossed for us. And so it begins.

On Monday evening, I also need to go to the beekeepers beginners course, about 30+ minutes drive away and make a short presentation to them about what comes next and how we can support them.

And on Thursday, four of us are off to the Spring Convention (my first time, but not theirs). Very excited for the social as well as the lectures, workshops, and trade show.

Money and MSE things

The first of four drops of money arrived yesterday; Mr Sl’s state pension, and most welcome it is too. The next will be his occupational on Wednesday and then mine on Friday, followed finally, by my state pension on the following Monday. Not nearly as spread out as normal but hey ho, a bird in the hand, as they say. I shall be moving some to the EF pot, as we want to be getting on with the big hard landscaping/small rebuilding project that I hope, will not cost more than I have saved. 

I popped over the road to the Village social club for a drink last night and found out that although our treasurer still awaits the slothful movement of the Spanish bank, to allow her to reimburse me the £2500ish I have shelled out for the Hall, the Chairman has his access, so I will be able to be reimbursed before my CC takes the money from our bank accounts, hip, hip, hooray!

I also have the home insurance premium on the credit card (over £2,100), that will be taken in full by DD on about the tenth, along with the barn door fixings (that were IRO £530). Nightmare credit card bill from hell month is officially here!

I think we will have fish fillets with salad tonight, all in store at home, but I might go to Sainsbugs for one of their medium chickens (for £2.50 on offer) along with some onions, and oranges for the fruit bowl. We don't need much. It's that balance between missing the crowds and missing out.

Anyway, time to be doing some getting on with it. Have a good weekend everyone, especially you @edinburgher. Enjoy the celebrations!

trix-a-belle

Just reading about that lot tires me out SL! It sounds like you need a little pop out cart or similar if you haven't got one already to lug everything to your apiary spots.
The garden sounds like it will be a fabulous riot of colour
I'm with you on using up stuff in the cupboards though its because its been sat around far too long and I really should consolidate and be more mindful of what's in there and what its used for, i've cracked homemade nutella to use up a load of nuts I didn't realise I had

foxgloves

Oh what a shame about your tomato seedlings, @Suffolk_lass. It's such a precarious time of year for them, isn't it? I know exactly the sort of damage you mean - sunscorch. I noticed just the beginnings of this on a couple of leaves on 3 of my jalapeno plant babies. They had been moved to the greenhouse, but I initially left their bottle cloches on during the day to help them acclimatise & keep the humidity up. This was all fine until the heat in there really rose on a sunny day. They are all ok but it was a reminder how hot things can get in an unheated greenhouse even in March when the sun is strong on the glass.
My tomatoes were sown in 3 batches so are at various stages but they will all be going down to the greenhouse next week without fail. 
F