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

Suffolk_lass

This is my third sowing, @foxgloves. With the fist sown in pots of topsoil with loam, in a failed frugality attempt. The soil formed a sort of seal and the germination level was very poor. I suspect they will be found in centuries to come, rather like the bodies at Pompeii!

Even those that forced their way through perished in the too hot, too humid unheated propagator. They were really small and stubby, the slowest to grow. Fingers crossed for third time lucky! I had maybe 24 on top of those I potted on, that were too disastrous to bother with
 
Let me find a photo...

foxgloves

Aww, yes, those look very unhappy. It's hard to get seedling decisions right atm with temperatures so changeable. Supposed to be nice & warm here next week but with cold nights so I shall have bubblewrap ready. The aubergine babies (on my upstairs little HQ windowsill) are still not happy just to have their bottle cloches removed. They're going to have to grow a pair by next week!
Oh, & our annual tawny mining bees are back, making their tiny burrows in the lawn & border edges. We look forward to their arrival every March. They're like little pieces of flying orange velvet.
F

Suffolk_lass

Well, the little loops of germinating tomato seeds are visible under the clear top of the unheated propagator on the kitchen windowsill, so I very much hope we are back in business. 3 cold frames now built, on paving slabs and deployed. Two are full, the third is started. Loads of seeds planted! 

Today will be mostly bees as we need to inspect properly. The first swarm, in SE Essex, so a bit south of us, was reported by a friend, but it means we need to look more carefully from now on. Mr Sl went to the site that requires a bit of a trek from the car and climbing over a locked gate (which is not my favourite) and they are well into spring so they have a second brood chamber and syrup to help them. Depending on what the rest look like, this will be a split into two, or a fresh box of drawn comb to help elsewhere. They don't actually need a comb change, but they are booming so now have space and resources, to be going on with.

I will keep it brief this morning as I need to get a wiggle on and stop "slouching in my PJs" (I might explore why I do the housework and cooking before dressing at some point!)

Spendywendywoo

Happy belated birthday, @Suffolk_lass - sorry for the late comment. I hope you had a lovely day. Will catch up on your diary asap xx

Suffolk_lass

Things are moving along here.

Bees
All remaining (8) hives are alive. I have changed the delivery date for the Queens that are coming, so they are sending them just before Easter weekend, not over. I think I am sure which hives will be re-queened now, and three of the eight have second brood chambers and feed to help them draw the comb.

I have volunteered to help at the Schools agricultural day (7000 odd, from all over the County, aged years 4-6 (8-11s!) Yes, I am bonkers.

Garden, is OK, my friend and gardener are tackling ground elder, docks and creeping thistles with the aid of a reused plastic bottle of spot weeding liquid. Industrial strength. Always more to do but I am off to my bee convention later, until Sunday

Mr Sl
Having phoned the GP and spoken about getting them to contact the relevant clinic at the hospital, he duly used their online booking thing to ask for this. Then they sent him a text to contact the clinic ourselves. Confidential number provided! He rang, Hospital said yes, he's on the list, yes, consultant's note that it is urgent is there and as a result of the call, he has been reclassified as urgent (as they had him still as 4-6 weeks, despite being five weeks in), and ooh, that is very helpful, when told he is retired and with an hour or two's notice he can take a cancellation slot. As I am off and away, he has asked my cousin to be on standby to have dog, and I have asked son to feed cat if needed.

You just know it will be while I am away at my convention!

MSE & Money
My occupational pension is visible for payment tomorrow. My word, March took ages!

The Chairman of our village hall committee can apparently pay me back the £2500 I have paid on their behalf, plus pay direct, the other significant invoice. Fingers crossed he does so imminently.

I won £150 on PB this month. Mr Sl did not win anything.

Enough, I need to get dressed and pack a bag!!

Watty1

just catching up. Belated happy birthday and congratulations on the win. (£25 here)

Suffolk_lass

Thanks @Watty1.
I've been MIA (busy) - still no call up for Mr SL's op. Sigh. Right,  this morning, it is raining, so I plan to go through a drawer and weed out dead knickers (you know, the sad, starting-to-sag ones you once liked), plus socks and bras. They are going in a black sack unless the bras are wonderful. I also have too many sweatshirts, T shirts and trousers/jeans in my chest of drawers. I hate this job but I need to clear some room. As for the hanging space. It is full of "I might..." clothes. And shoes. I should at least charity shop some of these. How many pairs of beautiful court shoes does one beekeeper/gardener need?! 

I have my Covid jab late morning too, and then a telephone appointment with the GP to follow up on the procedure that removed two polyps last month. Then off to a town about 40 minutes drive away to collect a pair of urns that were on FB marketplace. All go.

Bees update
We are in the midst of preparing for new Queen Bees that will need to be integrated on Thursday. I have three hives split so far so I know which three have no queen, and I have two colonies undergoing a Comb change. We need to move bees into clean boxes over clean floors as everything was gloopy from propolis (bee glue) immediately after winter. In the meantime, the Queen-less colonies are particularly grumpy and I have had to lend a beekeeping jacket with fencing style veil to the gardener where the greenhouse is only 20m from the hives. Apparently she got stung last week and thinks we have killer bees. I am hoping for rain today and tomorrow there, so the bees stay home.

Finally clear of three meetings in the last week and I want to get my beans planted now that I have a bit of head space to calm and empty. I find it very restful, pottering in the greenhouse in the rain!

Onward, have a good day all

Makingabobor2

I love a good declutter through a clothes drawer.  Hope you find some good stuff to get rid of. 

Suffolk_lass

Well I managed to distract myself a bit from the decluttering (that and filing are my last resort things, to do when it's raining or I am bored). So more to do over the Easter weekend.

Bees
It was mostly bees yesterday though - We had some new Queens to introduce to our colonies. MrSl went out to the remote hive, still in a quarantine location after last year's nearby notifiable disease, until the Bee Inspector has been back to look. Anyway that one hive is huge, so he split them. I needed to determine which one has the Queen and pop a new one in the other hive. I did this, leaving the new Queen in a cage, with a few attendants, to look after her while the bees bond with her.

He then went to the farm track and split one of the colonies there too. They have been undergoing what we call a Bailey comb change - getting the colony off dark brown manky frames so we can remove the one remaining piece of kit we can't interchange things with. The boxes are the same size but the frames are not so you can't help that colony if they need a boost. Anyway, he found the Queen, popped her in a little box that she could be fed through, and put her back in the original part. The new queen went in the nice clean pre-prepared box a split from that colony, minus a couple of frames, so the old queen went back in and was released into a box of new, part drawn combs, so both have room to lay. The old queen will sit over the old box, where the new baby bees need to emerge before that old box is removed.

We also prepared three other colonies to receive new queens I spent my day, happily introducing new queens 

Garden
I popped out to plant a few beans five or six runner bean seeds in a pot, two varieties, plus some borlotti (I will plant some direct too) because we want these for the freezer, to top up our bean related winter stews. Oh, and some dwarf French beans - I will do another pot of these later today, and I may direct plant a few. Then I will pass the remaining seeds to the community garden team (they are not growing runners this year).

I have clearly not got my head back in the right place as I found a tray of already germinating squash seeds in a cold frame, that I had forgotten I had planted. I obviously need to write things down at the moment! Having planted loads the day before. Mercifully the community garden want some. The cold wind and the necessity to go out for over two hours to collect something stopped me tackling some of our joint weed collection @foxgloves, and I had hoped to tackle some of our docs later and I wanted to set the gardener on the bindweed in the raspberry bed. No such luck. He wanted to finish off building a summer house that took most of the day, so he just popped in about five to help Mr Sl move my purchases round the back.

In that vein, the thing I went to collect was a pair of stone cast planters. I found some the same, (sold out) for £148 each online. I got two for £50 and I know exactly where they are going. At the top of four shallow steps up on to the lawn. I have bid on a few of these in cast stone or cast iron at various auctions over about 5-6 years and always been outbid, so I was very pleased with these. A little bit of damage but I'm not buying them to sell, they are to use.

MS steps
Not a lot to report. I shall need to start jarring up honey in the next fortnight. I will enter the county show with a few bits too (which entitles me to sell some) but that is not until the end of May. In the meantime there is a small agricultural show we go to, mid-May, and I have hardly any if anyone wants to buy some.

The humungous credit card bill has cleared my bank account; in full, having planned for the home insurance, and been reimbursed for the village purchase of fence. Still enough to see me through the expected window cleaner visit, and all the bills that go at the beginning of the month, before I get my occupational pension. Phew. Welcome to the dead zone, money wise!

Happy Good Friday everyone

Makingabobor2

Are borlotti beans easy to grow? I've never grown beans at all