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

Suffolk_lass

Actually, I have been tracking Ernie for a while - so far this year I am at £1650 in 2025 (£1125 in 2024). Mr Sl is on £325 in 2025 (£225 in 2024). The increased amount might be the reinvestment decision. Neither of us have maximum holdings and mine is about 3 x more than his

Makingabobor2

Well done on the PB win. 

Suffolk_lass

Well, we tackled the wasp issue as much as we could yesterday.
I have an old French straw shopping basket with a snapped handle and separating round base. Already reattached twice it has had it and was going in the bin. A moment of inspiration for repurposing it and it has a black sack around it, and lined with a second - it is the perfect size for putting old hive frames in - those attacked by wax moth (destroys it and leaves a nasty web) or so black they are unfit to reuse. Also a stack of un-dealt with frames containing honey in brood boxes*, supposedly secure from interlopers. I fully expected to find a wasps nest in one of these as there are so many wasps - at least a thousand. Per box. Anyway, we donned jackets and gloves and did a mammoth bin filling exercise (ours and then after dark, the Village Hall bin) - I even sent a message to the resident obsessed with litter picking who puts his finds in that bin, suggesting he don't until after today's bin collection. I really need to get dressed and put a note on each to warn our lovely dustmen.

Having moved the increasingly grumpy squatters** yesterday morning, it was the perfect time to remove the temptation as much as possible

* the stack had not been dealt with due to Mr Sl's illness, and his slower than anticipated recovery. I roped him in for just over an hour yesterday and doing it together, lightened the load and he felt he had contributed (he had!) so felt better.
** grumpy squatters was a large swarm of bees that had taken up residence in a box of frames that should have been disposed of but hadn't (see * explanation) and as the queen had been laying up the frames, moving them is more complicated. So they are now at the teaching apiary for our association, and we will shake them into a clean box of new foundation (called a shook swarm) and then put a queen excluder above that new box and then the box of old frames of brood, so that the queen lays in the right place and the nurse bees look after the brood in the other box and it runs its cycle to emerge - we will then remove that in three weeks and then relocate them to their new home that is too close to our garden to have moved them there without them remembering where they used to call home. Phew!

Watty1

Glad Mr S felt well enough to assist.  The feeling of being useless or helpless in a busy world is not, I feel conducive to recovery so glad he was well enough to help. These things speed recovery I'm sure.
Good for Mr S.

Suffolk_lass

We are packing up the van this morning and intend going away for a few days to quietly sit, chat and wander. We will eat simply, drink modestly, and catch up with some good friends in a field by a stream.

I have made blackcurrant curd after someone posted a link to the River Cottage recipe. I could not bring myself to use 450g sugar, so I used 300g. It made a smaller quantity but it is tangy, without being over sweet, and Mr Sl reckons it would win a prize!

Right, coffee, then van readiness

foxgloves

Sounds idyllic. Have a fab time.
F x

Watty1

That sounds so lovely. I hope it is every bit as lovely as it sounds.

rtandon27

@Suffolk_lass - enjoy your relaxing time away!

KajiKita

Sounds like a good time to go as Mr SL's energy levels are recovering, a change of scene will do you both good. Have a lovely time and return refreshed

KK

Suffolk_lass

Oh my word, I have been quiet on here. More RL stuff going on. I was going to recount yesterday's tale on @foxgloves' diary but realised I was in danger of hijacking it!. So, here goes...

My arms are jolly stiff this morning, after we collected 54 paving slabs yesterday. Free on FBMP we set off before ten with our modest-sized trailer on my car. Mr Sl lifted and brushed off the sand, after the person offering them mentioned they had not been lifted yet, just as we were setting off. So a stiff brush, a wire brush and a crow bar came with us!

I loaded the first 30 on my own, then we both loaded the rest. 100m down the road I pulled in as the trailer felt weird and one of the tyres was flat. The tyre inflator broke and we ended up stashing the trailer in someone's drive and making two journeys, pumping up the tyre with a footpump, and me moving all but six slabs to my car, while he sorted out the tyre.  My car protested by the tyre deflation light coming on, we think because the weight changed the shape a bit, as the pressure was unchanged when we got home!

Anyway, 4 hours later, we were due at a party, from 2pm. An hour away, we intended taking the motorhome. Got there 3 hours late, at 5 after a quick shower, and I drove my car, and drove us home afterwards. We left when Mr Sl's eyes were drooping, just before ten. Home by eleven, we have both slept the sleep of the dead and agreed we may have overdone it a bit!

Just the perpetual picking for me this morning, after a quick bacon butty on the green (a community social club thing for dog walkers). I would like to show our faces at a classic car do in the next village, but energy will dictate this. I also need to collect part of a hive from the teaching apiary this afternoon.