Just a bit of an update (2011 - my missing blog year)

Just to let you know a bit more about what I was up to whist I was unable to blog during 2011.  Well you might remember that when I'd last posted you back then, we had just been given the grant for the bees.  We got funding for hives, bees and suits.  Myself and another plot holder Pete both took charge of a hive each, with  spare parts to expand with another hive this year.  2011 went rather well, and the bees flourished.  We didn't take any honey off them, deciding to leave it for them to over winter on.  It looked like they had come through the winter ok, my hive was very active during the week in March that was unseasonably warm, Pete's didn't seem to be as active.  We had a visit from the BeeBase Inspector in April and he confirmed that Pete's had Nosema and wasn't likely to survive.  Nosema Apis reduces the lifespan of infected bees, increases winter mortality and reduces spring build up.  My hive on the other hand was going really well, "a lovely colony" he said.  Well what I need now is a nice warm day when I can open the hive up and do a spring check.  I will then decide if I am going to expand and create a second colony, not sure if I'm brave enough for this...

A couple of pictures here for you of the bee set up.

A Break in the Rain

Welcome to Mark N and West9, thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy the journey...


Hallelujah, we've actually had a break in the weather, well the rain, it's still rather chilly. Since the beginning of April, I can't remember going any longer than a day without rain, rain or even more rain. To be quite frank, if it didn't rain again until ooh maybe November I wouldn't be bothered, even though that means watering the garden with 6,7 or 8 litre watering cans, I'd quite happily suffer in silence. The rain and continuous cold spell has put the season back quite a few weeks, for me anyhow. But this bank holiday weekend we had 3 days of mostly dry conditions.


So I struck while the iron was hot so to speak with that dry weather... I spent most of Saturday at the allotment digging over the area where the potatoes are going to go (eventually), all of Sunday afternoon and evening and then went back again at 8am on Bank Holiday Monday to spend another 6 solid hours finishing off the job. Who in their right mind goes digging on an allotment at 8am on a Bank Holiday Monday! One mad plotter that's who... I was dead on my feet by the end of it, the soil was quite waterlogged and very heavy, which made digging rather hard work. But I did it, it's all cleared and raised beds are starting to appear.


Here are a few pictures of how the 'Solanace' patch has improved....

How it all started with the weeds (July 11)

The weeds chopped down...

You can see here (April 12) that I've took down part of the fence and started to dig over the potato (solanace) area, a couple of beds are in but still a bit to dig over...

Here (May 12) the whole of the potato (solanace) area has now been cleared, dug over and another bed created.

So hopefully the weather will hold off this weekend so that I can finish building the remaining beds and get the potatoes in.... please Mr Weatherman, play nicely...

Wordless Wednesday