Treating mum.

It’s Mother’s Day today. I’ve had gifts, someone else cooked my breakfast, I’ve pottered in the garden, there’s been cake, family visiting and a country walk. It’s been a good day all round.

In the garden the sun has brought out some spring flowers.

In the polytunnel it has been almost tropical and the covers have come off all the pots

The bulbs I planted in January are coming into flower and some rather feeble hyacinths scent the air amazingly.

The summerhouse was 40 degrees when I first went in but in my rush to fetch the camera and take these photos, I left the door open and it dropped to a healthier 30

The seeds sown in there earlier in the week are not through yet but the onions and alliums are doing well.

In the house I have seedlings a plenty. Miss C is lucky enough to have her own bathroom with a lovely wide windowsill that she covers in collectables for the rest of the year. In the spring she has to move them all aside for the good of the garden.

The tomatoes I sowed last month have been pricked out into individual plugs along with French and African marigolds. This week they were joined by celery, chard, leek, melon and cucumber seeds. The peppers and chillies are also there but have been for a while and are not showing any sign of germinating yet. They are always a bit slow.

It’s still feeling warm at teatime and spring fever is kicking in. I can hardly wait to sow more things but as they all have to go into the unheated summerhouse I just have to be sensible and sociable. I won’t spend the evening on my own in the garden, I’m joining Miss C on the sofa and watching Dancing On Ice. It’s her favourite programme and she did sort of cook my breakfast, with a little help!

Snow day.

This week has seen the country covered in layers of snow. We have been advised not to travel unless it’s absolutely necessary and the news channels have had a grand time reporting the ‘Beast from the East’ stories.

Now in our village it’s been bitingly cold but quite honestly I think we must be the only place in the country with virtually no snow. Until today. Just as they tell us it’s all over we woke up to a white out, and very pretty it was as well.

I had already intended visiting the bees and a bike ride in the snow even appealled to Miss C, who in general stays at home while we check them.

They are in the copse of trees at the top of this picture and although the track is used by dog walkers today we were the only people around. Miss C loved leading the way!

In places the snow was deep enough to come almost to the top of my wellies. HubB and Miss C took great delight in sliding and skidding through the drifts but my old bones needed more careful treatment and I ended up walking and puffing for a lot of the way.

The bees were fine when we arrived. I took the chance of quickly looking under the lids to check they still had some fondant left. This is their winter feed as a supplement to their own honey stores. Some hives use it, some don’t, but I always make it available to them. This year the bigger hive is on its second 250g block, the smallest still has most of its first left and the middle one is on its third. There is no rhyme or reason to it as all are still heavy with stores and I can see from the one with a removable floor screen that they are also uncapping those stores. A removable floor is a great way of checking, as the wax cappings fall directly below the bees cluster, letting you know exactly where in the hive they are. It is not so easy to tell on the large hive as due to damp problems I have removed the board and left the floor open to the elements. It’s a first year experiment but so far, so good. On today’s visit I expected the bees to be in torpor but the two open mesh floored hives where both up and eating. My smallest hive is still on a solid floor as a test hive and seems to be acting much more traditionally with little activity on my visits.

HubB took this picture of the snow under the trees. They stand 8 rows deep and make the copse a little micro climate within hundreds of acres of open farmland. It’s an interesting spot and I am looking forward to seeing it in spring immensely.