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A bee adventure!

J has just lifted a super from Hive number 1. Inside are about 10 frames of honey. Together we brushed off the few bees left in the super and carted it into the barn kitchen.

I was then shown the equipment that we will use this evening
A knife to remove the capping wax
A spinner into which we put four frames at a time and then hand crank
A honey bucket and sieve

There is a tap on the honey bucket and any honey will then be poured through the tap into honey jars

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Such a marvellous morning

After an 18 month hiatus the Colmworth “monthly cars and bikes of interest” restarted this morning. I love the wonderful old motors, so lovingly restored

A 1931 Ford
A very rare beast (I think it’s a sunbeam?)
A Cadillac shipped over from Canada with one previous lady owner who used it to drive to Walmart (of course)
Phil’s fabulous blue Racing Puma
Steve’s Peggy- full of character (he is one of the main organisers of the event which has raised thousands to repair St Denys Church)
A modem (and IMO monstrous) Aston Martin

And to top it all our local celebrity treasure – the oldest helicopter pilot in the world who holds his place in The Guinness Book of Records

I did tell him that I duck when he flies overhead! Long may he continue flying
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The last two goslings have just left The Gables.

A mother and son came to buy them and take them to their small holding near Rugby.

When they saw the goat kids

They thought they might like to have some goats. I telephoned my goat guru, Maggie, but she said that the kids are too young to leave their mother Willow. We will all stay in touch and we might have found a home for Boaz.

The ducks are back in their old enclosure (which was occupied by the goslings). Everything is calm again
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It’s a home day and plenty here to weed and pick and cook

I’m obsessed with pickling cucumbers (and eating them!)

I’m eyeing up the plethora of plums and wondering when they will ripen

I must get in bags of sugar for plum jam making
It will soon be time to separate Tufty

There are two ewes who had difficulty with birthing and feeding. We need to put them in the paddock so that Tufty can’t impregnate them. Ditto the two female lambs.

In spite of the cool, wet weather the sunflowers are blooming. They put a smile on my face
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Local history

A lorry driver arrived with some hardcore. He told me that he used to get his petrol from the farm opposite ours (they still have the old pump outside their house). He was born and raised and still lives in a nearby village. He has worked on all the neighbouring farms, first as a Brussels sprout picker and then on the harvesters and other machinery. Eventually he became a lorry driver.

He confirmed what I had heard that the fields around this village grew large amounts of Brussels. Or,as he said, “you couldn’t move for Brussels round here!” None are grown here now. Well, except in our garden!

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Early morning chicken tales

Lovely Lemon, our oldest Bantam hen, is the friendliest of all our birds

Click below

The Grey Bantam (who we returned to the paddock nearly two weeks ago) refuses to live with the other birds. During the day she stays under the hen house and only comes out when the others are sit up at night in the morning I see her and try to persuade her to stay out in the run but she won’t listen!