My son Adrian, and his lovely wife Lucy have recently presented us with a handsome Grandson, Thomas. My daughter Alison has already given us 3 lovely Grand daughters.
They live 57 miles from us near Morpeth. Thomas lives in Hampshire. Only 420 miles away! I foresee much travelling in the future.
Adrian, who is an Officer in the Royal Navy, http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/operations-and-support/surface-fleet/patrol-vessels/fishery-protection-squadron/offshore-patrol-vessels/hms-tyne/commanding-officer/ was able to spend some leave time at the birth, so we took advantage to travel South to meet Thomas and have a rare family meeting.
It is genuinely fulfilling to see new family members coming along, and providing hopes and aspirations for the future. Also, we can play Grand parents even more now!
His Dad has already chosen a mountain bike for him and I am trying to locate a small beekeepers veil and a fishing rod!.
The journey down south is long but easy as long as the traffic works for you.
We make several short stops for breaks and to let Meghan (my Dog) have comfort breaks.
Our first stop is usually at the new service station at Wetherby. Both my wife and I have slight disabilities, sufficient for us to be issued with blue badges to allow us to use disabled parking bays. We only use them when we would have to hobble a distance greater than is comfortable. Whenever we can, we use normal parking spaces on the assumption that someone with greater disability needs the space more than us.
I am always annoyed at the blatant disregard that so many other road users treat the disabled bays and park their motors in them when they don`t have either a badge or disability. Our stop at Wetherby was a case in point. Even from the disabled bays it is a marathon walk to use the facilities here, and inevitably the bays are always in demand. Sure enough a red car pulled in to the bay next to us, 3 young people got out and left the driver in the car. No badge and no obvious disability noted. The driver stayed in the car running the engine to excess. I noted that the car was sign written on the door with the logo of the owning organisation emblazoned thereon. The three passengers eventually returned, to the accompaniment of loud horn blowing from the attention seeking driver, at which point I mentioned to them through the window that they were parking selfishly and that they were stopping genuinely disabled people from using the bays. The driver then hurled abuse at me and tore off at a ridiculous speed. The logo on the side of the car proudly displayed that it belonged to BBC 3 Counties Radio. I am sure that their normally politically correct position would frown on this sort of behaviour.
The chap in the car on the other side of me said that he would have come to my aid, but he had no legs!
I was shaken by the behaviour of the BBC man, and when I arrived at my sons house I looked at the BBC web site and identified the driver from a photograph on the site,as a presenter for 3 counties radio. Obviously not a good man to project the BBC`s image.
Rant over.
We did not let it spoil our day and eventually arrived in Horndean to make acquaintance with young Thomas. I wish him well in life and for the future.
It was quite something to see my son changed from his usual self into a loving and caring father. the pride in his and Lucy`s eyes was obvious to see. Irene and I know that Thomas is in the very best of hands and can look forward to a wonderful future.
Saturday 7 November 2009
Tuesday 3 November 2009
MOVING ON
I am now resigned to the fact that I have probably seen the last of my bees and hives etc which were stolen from Penmanshiel.
The site was particularly good, situated as it is alongside the main East Coast rail line, where it passes for several miles through natural woodland, open country and a considerable area where very little intensive agriculture is carried out. It is also fairly close to foothills where heather abounds. Consequently the forage for the bees was particularly good with a comparatively long series of nectar flows. Unfortunately it was also in full view of the A1. This may have been the reason that it was targeted by possibly an opportunist thief, who had noticed it whilst travelling the A1.
I am now making plans to re-establish my beekeeping activities.
Before the hives were stolen, I had already made an arrangement with a local farmer to place some hives in a quiet woodland area on the edge of my village. This was planned for next season. As I now have only one colony, this move will have to be placed on hold until I have made increase to my stock.
The new colony which Pat so kindly gave to me, is situated in an ideal setting but it is approximately 30 miles from home, so I am probably going to have to move it, or increase the number of colonies in this locality, otherwise travelling costs will far outweigh the advantages of its location. More decisions to make! Meanwhile I have visited this hive and fed the bees via an Ashworth feeder with 10 litres of sugar syrup to ensure sufficient stores to get them through the winter. I am keeping my fingers (and everything else) crossed that they survive until the spring when I hope to use this stock as the nucleus for my new colonies.
One of the things that I learned during a lifetime of beekeeping, is that you have to work with the seasons when dealing with bees. So spring time, when the bees start to stir in their nest and the queen resumes more active egg laying, will be the time to try to persuade the bees to agree to increase.
I am also considering the purchase of several packages of bees to introduce into new hives, although the price required by the bee breeders may curtail this option. Bee packages containing around three and a half pounds weight of bees and one queen were last season costing about £120. Quite an investment for what is now basically a hobby for me. Hopefully I may be able to acquire some stray swarms during May or June, although with so many colonies dieing out through so called colony collapse disorder, and general winter losses, swarms are now a much rarer phenomenon than they once were. The demand for bees may well outstrip the supply and costs will probably rise beyond this next year.
More soon.
The site was particularly good, situated as it is alongside the main East Coast rail line, where it passes for several miles through natural woodland, open country and a considerable area where very little intensive agriculture is carried out. It is also fairly close to foothills where heather abounds. Consequently the forage for the bees was particularly good with a comparatively long series of nectar flows. Unfortunately it was also in full view of the A1. This may have been the reason that it was targeted by possibly an opportunist thief, who had noticed it whilst travelling the A1.
I am now making plans to re-establish my beekeeping activities.
Before the hives were stolen, I had already made an arrangement with a local farmer to place some hives in a quiet woodland area on the edge of my village. This was planned for next season. As I now have only one colony, this move will have to be placed on hold until I have made increase to my stock.
The new colony which Pat so kindly gave to me, is situated in an ideal setting but it is approximately 30 miles from home, so I am probably going to have to move it, or increase the number of colonies in this locality, otherwise travelling costs will far outweigh the advantages of its location. More decisions to make! Meanwhile I have visited this hive and fed the bees via an Ashworth feeder with 10 litres of sugar syrup to ensure sufficient stores to get them through the winter. I am keeping my fingers (and everything else) crossed that they survive until the spring when I hope to use this stock as the nucleus for my new colonies.
One of the things that I learned during a lifetime of beekeeping, is that you have to work with the seasons when dealing with bees. So spring time, when the bees start to stir in their nest and the queen resumes more active egg laying, will be the time to try to persuade the bees to agree to increase.
I am also considering the purchase of several packages of bees to introduce into new hives, although the price required by the bee breeders may curtail this option. Bee packages containing around three and a half pounds weight of bees and one queen were last season costing about £120. Quite an investment for what is now basically a hobby for me. Hopefully I may be able to acquire some stray swarms during May or June, although with so many colonies dieing out through so called colony collapse disorder, and general winter losses, swarms are now a much rarer phenomenon than they once were. The demand for bees may well outstrip the supply and costs will probably rise beyond this next year.
More soon.
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