-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Another month, another apology for my absence, especially to all those blogs to which I subscribe. I do get some of your posts on my phone and have enjoyed reading them, making a note to self to drop a like or a comment by, but obviously to no avail. I plead a writing commitment, that … Continue reading
…I wouldn’t have been surprised. I’m talking about our latest bee inspection. There were high points (our first ‘considerable’ honey grab) and low points (the tumbleweeds). But there were a few gifts as well… Bee inspection: First Hive This bee inspection took place during the first half of July. We had admittedly left some time between … Continue reading
May news, dreadfully behind on posting as usual… Now you see them, now you don’t Well, not exactly. Their way of telling me in early April that it’s time to remove the barriers and welcome in spring. This is the shredded remains of what I had wrapped the fondant from March in. Unlike the hive … Continue reading
You see, all this time I have been thinking my girl Cheryl (yes, she’s still hanging around our place) is a common garden spider who had wandered a bit far from the garden admittedly. She’s been with us since November, the time when the females make their presence felt by preventing you from walking … Continue reading
A reference to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the Roman poet’s history of the world. But the quote is not from that work, not originally Latin: gods into bulls, women into spiders, men into wolves. It is from Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, harking back to Ovid’s retelling of history through stories of transformation (bad Latin translation is down to me). What I am … Continue reading
Non est ad astra mollis e terris via – There is no easy way from the earth to the stars. (Seneca) This post is dedicated to Roy Eastol, a true ‘fen boy,’ and a beekeeping gentleman of many decades of these here parts. Who forgot more about beekeeping than anyone ever knew (although I can’t … Continue reading
As of this writing, I think we have finally come through the swarm season. However, I thought that at the beginning of June, only to have the following, which I had drafted in mid-June happen. I was just too weary of it all to publish another instalment of what was beginning to feel like a … Continue reading
Saturday 31st We had gone out on various errands, one of them picking up the makings of another hive to transfer our primary cast of a month ago from its probably overcrowded digs in the nuc to a more spacious des res (we do not want a third hive, we do not want a third … Continue reading
But it did have a happy ending… May 12 There was a second cast, across the yard this time and down by the greenhouse. At frst we thought it was the first set moving on from their nuc home. But, no, the Garage Bees were looking distinctly guilty. As with the first swarm, … Continue reading
Yes, I did intend the caps, as I am referring to the acronym for a gubernatorial campaign run by Upton Sinclair in 1934, End Poverty in California. The emblem for the campaign was the bee, as pictured above, because, according to Sinclair, “she not only works hard but has means to defend herself.” Sinclair is … Continue reading
My Latin Notebook 