Thanks and Happbee Birthday....

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last blog post, it is so nice to know I am not alone in needing space sometimes.  I have started digging in the garden in preparation for a hobbit house - well I can dream can't I :-)  Oohh just think how cosy it would be ....

This week seems to have been better, I went to work on Sunday which helps I think as it gives me some space to be me.  It was rather a sad day in many ways at work with death all around me (I work in a hospital) but also nice in a way that I could help just a tiny bit by listening to peoples worries and be there to hold a hand or two (the power of holding someones hand is amazing - it always surprises me just how much comfort someone can get from that simple human gesture).

Well back to this blog post, went off an a tangent then :-)  Mr Sweetpea was a whole 40 years old the other weekend so I took Sunday off work (hence my need for space lol).  We went out to Ely to potter around as a family which was lovely.  We had wanted to go to Spain but at £2000+ for last min tickets that idea went out of the window.

I made him a belated birthday cake due to a silly cold I had.  He wanted a bee cake to go with his new hobby of beekeeping.  Can you see middle Sweetpeas Queen Bee on the right ?  It was fun to make if not a little stressful with the eldest Sweetpea deciding to throw freezing cold water over the girls in the bath whilst I ran down to pop a couple of the flowers I had cut on to the cake.  Yes I was cutting icing flowers outside the bathroom so I could keep an eye on them in the bath, I left them for about 30 seconds and it all kicked off - Mr Sweetpea was on lates at work :-(

Here are the bees, I thought you may like an update on them.  In the winter you have to give them sugar water to try and keep the hive numbers up as there is not much nectar and pollen around in the garden.

Mr Sweetpea then put a hive top feeder on so they could stay in the warm hive and feed in there.  This meant going in to the hive .......  eeekkk.  He got his kit on and got the smoker ready .....

When it was smoking enough he went to the hive .....

He then puffed the hive with smoke and stood back for a while.  He learnt a valuable lesson from last time he went in to the hive - slow and steady wins the race :-)  You have to smoke the hive and leave it for a few minutes, re smoke and do that until they all calm down.  The reason for this is that if they get smoked they assume there is a forest fire, they rush in to the hive to suck all their honey up and then they get a sugar rush which makes them dozy.  I always thought it was the smoke creating a lack of oxygen that did it but you learn something new every day !

He then went in and took the current lid off and replaced it with a feeder lid.  We knew the hive numbers had grown but look what they had created on the lid - isn't it wonderful.

So pretty to look at!  We have yet to open it up for its honey :-)  Some of the bees have already died away due to the cold weather, this is quite normal but still rather sad seeing them dead in front of the hive :-(  I hope the winter isn't too harsh for them.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, sorry they have been rather moany of late - parenthood is hard sometimes isn't it.  I know where I am with babies, I find them so easy but this hormonal time the kids are going through is a whole new ball game :-s

Take care
Zoe
x

We don't live on a farm!

 

Before I start my babbling I just wanted to say thanks so much for all your lovely comments on my blog post about hand-made gifts.  I am glad you all loved them and your comments really do make me smile :-)  Ever since I have been reading blogs I have been so inspired and it has really helped the creative side of me come out again which in turn makes me feel very happy so thank you all very much. x

'We don't live on a farm' is a phrase I often have to use in our house.  You see, my husband seems to think we do.  Not only do we have the gorgeous chickens ......

This is Petal our rather scruffy looking chicken.

Who are really cute pets, in fact too lovely as I would never dream of eating one (wouldn't make a good farmer's wife would I!).  We even have a little disabled chicken who was found limping (think of the ministry of funny walks from Monty Python) down a street in another village.

 

Here she is after a bath.  She had to live outside the main coup as the other chickens bullied her :-(

Little Sweetpea loves looking after her and after months of tender loving care she laid her first egg - she must be happy :-)

Sorry I digress ... but then Mr Sweetpea started talking about honey bees.  So look what he has now down the bottom of the garden !

I must confess I am rather fascinated and taken with them even after being stung by one.  Mind you if I had been trodden on I would sting too!

They have a little motorway over into the field next door and zoom in and out of their hive.  Here they are having a drink after a busy flight.  I have been amazed how placid they are, they are quite happy to zoom round me to get into their house, and also by how horrid wasps are trying to get in and kill their grubs and eating them if they get a chance!

And this is the field the bees zoom over.  As you can see the kiddies love it a lot too :-)  We are so lucky to live next to a lovely large field, I do hope it never gets built on, I would be heartbroken!

the kiddies watching the combine at work

It creates hours of entertainment for the kiddies .......

and the dogs :-)  Well I am now hoping Mr Sweetpea will be happy with the 2 dogs, parrot, chickens, snake and bees!  He has mentioned pigs and goats but I have reminded him again that WE DO NOT LIVE ON A FARM!  I am hoping he reads this :-)

I love having lots of animals but it does have its drawbacks.  Not only do they take time to feed and care for but you also get surprises like the above sock.  Little Sweetpea and I went to 'Music Mayhem' recently and she had forgotten her sockaroo.  She popped her shoe off and I went to put her sock on her hand to make a sockaroo only to see the above little footprint on her sock!  She had had that sock on for about 1 hour.  After a bit of questioning she told me that she had been to see to chickens in the morning, obviously with no wellies on :-)  Sockaroo got no kiss that day from the Music Mayhem leader :-)

Talking about chickens and farms, I recently got contacted by Al from All the Tea Towels to ask I could review some tea towels for her.

So I went to her site, wow what a choice!  There are so many lovely designs it was hard to pick.

 

I chose these designs as they were on Linen towels which I believe is a more eco-friendly material than cotton at the moment.  One is a garden scene and the other had to have birdies on of course :-)  Ali sent some great instructions with them on how to get the best out of my towels so I steeped them for a couple of hours and washed them with no conditioner to help absorbency.  They were such a joy to hang on the line and use.  Thanks Ali  :-)