First "milestone"

Hello

 Firstly , many thanks for your kind comments to my last post.

Well , first milestone of "will I manage this place or wont I?"

As the sun came out late yesterday morning I looked down the garden and spotted a lot of activity on the front of a hive.

 

   So I'm wondering if the relatively rare 2024 sun had excited them or were they thinking of swarming. It's quite early for a swarm, but not unknown.

   Half an hour later they swarmed onto the small greenhouse. They were in three lumps, so for a while i couldn't make out if I had a prime swarm and a couple of casts (small secondary swarms) or a large swarm that had split as it landed. I  already had a hive set up and ready for a swarm, but if there were more I had nothing ready to use. I spent the next couple of hours having a sprockle through my gear  to see if I could cobble something up. Anyhow, two hours gave them time to make their mind up and they gradually started to merge into one.

 I have been the main beekeeper for a few years now as David hasn't been able to do most of the physical actions needed and a couple of years ago had an allergic reaction. However, he and I have kept bees together for over fifty years now and always discuss each situation and how it is going to be approached.   So this year I am on my own. I am perfectly capable of getting organised and catching a swarm independently ( Mind you when they are high up a tree it helps to have someone to foot the ladder or hold a box for me to drop some bees in - it is usually my youngest daughter, though many have been dragged in to help here)

SO, big girl pants on and off I set. I decided to talk to myself as I got ready, which helped. 

I took a couple of short videos that I thought might be of interest to a couple of women friends who are about to start beekeeping. ( I have tried to load these on here, but failed) This swarm is to to be one woman's first colony ..  enjoy Rissa! They are lovely dark bees and very friendly.

 You may have noted that I am observing No Mow May, which can be difficult when your neighbours have such tidy gardens . However, this year I will not have to wait quite so long to mow as the dandelions are early this year and the lady smocks have been out some time too.

   My vegetable patches are about ready to plant. Here is the top patch. Much thanks to my friend Helene who loves to dig... How can I refuse?!

So there we are, There will be much to do with the bees as the year progresses, but I reckon I will be okay. The trick is  " talk to yourself". So I guess I will look and sound even more like a crazy old woman as the year goes on.

If you read all through these ramblings , many thanks. If not no one can blame you!

Love Gill x

A BIG Decision

 Hello All

Well it's blowing a gale and hailing out there at the moment. I was going to do a Tip Run but it really isn't the weather for loading up the car with the pile of wet stuff piled outside the garage and then un -piling it several miles away, when I could be sitting in my kitchen cleaning up some bee frames and potting on some seedlings. And let's face it I'm not even doing that now as I am sat at my laptop.

Looking around me, my kitchen is a typical  smallholder's space. The fire is on, with a couple of supers of honey keeping warm to the side, a clothes horse of washing to the front and washed plastic bags, a bunch of dried chillis  and baskets of onions on a line above. 

This reverie is not without purpose.

My husband of 58 years died last month. He had fought several life threatening illness over the years, Being a big strong guy, with a healthy lifestyle and being extremely bloody minded he had fought them all. The last year or two had seen him struggling with that fight and the last few months saw him doing very little other than worry about what he should be doing.  He hated that I became his carer and that he "couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding" While we knew he hadn't long, he passed away suddenly. I am SO pleased for him. On the day he died he said " I've had enough Gilly" and so he had.

So here I am, sat in the kitchen of the  family home of 43 years, thinking of where I go from here. I shan't make any decisions for some time yet, in fact I am going to give myself a year ( four gardening seasons!) to see how I manage. I really don't want to give up the only lifestyle that makes any sense to me. 

If you will  bear with me I will use my blog to chart those seasons and weigh up the pros and cons of a crazy 78 year woman staying on her two beautiful Derbyshire acres

Gillx

Yogurt

 Hello

I'm going to start  off with a recipe/method which some of you probably already know, but I have come across only in the last few months. I love learning new things.

 Not only is this a very economic yogurt, I think it is the best tasting, thickest one too!

Slow Cooker yogurt

Place 4 pints of milk in your slow cooker and put on high for 2 to 3 hours until temp is 180.

Turn off the cooker and leave for a further 2 to 3 hours until temp is 110 to 115

In a bowl add a little of the milk to a live plain yogurt I( I used a basic live Greek one) stir and then pour back into the rest. Stir gently up and down, don't whisk in a circular motion.

Take the bowl out of the casing and wrap it in a towel

Leave overnight ( or 10. to 12 hours) at room temperature

Strain into a cheesecloth and leave several hours to remove as much of the whey as you can.

Decant into a bowl and refrigerate.

This is when I go to the freezer and fish out those silly cartons of a few plums, raspberries etc that I couldn't possibly throw away last autumn. A tin of strawberries mixed in  also went down well with the great- granddaughters

Don't forget to save a pot to use as the next culture. 

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If this blasted rain would stop I could get more planted in the veg patch. Goodness know what the farmers are going through.

All For Now 

Gillx

Back to the blog

 Hello All

After a two year hiatus I'm going to see if I can get back into blogging.

The last two years have been busy in so many ways with many changes to my circumstances, but I reckon I might now be able to give my blog the time it requires. 

I look forward to rekindling our blogging friendships ( if there is anybody still there!) and reading your blogs too

Back soon with updates on  my frugal life on the smallholding.

Gill x