Monday 31 March 2014

March 2014 weather summary.

Well March has been a pretty good month.

We've had some wind and rain but not too much and many days the sun has shone and warmed us through nicely and I have seen the bees making many journeys backwards and forwards with pollen laden baskets...always a good sign.

Hard to imagine that this time last year we still had snow on the ground and spring still hadn't arrived.

A couple of low nights have given some frosts but nothing below -2

During the warmer days we have been getting 16 degrees Celsius and on those less windy days it really felt like that too.

There is a saying for march...In like a Lamb, out like a lion. I for one am happy that this time the saying hasn't come true and today is a beautiful hazy sunshine just as nice (and maybe a little warmer) as the first day of March.

Of course not only has the weather improved but we moved the clocks at the weekend too so we have lighter evenings and it will be so nice to arrive home from work in the daylight!!


Warm, Lazy, Hazy March mornings!!
Warm, Lazy, Hazy March mornings!!

Sunday 30 March 2014

Every good allotment needs......

A lovely seating area to sit back and relax once in a while......you must be amazed that I am doing two posts so quickly but one really follows on from the other so I wanted to get them up more or less together....

You see after I had finally got the shed up I wanted to get a bench in place so that I would have a nice seat on the bee plot. After all everyone needs to sit back and relax once in a while...so where was the bench to go???


sitting near the beehives
This is where the bench will go.


Bench from home to allotment
The dilapidated bench.
Now I didn't go out and buy a new bench but recycled the one from home. It's not great any more but still plenty sturdy and I think adds to the rustic feel I am trying to get on the bee plot!!

Of course the ground was incredibly un-level where I wanted to put the bench but 6 barrow loads of soil later and we had a seat rather than a seesaw!!!

I even but a little table in so that we have somewhere to put our bags/cups/bottles. So what do you think??

Sit, relax, enjoy.
Sit, relax, enjoy!!
So here you can see the shed in all its 'rustic' glory with the bench in place. Of course if you are going to sit and relax for a few minutes then you need to have something with a nice view so placement was important.


Lovely view of the chickens.
Lovely view of the chickens.


Excellent view point of the hives.
Excellent view point of the hives.


Lovely open fields to watch the birds and bees
Lovely open fields to watch the birds and
bees coming and going!!



 




Saturday 29 March 2014

The shed is built!!!

I have been so busy of late that it's hard to know where to start with the posts but I figure at the beginning is best and move forward from there.

Of course because I have been so busy I have been dreadfully neglecting not only my blog but getting caught up with those blogs that I love too. I really love spring and it really has arrived but it's such a busy time of year on the allotment and I am still trying to get my head around the bee membership and getting the bees sorted too....oh but enough of the excuses and the whinging Tanya....just get on with the pictures!!

Si I told you the saga of the shed here so I won't drone on about it too much but it did men that for a couple of weeks the bee plot just looked like this....


The shed arrived but without a roof!!!
The shed arrived but without a roof!!!
I had to order wood and then we had to get it together. Of course the easy job that was supposed to be didn't turn out quite so easy either. Misplaced bolts (by me which of course I have now found and haven't actually told the men in the family about!!) some confusion with the wood meant a few trips to town and a windy day didn't help but I wasn't about to get disheartened and eventually after many hours the shed was up!!!

We waited until the following day to get the felt on the roof as no rain was forecast and VOILA...a shed...


Now it still isn't totally finished as there are a few cosmetics to be done but the shed is up and stable and water tight. windows still need re-grouting and it needs a good coat of creosote but I am very pleased with it. I was asked about carrying it whole from one plot to the next when I mentioned it before but this would not have been possible as the shed was 10ft by 6ft and there was no room to carry it between sheds and greenhouses already on the plot.

Well I guess that really is all that is to be said for the shed. I am really happy with it and it is now filled with all the bee equipment which means my greenhouse is now free to grow seedlings again as it had become a rather untidy storage area!!

Kind of a boring post really but very exciting developments for me personally and I smile every time I go up to the bee plot and see my lovely shed and know that I have all I need to hand!!



Wednesday 26 March 2014

Plleeaassee can we go for a drive!?!?!?

Trojan loves the car!!!
Trojan making all the decisions!!

Sunday 23 March 2014

And 'sow' it begins....

That's right...I actually made a start with the seed sowing. Not much ahs gone in yet as it's predicting some frosts this week but the onions, broad beans and garlic are finally in the ground.

I usually put my garlic and broad beans in back end but last year everything was so up in the air and rushed I didn't get chance so fingers crossed for a decent crop.

Got quite a bit of weeding and digging done over the last couple of weeks too. Just an hour here and there every now and again so as not to get daunted with it but it's amazing how much I can accomplish doing it this way without getting overwhelmed by it all.

So not much happening but I am feeling positive that things will be going in on time and I have some theories about making my work load on the allotment a little lighter this year.

The half of the allotment I haven't started on yet!!
The half of the allotment I haven't started on yet!!
 


Digging certain;y gets you in shape after winter.
Garlic, onions and broad beans planted.
Things coming along nicely.

spot the beehive
Just wanted to show you where my beehives were in relation to my
plot...can you see them??

There they are...this is with maximum zoom on the camera!!


Hope you all had a great weekend.

Thursday 20 March 2014

Tuesday 18 March 2014

It's been a while......

Well it seems like forever since I last wrote a post, in fact I've been so busy I didn't even get my 'wordless Wednesday' post up last week and that takes no time at all!!

It's always the case of everything seems to come at once and you have all these carefully laid out plans which end up totally cocked up by one thing and another and then things over run and you don't have time to complete and then one thing runs into the next and you forget to breather and before you know it you lost a couple of weeks before you manage to accomplish anything at all......notice there was nowhere to breathe in that bit?? Yeah life was kind of like that for a couple of weeks...a little bit of a whirlwind with a lot of cursing and swearing but hopefully that is now all a thing of the past and things are looking up!!

Except the fact that I don't have any photos of what I have been up to so you will have to take my word for it and enjoy another excuse for me to show off Trojan!!


My Beautiful Trojan.
My Beautiful Trojan.
So what have I been up too?? Well I was offered a shed by someone down the allotments. A good size one that I thought would be perfect for the bee plot. However taking it down was a complete nightmare and what should have taken a couple of hours took sooooo much longer and left me without a roof so we couldn't put it straight up. Then of course I had work and shop duties so for two weeks had to hop, skip and jump around the shed pieces laid all over the bee plot. But this weekend I had time, managed to get some labour from family and re-construction commenced. Again what should have been a quick job wasn't so quick....not enough bolts...not the right size wood...nails which we missed when taking it apart...so all in all a full days work and still it wasn't finished...but at least it was up and stable.


So Sunday afternoon my Dad and I went to felt the roof....bought a good quality felt...plenty long enough...got the felt tacks...than I cut one piece too long which left the last piece to short. This is where I really want to scream!!!

Anyway after we put up the first two pieces I realised we could split the final piece down the middle and it would still give an overlap...finally something was going in my favour. So the felting got finished and now not only do I have a shed but one that won't leak although it isn't finished yet but the extras are something that can be done as and when I have a bit of spare time.

Obviously I then needed to transport stuff and I can tell you it is lovely to have my garden back again as it really was beginning to resemble a scrap yard. I now also have a greenhouse I can get into to sow seeds as does my Mum who was also storing some stuff for me.

Of course on top of all that the weather has been nice at times and I have managed to make a start on weeding and digging the allotment plot too and will be hoping to get some things planted this coming weekend. Oh it's all starting to come together and I am feeling happy about what I have achieved. Hey I even got a larger proportion of the bug hotel done.

All the warmer weather is making the bees very happy and busy too!!

So that's all I have for now...I will take lots of photos and share them over the next 3 or 4 days....and at least then you won't have to listen to me whinging any more.

What I haven't managed to do is keep up to date with everyone's blogs but I will hopefully be putting that right over the next few days.

Take care.



Wednesday 5 March 2014

Awakenings.

Snowdrops in the spring.


in the spring.

in the spring.


Spring flowers.

Spring flowers. primroses

Spring flowers.

Saturday 1 March 2014

February 2014 weather summary.

Well I am much more able to make this post after deciding at the end of January to write a monthly summary for the weather as I have kept myself more aware of things!!

So what have we had over the month of February??

Well temperatures have actually been quite mid ranging from 11 degrees Celsius to -2 so a couple of light frosts have occurred but nothing major in that respect.

We have seen thunder, lightning, hail and snow but none of them in great quantities and the snow never settled for more than half an hour or so.

There has however been A LOT of rain and plenty of gale-force winds. My area of the country wasn't worst hit but we saw gales in excess of 80 m.p.h. at times and for days on end the winds were fierce causing some damage around an about....

Fence panels destroyed in fierce gale force winds.Fence panels destroyed in fierce gale force winds.

 Fence panels destroyed in fierce gale force winds.

Tree blown over by strong winds.
Tree blown over by strong winds.
On the other hand we have had the rare still balmy day where it's been a pleasure to take Trojan out across the fields and bask in the warmth of the watery spring sun and listen to the birds singing their lovely choruses.

Trojan enjoying a rare, still, warm day in February.
Trojan enjoying a rare, still, warm day in February.
Obviously we have also seen the days slowly getting longer and it's nice to see a little more light in the day.

Sunrise on last day of February; 6:52am.
Sunset on last day of February; 5:39pm.
.