Grapes are goners!!

Just a quickie tonight as I've been catching up with some of your blogs and it's now quite late!!

Remember the overwhelming grapevines I told you about??

Yep...there they are in all their untrained and unrefined glory....like the triffids, trying to take over the plot!!

And here they aren't!! See the green bin at the end?? I had to climb in it and jump up and down rather vigorously four times to get the vines in but I did it and now the space is tidy and weed free!!

Now all I have to do is decide what will occupy the space in the future. I am after something low maintenance and tameable. An edible hedge was mentioned so that's something to look into...amy other ideas??

Alnmouth Beach

So this year we went to Alnwick in Northumberland for our holiday. We had a lovely week there with lovely weather and I have lots to share with you about it but right now it's late so I am just going to share a few pics of walking on Alnmouth Beach.

This was the third time Trojan and Louie had visited the beach and they still weren't keen on the see...we only managed to coax them in to get there feet wet and as soon as a wave came that was it...they were gone!!!

however when we got a bit further up the beach and we found some rock pools in a small inlet Trojan was in his element. Without the threat of the waves and moving water he enjoyed exploring, jumping from rock to rock, enjoying all the different smells and even going in the deeper pools!!

The beaches were lovely and clean and dog friendly with lots of other dogs for Louie and Tro to meet and greet. This wasn't far from Alnwick at about 4 miles and the closest beach to us. It was a shame that it was so far away and the access to it was via a road which often did not have pavements so I had to wait until Hubby was about to drive me. Certainly well worth the wait though and the dogs had a whale of a time!!

Pied piper of the bees!!

Hubby and Son were not happy with me on Sunday when I took a couple of supers off the beehive and brought them home for extraction....Why??? Well I got followed...only by a few...but those few went back and told their mates....

One or two became one or two THOUSAND!!

Happily sitting on the window!!

 Nw Hubby and Son really don't like bees and hastily closed doors and windows as warm as it was. I had to get the Sons bike out of the shed so he could go to work!! You can't really see in the photo but there really were a lot about. Of course they went home at sunset and I then bought the supers in but they still came back the following day and although the numbers dwindled throughout the day as there was nothing for them there was still a lot of activity until sundown!! Back to the normal amount of bee activity for a garden today though which pleased both Hubby and Son immensely!

Lovely golden honey!!

It was worth it though to have all this wonderful honey...now all I have to do is buy some more jars so I can take the rest off...this time though I'll make sure not to leave the 'supers' in the garden whilst I 'pee' and make a cuppa!!

Now all I have to do is get it labeled up...but that's a job for tomorrow!
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Going it alone.

I have always been a vegetable grower. I usually do quite well at it too and always have enough to donate a few bits to the allotment shop and share with family and friends.

My mum was always the 'flower grower' and every year would grow from seed a variety of flowers which she would then share with us and we could plant out to have spectacular summer gardens. Any over's that were left would be sold to neighbours if they wanted them...they were always sold cheaply just to cover the cost of the compost so a box of forty(ish) plants would be sold for about £3.00. There was usually a variety of marigolds, tagetes, salvia, petunias, dahlias, lobelia, and sweet williams to name just a few.

So this year was the first where i had to have a go at doing all this myself. I kept the varieties to simple ones which I knew were always prolific germinators....Tagetes, petunia, marigolds and then a few lobelia which I know are harder to germinate but I do love them.

So how did I do??

Tagetes and petunias

Marigolds and tagetes

Tagetes, marigold and petunias

Tagetes, marigold and petunias

Well I think it's safe to say from the pictures above that I didn't do that great. My garden certainly doesn't have the spectacular show of years past. The weather hasn't been great this year and this may have factored into the patchiness but I think I am going to just believe that flower growing just isn't my forte. I have had a re-think about the garden and I am going to plant some perennials, lavender, a few shrubs and some grasses and stuff. I am going for pretty, low maintenance, but something that lets me potter. I am also going for flowers that the bees will love to forage on so that I will get some nice flowery honey too (that is if my bees visit my garden!!)

I'm not a defeatist at all but I really don't want to spend hours on something that may not turn out very well. There is nothing wrong with change and I figure now is as good a time as any and I know my Mum will be proud of the fact that I gave it a go!!

A little sharing

Well I wanted to stay in touch and write a quick post but I couldn't be bothered to get my laptop out so I am having a go through my kindle. This is a very exciting step forward for me as I don't usually do much.Mir on it than read, play candy crush and send messages through messenger but I am trying to get with the technological times a little more. I even worked out the other day how to accept a call on my kindle through messenger although I have to say I really struggled with not holding it to my ear...lol.

Above is my latest purchase...I thought it was lovely when I saw it whilst I was bee book hunting on Amazon the other day, it's a metal sign and has been added to my garden shed!!

And this, of course, is a photo of Louie And Trojan. Happily sleeping together after a rather wonderful day out whilst we were on holiday. I don't have many pictures on my kindle so that's the best I can do right now post wise but I bet you've all been missing Trojan anyway!

I will share our day out with more pictures from the camera in a couple of days.

Hope you sleep as soundly as the dogs!!

Neglecting it all!!!

There is an allotment with crops in
there somewhere...honest!

So I'm here....and I am alive and well...just been a little not with it at times. August has been a hard month....and I have neglected a lot of things throughout, the allotment (as you can see above) the bee admin, this blog, the bee blog, the bee plot, my reading and my letter writing and also keeping caught up with my favourite blogs. Having said that though there have been some lovely highlights of 21st and 16th celebrations and a wonderful holiday too.

But August is now over and the days are rapidly getting shorter and I am starting to get my butt into gear again...after all I am sat here writing this aren't I??

I do have a lot to share but don't think it's a good idea to put it all in one post and some of it is probably more relevant on the bee blog but I will give you a few tidbits about the bees soon so that you don't have to go and check out a separate blog...I know some of you don't like too!!

So where was I ?? I don't really know...I have kind of lost the plot as I have so much to tell you all about....but surely I can't just leave this post as it is now...it hasn't really said anything??? Maybe I could and then start some valid posts that have a point to them and publish them every day or two for a while until I am finally caught up??

Hmmmmm.....what to do?? Any ideas?? Well it's not like I'm going to get an answer whilst I'm still writing the post as nobody has even read it yet...of course there is the chance that no-one will come back to read it I have been away so long...with the odd pointless post in the middle!!

Hang on...let me check the camera for inspiration.....

What's going on with the marrows??

 Not much there without delving into more of a story at the moment but I did find the above picture. This is one of my marrow plants...the HEALTHIEST one I might add. What's going on there?? Marrows are usually like courgettes...way too many grow but all the plot holders have far too many and you can't give them away...this year I haven't had a single marrow...and bouy do we love eating marrow. I just don't know why...have I lost my mojo?? I know I'm still not really back on track this year but to not be able to grow a marrow is just embarrassing to be honest....oh and then I go and announce it to the world...lol

Red Sky at night,
Shepherds delight

Apart from that I will leave you with a sunset from last week....I saw this whilst sat on the sofa...I just loved the pink fluffy clouds...so calming and soothing to the eye.

I will be back with more of everything...if not tomorrow then certainly the day after...after all don't want to snowball you all if you come back to read...you will need a little bit of breathing time!!