Who knows where the time goes? #

Well, I still haven't finished Nicky's waistcoat. I'm only part way through making Ella's (baby) blanket, and I've only made one square for the Oxfam maternal mortality blanket. Are the light evenings distracting me from my knitting? I am spending a lot of time in the garden, and the bees need looking at every weekend. But, really, where does the time go?
I bought a lovely Berry Compote from Maggie, of the wonderful Runnington Fruit Farm, a few days ago. Then on Sunday ,I was pushed for time to make a pudding. I added a couple of lightly stewed cooking apples to the compote and tipped the mixture into a pie dish. I rubbed 5 ounces of butter into 8 ounces of plain flour, stirred a bare tablespoon of demerara sugar into the flour mix, then carefully spooned the crumble over the fruit. It went into a medium oven until golden brown. It made a delicious end to our sunday meal...

#written by Bob Dylan. Sung best by Sandy Denny.

May Fair

Having spent a lot of the week-end working in the garden, we needed a little retail therapy. So bright and early on Bank Holiday Monday (well, 10 o'clock), we went to the Milverton May fair. There are ALWAYS lots of plant stalls. I bought some lily of the valley and some Herbs. Best beloved added to his (pristine) collection of Observer natural history books, and also bought a rather lovely glass jug, of some elegance.
After that, I went and joined Close Knit at Wellington Monument, for a Knit in Public at the Art Festival.
The day ended with me completing my first square for the Oxfam project.

May Day

As I write this, the rain has stopped, and it has become a calm, quiet night. May Eve. Tomorrow is Beltane- the first day of summer. Traditionally, the young people of a community would be going out now to the woods, to find Hawthorne [may]. It would be brought into every house at dawn, to 'bring the summer in' . And then taken out smartly at dusk, as it may only be in the house for Beltane.

This rather splendidly ragged chap discovered that we were feeding the birds back in February. He has become bolder with time,and merely crouches if he sees us around. Although there are less tatty males around, he seems to be top of the pecking order. In fact, we have seen him chasing

other males off, with little resistance.

And this is the prize. We don't know which hen is the mother, but we are sure of the father's identity. So, in about three weeks time, we hope to see fifteen fluffy,peeping, pheasant chicks.

I wish you all a warm, sunny, joyful Beltane.

No Otters

Saturday finally felt like Spring...even though thursday will be Summer. So it felt good to start the Otter Census in balmy sunshine. The first part was a walk upstream for about a mile, which was through lovely, traditional grazing meadows. Absolutely no sign of recent Otter activity, but I did see a Roe buck, a Stoat [redder than a Fox,with it's little black tail whirling around like a windmill] a Brimstone butterfly,lots of Orange Tips and a wonderful number of Peacock butterflies.

The second part took me downstream about a mile and a half. This was through mainly arable fields, which are down to oil seed rape this year. It is such a vivid yellow. The stream winds about much more here, then becomes a river, when it is joined by another stream.The banks become shallower, and where the edge has silted, I finally found two clear otter paw prints. About a quarter of a mile further on, near the bridge which marked the end of my patch, I also found spraint.

The walk back was much quicker, with nothing to look for. But I did see a Fox within sight of my back gate!

At home, a routine check of the Bees- we made a nucleus on Hive one. As usual they were bursting at the seams.The others making up nicely.

Sunday started as beautifully as saturday. I had to repeat the checks I had carried out for Otters. Part one was done swiftly and uneventfully. As I was leaving the house to start part two, Best Beloved called out 'The bees are being silly'. Despite our work yesterday, they swarmed. Not far, twenty-five feet, into the nearest apple tree! Now,there's not a lot one can do until they really settle. So we put our bee suits on[our white overalls and hoods]and wedged a skep above them in the tree, then left them to it.

So, on with the final part of the check.This yielded a spraint at a different point,but no more pawprints. Then a brisk walk back in search of a cup of tea.

The bees had settled down, but as you can see from the photo, instead of spreading INTO the skep, they had started to go up the OUTside. As I walked home, the sky had been getting darker by the minute. It now started to rain. Not a little drizzle, but big, fat drops. The bees were very hurriedly brushed into a clean brood box, and with little ceremony, dumped into a hive and a roof dropped on. I am sure you will be pleased to hear that by six p.m. they were humming like a choir at vespers. [That means they are happy]. We got soaked to the skin.

A funny old weekend.

Keeping warm

This is the first time I have designed a knitted garment, and although it is a simple base shape, there is quite a lot of surface pattern from the different stitches, and colour in the Fair-Isle. It was made for a friend's very new baby. I am quite pleased with it as a beginning. [Double click on the image for detail].

He says he is staying in bed. It's too cold and far too wet for an Aby to be out!

Working holiday

Best beloved is on leave this week, so has decided to clear out the wood-shed and refill it.There was only a barrowfull left from this winter. This picture shows that he has already sawn, chopped and stacked four rows deep. He gets to feel very smug, and I have a lovely, safe feeling that we will be warm next winter.
Doesn't it look great?

I ,meanwhile, tidied and cleaned out the bee-shed.The kit is now logically arranged, like with like, instead of everything heaped together anyhow.
In a break for a cup of tea, I saw this honey bee working her way along all of the dandelion flowers, and her face was yellow with pollen.Even better, her pollen 'baskets' were bulging with it, too.
The bees spring build-up is very slow this year.I am having to feed them...but hopefully it means they will survive.

Tea and cakes

Steenie, M. andJacqui came over on Sunday afternoon, so, of course, I made cake. A quick recipie is an old one for rock buns. To make them a bit more interesting, I left out sultanas and currants,and put in dried cherries and cranberries instead. Much more of a zing.