Bees Make it through winter

Bees Make It Through Winter
After getting bees last year, I must admit I had a nervous winter,because you cannot even think about calling yourself a beekeeper until you have made it through winter.
I made my first inspections a week or so ago and they are all doing fine.

7/7

Silent thing to eloquently say the unsayable
The victims of the London bombings were remembered today with fifty two stainless steel pillars mounted in four groups to denote the four bombs and the lives lost at each attack, each column representing an individual victim. The memorial is located in Hyde Park and if a column was raised for every person effected by the blasts ,we would fill the park,
Each victim was a person, an average Joe, a son or daughter going to work or coming home, just normal tasks being performed by normal people, They had no influence on the decision makers and may even have been sympathetic to some of the grievances of the attackers. The victims were from all parts of the world and where here for all sorts of reasons , because although Britain is not perfect, it is a tolerant and multicultural place to live, London will never forget the events of 7/7 now there are 52 reasons to remember those victims as people

King's Cross bomb

James Adams, Samantha Badham, Lee Harris, Phil Beer, Anna Brandt,
Ciaran Cassidy, Elizabeth Daplyn, Arthur Edlin Frederick, Karolina Gluck,
Gamze Günoral
Ojara Ikeagwu, Emily Jenkins, Adrian Johnson, Helen Jones,
Susan Levy, Shelley Mather, Michael Matsushita, James Mayes,
Behnaz Mozakka, Mihaela Otto, Atique Sharifi, Ihab Slimane,Chistian’Njoya’Small,
Monika Suchocka,
Mala Trivedi, Rachelle Chung For Yuen

Edgware Road bomb

Michael StanleyBrewster, Jonathan Downey, David Foulkes, Colin Morley,
Jenny Nicholson, Laura Webb

Aldgate bomb

Lee Baisden, Benedetta Ciaccia, Richard Ellery, Richard Gray, Anne Moffat,
Fiona Stevenson, Carrie Taylor.

Tavistock Square bus bomb

Anthony Fatayi-Williams,. Jamie Gordon, Giles Hart, Marie Hartley,
Miriam Hyman, Shahara Akther Islam, Neetu Jain,.
Sam Ly, Shyanuja Parathasangary, Anat Rosenberg, Philip Russell, William Wise,
Gladys Wundowa,

Be Nice To Bees

Bee Beginnings

Circumstances kept me from keeping bees in the past, but things have changed for me and the bees, for me they got easier, for the bees they got harder. So I decided to stop being an armchair beekeeper and get on with attempting to keep bees, with the added bonus of a couple of jars of honey.

I have had an interest in bees since I was young, so had read books on keeping them, but theory is different to practical. “Bees don’t read the book”, a common statement in beekeeping circles I have discovered .My first visit to an apiary was as a guest of a beekeeper, who has mentored me for the last few months, and even given me a small colony of bees, or a nucleus as it is called. The local beekeepers association connected me with the beekeeper ,and this should be your first port of call if you have any ideas about keeping bees , the fear of getting stung is worse than the actual sting and I would suggest that if you have never been stung it’s something that you want to get out of the way before even going near bees, although rare, an allergic reaction to bee stings is not something you want to discover whilst going through a bee hive.

If you plan to keep them in your back garden neighbours can normally be won over with a promise of honey, a well positioned hive that does not aim your bees right over their patio, will also alleviate any fears of attack during barbecues. Or ask around for a small piece of land to put hives on, if you have no back garden.

Einstein has been credited with the quote that” If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants”, I can find no proof that Einstein actually said this, and as he was a physicist I doubt if he did, or if it is true that after the death of the last bee we will follow four years later, but at least eighty five percent of wild plants and most fruits are pollinated by bees, and the world would be a little less sweeter with no honey on my toast in the morning.

IF

Centre court at Wimbledon is known the whole world over as one of the premier tennis venues, and history was made this year as the first flood lit game went late into the evening, made possible by the addition of a sliding roof, Andy Murray played Stanislas Warwinka in a game that had twelve million people watching on television , all hoping that this will be the year a British tennis player will win Wimbledon .
Never mind Andy, take heart from the inscription above the entrance of centre court . “ If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same” the rest of the verse also makes some good points so here it is in full.

IF

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Does A Bear Shit In The Woods

Does a Bear Shit In The Woods

Dog owners should always clear up after their own dog, If my dog poos on the the pavement or a public place, I bag and bin it , or take it home . If I am walking along in the woods and my dog decides to dump in the middle of the path I just pick a couple of large leaves, scoop up the poo and throw it under a bush.

So I have no idea why some people insist on clearing up after their dog , and leave the poo filled bag for someone else to remove. A lot of councils have removed the dog poo bins as a money saving measure, so there will be no staff to collect bags of poo hanging on gates, or dumped by the side of paths, if you are one of these people, I am sure that you have good intentions, but . Shit is biodegradable, plastic carrier bags are not , bears shit in the woods all the other animals shit in the woods , so if your dog must shit on the main path, push it off , place it under a bush using a couple of large leaves, or take it home, because, there is no such thing as shit fairies to take it away!

Where have I been

I have been living rather than blogging , getting my life how I want to live it and to be quite honest I could not give a fuck if you are nice or not. This has been the problem ,the reason why I have not written anything , I have no idea of your circumstances ,so who am I to tell you to be nice, when your life or day may be full of shit,

I still think that in this negative, corrupt world we are in, there is a place for a bit of positive thinking ,and I still like to be nice to people I meet , I have realised from the moment you wake until you are asleep again someone somewhere is telling you what you should be doing , thinking or buying. Television and radio advertising constantly tell us how to live and think ,so I am opting out of the telling people what to do , if you want to be nice, it’s up to you, but hang around and read some of the things I am doing to make life better.