Last week I went to Holmfirth to see Cowboy Junkies at the Picturedrome. I stayed overnight with my college friends Susie and Jon. We had a good catch and thankfully they enjoyed the music. The band was very good, the first set was from their new album with the second half playing some of their older songs. They’ve been around for over thirty years but I only discovered them about 2 years ago. I’ve been asked several times how I would describe their music – it is a fusion of rock and folk best listened to in a smoke filled bar (although I hate smoke filled bars so it shouldn’t work for me). The Picturedrome was a perfect venue and it was a very good night.
The garden is keeping me busy with a lot of weeding being done but it seems no sooner have I caught up with one area and started another then I have to start all over again. The vegetable plot is looking neglected and several crops have failed altogether. I sowed parsnips twice and still not a sign; I had to do a second sowing of beetroot (unheard of before); one row of peas seem to have been eaten by the pigeons and the peas that I thought were sugar snaps have come up as Kelevedon Wonder although I did sow them side by side so they may have got confused on the pea netting; the potatoes, carrots and courgettes are all doing very well which is a euphemism for inundated. The runner beans are in flower and look as though I might get a decent crop.
And so to the bees. Ho hum, these little ladies are proving to be a worry. It seems the queen has died. For the third week running I cannot see her during the inspection and I cannot see any signs of eggs or larvae. It is possible that the workers will convert an egg into a queen cell and produce a new queen but this will take 16 days so the best advice I’ve been given is to leave them alone and wait 2 or 3 weeks. I keep telling myself that bees have been doing this for millennia and I should stop worrying but I don’t want to let my friend Gary (bee donor) down or let the colony die when they are working so hard. Only time will tell. A local beekeeper advised me that it has been a difficult year for beekeepers generally with an unusual number of swarms but that is little consolation to a novice like me.
