Tag: Bumblebees

Blog Posts

To bee or not to bee…

ladygaladriel50

So today is my first day back at work after a wonderful week in magical Cornwall. Within minutes of opening my inbox I was wishing myself back there. It’s taken me all day to sort through the crap to find the actual things to do.

I was so glad when close of business came round. I don’t think I’ve ever shot out of my office and into yoga as fast as I did today. Lucky me. The weather is perfect for outdoor yoga. Molly joined me for a few down-dogs and got in the way of a nearly great triangle!

Naughty puppy! Fancy trying to knock Mummy over!

Molly trotted off in disgust when I didn’t pay her much more attention. Settling down for a ten minute meditation session under my holly tree, I was on the point of closing my eyes when a massive downdraught appeared next to my left hand, followed by a super-loud buzzzzzzz.

A bumble bee landed on me. After carefully washing its antennas, it proceeded to settle down for a rest. So there I was, me meditating and the bee possibly joining in. Bliss. I even managed to stroke the fur without disturbing it.

Afterwards, it seemed very reluctant to say good bye. Even a lovely nectar-rich flower was not nearly as interesting as my hand. I made up a sugar solution (there’s a good recipe for it here) and offered up a little drink. It seems my meditating bee was tired and thirsty. Within minutes it took off and headed out into the garden.

The start of my day may not have been great but the end sure was.

Happy Monday my lovelies xx

Blog Posts

Bees are not natural swimmers

ladygaladriel50

Hot tub

This morning was quite an eventful morning in the Dean household. After major digging, wiring, building, concreting and general heavy duty DIY, a new toy arrived. The delivery teams were due to start work at 9am, but, as the weather was lovely, they arrived an hour early. I still had toothpaste round my mouth due to a  hasty dash from the loo when I heard vehicles arriving.

Vehicle one had a trailor on the back, housing our new hot tub, and vehicle two was a crane, needed to lift the tub over the house and into the back garden. As the teams sorted themselves out, we rustled up mugs of steaming coffee to keep everyone happy. I slipped into photographer mode and captured some of the action to send to our son who will not be back in the UK till next week.

Within minutes of me sending him the photos, he sent some back from his location… a small island off the coast of Thailand, a veritable white-sanded paradise. As the tourist season is not in full swing his photo featured just his girlfriend and himself in the pool, not another soul in sight.  I think his island paradise may just have trumped our tub arrival, but not by much.

The installaton went very smoothly, and the tutorial on tub care was relatively straight forward. The team even supplied us with a laminated check list of maintenance to be carried out with all the timings. I can’t wait to christen it, but patience is needed. With the ground so cold, the cold water temperature is still in Winter mode so it’s going to take several hours to heat up beyond being freezing! The control panel even warns you that the temperature is brisk! It’s a little more accurate than my test – sticking my hand in it.

While the tutorial was in progress I had to rescue one red-tailed black bumblebee, two red mason bees and a honey bee. What’s with them? Not one has the body for swimming. Mind you, only one of them has a body shape for flight! Me being me, I just couldn’t stand there while they struggled. Scooping them up gently, I carried them over to a patch of pulmonaria (lungwort) to let them dry off and have a restorative drink of nectar.

All being well, and chemical/ph balance achieved, the tub will be ready for action tomorrow evening.

And now I have a dilema.

I have a hair appointment tomorrow evening. Argh! I need the hair cut, but don’t want to spoil the blow-dry afterwards. That said, I want into the tub too. It’s not a bad dilema to have. I’ll let you know in due course whether the hair or the tub wins!

Happy May Day xx