Autumn on the Allotment

Over the past few weeks we have been fairly busy - a relaxing holiday in the Cotswolds with Gemma, followed by a lovely  visit from Rebecca, Adam and our Grandsons.

Another Cotswold village!

Sherwood Forest

The bees have been treated for varroa and fed until they seem like they're full- oddly the hives we have experimentally tried feeding with their own honey don't seem to have taken much down and we are not sure why. Some of the colonies were quite small as they had decided to re-queen late in the year- they have taken stores down but still have space to keep warm with fewer bees- it remains to be seen how they will fair over winter. The weather has been mild and every time we have visited them they are busy flying- lots of ivy is flowering nearby so they will have been collecting this to add to what we have fed them.

When we took over our allotment plot about 7 years ago there was a resident shed- slightly at an angle and the sort of arrangement often seen on allotments - 2 sheds cobbled together!  The general consensus was that it wouldn't last long! Over the years though it had settled and stood it's ground. This autumn though it was leaking, our seed had been eaten and we decided to replace it. to look at you'd think it could be pushed down but the shed wasn't going to go without a fight!

Coll and Tiree

Summer holidays? OK so we have had a great holiday on the Hebridean island of Coll, with a visit to Tiree thrown in, but I'm not sure about whether I can call it a summer holiday because the weather throughout the UK does not seem to realise that it is July!!

Beautiful scenery and some of the best beaches in the UK, we saw basking sharks, heard Corncrakes, had regular visits from a male Hen Harrier, saw Red Throated divers with their chicks and practised 'strolling' and kite flying!

Fantastic beaches 

Coll has some of the rarest Bumblebees in Britain- the Great Yellow Bumblebee is found here and although we didn't spot it we did see the Moss Carder Bumblebee on the machair. In Coll the RSPB manage areas of the machair for the Corncrake population and as the bees are found in similar areas it could be supposed that the management techniques are beneficial to both.

Moss Carder Bumblebee working the white clover

February

Busy times since my last post-I have been working most of the time, we have been on holiday, visited family and celebrated the 1st birthday of Rowan!

The Alhambra

One of the places we have always wanted to visit is Andalucia in Spain, the history of the Reconquest is fascinating and the resulting architecture of moorish and Christian styles amazing to see. We visited Granada, Seville and Cordoba this February thinking it would be a warm getaway. But no, it was freezing! However the cities were well worth visiting and we really enjoyed the break.

Mosque in Cordoba

 On the way back we dropped in to Portsmouth to see our children and Grandchildren. It was Rowan's first birthday-it's hard to think it has been a year since we drove down to see him new born!!
Luckily Rob and Jill have been keeping an eye on the bees while we have been away http://sustainablegarden.blogspot.com
The mild spell has seen lots of activity, today the garden hive was taking in lots of pollen- mainly pale but some darker yellow and orange. We lifted the lid quickly and the 2 kilo block of fondant we had put on before we left was well on the way to being finished and the hive looked as if it was thriving!