B is for Bees and Backyard

Over the last few weeks we have been spending a lovely amount of time in the backyard. I have been pulling weeds out of everything. Daniel has been espaliering trees and making beehives. I just love spring/summer time. All the fruit is out on the trees, the bees are buzzing around and Nicholas just loves playing in the water, so why not spend as much time outside as possible.

Daniel's beehive being built.

The Nashi tree being espaliered.

My raspberry and strawberry patch being covered up to protect it from all the blackbirds. A few weeks ago actually I counted 16 blackbirds in the backyard all hoping and jumping around. I had never seen so many in one place before.

 And Nicholas enjoying some water play.

Here comes the sun!

What a beautiful weekend. The sun shone brightly. It was warm, and we got a heap of things done.
We  met up with friends, and then spent time in the garden. Daniel spent Saturday afternoon mowing the lawn and mulching all the trees. I spent the time I did have pulling out weeds from the front garden beds and preparing them for the new strawberry patch I am going to plant this year. The strawberry patch I do have is looking really healthy, but being its third season (they are good for four seasons) I want to have a new bed set up by the end of this season, so I don't go a year without strawberries.

Some photos from last year.

 

Anne, (my mother-in-law), who is a great gardener and has such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to gardening, came over also and planted a heap of veggies in our garden beds. It was very motivating. Hopefully, all this warm weather will entice the little plants to grow big and strong.

About a month ago now I booked Daniel into a Bee Keeping course. It is usually on Tuesday nights, but today he had the opportunity to spend a day at the teacher's property, learning about the more practical side of bee keeping. I think he is really enjoying it. He came home tonight with so much to tell me, which I take as a good sign. He is hoping to establish at least 2 or 3 beehives in the near future, which would be really exciting. It would be great having our own honey :).

Here is a photo of Daniel in his bee suit. So cute!

Daniel took a little video of a mature bee chewing her way out of her brood cell while out today. It is amazing, but sadly I am having a few difficulties uploading it. Give me time and I'll figure it out :). I have now figured it out. Here it is. Enjoy :)




Hope you all had a great weekend too :)