Friday 30 September 2011

A change

Today has been a bit strange because for the last two years the children have gone fortnightly to their dad for the weekend on a Friday evening, but the girls are due to start Stagecoach Theatre Arts which is a Saturday morning, and as I am taking responsibility for it financially, I want to ensure they get there! So, the children now aren't going to be at their Dad's until Saturday after lunch, so I have 'lost' another 12 hours of child-free time. I'm thinking it is ok though...it doesn't feel like I've sacrificed anything right now and they would have left a couple of hours ago if we were still on the old regime. It is so strange being a single parent of home-educated children as it is rather all-or-nothing and a bit like the Marie Celeste when they go, even though I crave some time to myself. Then, by Sunday, I've really settled in to having the place to myself and before I know it, they're back.

Anyway it was Shinies home ed group this morning with more new people. It'll be interesting to see how home-ed develops over the next few years and how it is viewed by the mainstream.

Having let the big chickens out yesterday, they were clamouring at the gate again this evening:


They scooted straight ou into the field:


They did look rather gorgeous in the sunlight:



On the knitting front, I have had to unravel the Norwegian hat (Tristan is devastated) as it was an uphill struggle with the wrong needles and wrong wool. I found the pattern straightforward enough though so it bodes well for when I have the correct needles and the correct wool...

Revision for my two end-of-module exams is going ok; I quite like exams as it's a chance to empty one's brain and there's a certain feeling of 'if I don't know it now I never will' so I'm not feeling nervous. I felt quite pleased as my friend John who always does really really well got almost the same mark as me for his last assignment so maybe it was a tricky paper. Of course he is really disappointed and I was trying to tell myself it's a good mark but bless him, he wants and needs a First so it is more important for him.

Thursday 29 September 2011

My morning

I am very lucky that actually I look forward to getting up in the morning, especially in such glorious weather. Usually Amber is up and comes to help me with the animals, and I find it such a calming start to the day to wander round the garden with a cup of tea and check on the plants and watch the natural world gear up for the day. I saw 4 thrushes fly over this morning - I'm not sure if they're winter migrants; if so, they probably wonder if they've overshot Britain. In fact, with it being sunny and warm I am finding it so calming that I rarely get round to doing anything else all day but hey, there's going to be loads of opportunities to stay indoors and hoover once this Indian Summer breaks.

Chicks out...
Ducks out...
Bunnies taken to the larger pen
Ah, cute Willow
Ducks back in...
Bees let themselves out...
Maud out, greenhouse unzipped...
Dog out...
Blue sky and autumn leaves
Nice way to start the day :-)

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Bees, ducks and knitting

I woke up in the small hours thinking about my bees and my friend's bees accompanied by a whole load of obscure geological and evolutionary terminology going through my head. So, after reading my Beekeeper's Field Guide and listening to a podcast about geo-engineering (scary) I managed to fall asleep. But, I did wake up early remembering that the bee colony by my front door doesn't have a queen so I donned bee suit and nipped out before they woke up and popped one of the queen-right hives on top with some newspaper for them to chew through:


I had thought, because it was really misty and only about 7 o'clock, that most of the bees would still be inside the brood box but there's nothing like uniting two colonies to make you realise just how many foraging bees you have just made homeless. So for the rest of the glorious day, the garden had rather confused bees roaming around trying to find their chums. However, I had chosen today as the weather was so good and there is still plenty of balsam around, so those workers returning back were welcomed by the occupants of the hive nextdoor as bees are a bit fickle and for all their defensive strategies are happy to wave in anyone with a crop full of nectar or brimming pollen baskets. There was quite a lot of looping the loop and general disorder:


They're all in bed now though and by tomorrow, the bees in the transferred hive will have munched through the newspaper and will be greeting their new hivemates without any fighting and hopefully I will have saved a colony from fizzling out. I had really expected them to make a new queen...

Anyway, since John the duck learned to jump out of the pen the other day, he helpfully showed his wife the technique so I came back from switching the hose off to find this:


Hmm. As I was going to be in the garden (dodging bees) I thought it would be ok to let them wander for a bit and with much trepidation and reassuring quacks to each other, visited the various areas of the garden:


Maud still picks on them a bit so I had to referee at one point but Mary (who has an unpleasantly violent attitude towards the minority) was shut in so it was fairly safe:



She wasn't very impressed though...I hope she doesn't pass on her xenophobic attitude to her chicks.

I have decided to enjoy the lovely weather as much as possible so the house is a bit of a pigsty, but if I avert my gaze I can get from the back door to my bedroom without too much guilt. I have finished the ribbing of Tristan's hat; it's quite an intriguing mixture of knit and purl even for me but I'm on to the Fairisle bit now! :-) Should be fun!


Two balls of wool at once plus counting and following a pattern...I can see me getting in a pickle. When I took in all my knitting, iPad, radio, teacups etc etc from the garden I did unearth my textbooks that I had brought out this morning in a fit of optimism after my head full of Bølling-Allerød interstadials and Hardy-Weinberg Equilibriums in the middle of the night. I did unwittingly sleep with The Cretaceous World next to me in bed after falling asleep whilst reading it (honestly, what am I like??) - perhaps its information tapped into my subconcious.....well, I live in hope!

Monday 26 September 2011

Weekend

It has been the loveliest weather and I have wanted to spend as much time as possible in the garden. I've planted lots of bulbs in pots and fritillaries and daffodils in the bank outside the study. I have a large border full of leggy heather and couch grass so I decided yesterday to start digging it out. The girls were on a hunt for invertebrates and we found huge worms and centipedes and beetle grubs and woodlice galore:


It was really quite hot and I couldn't be bothered to cook so realising it was gone 2 o'clock we downed tools and buckets and went to the Merrie Harriers for lunch.





We couldn't really move after such an enormous lunch so gardening was postponed and I sat in the garden listening to a Yale Uni podcast while I finished Rosie's headband:


I knitted a bit more of another project during Countryfile and then endured X Factor with the children as I was too wedged on the sofa to relocate to somewhere less visually and aurally challenging.

Right, maths this morning: we're doing squares, cubes and powers of ten. That's if I can find the table under all the mess....

Friday 23 September 2011

Bees eat Blu-tack

We went to Home-ed group this morning which was fun if a little empty - there was a trip to London so quite a few families weren't there but some people prefer it quiet so that was fine. I might think about Drama GCSE for Amber (she's certainly got the raw material if not the raw talent!) having spoken to one of the mums there today.

It was a beautiful late summer's morning:



Oops


which turned into a beautiful late summer's day so having done all the animals this morning I was keen to do my bees this afternoon. I've got one brood box which keen readers will remember I had to patch up with plasticene and Blu-tac...well, the plasticene seems to have held up but the bees have chomped their way through the Blu-tac so there was a 'uge 'ole down the side, so poor bees have probably be systematically robbed of their honey. Anyway I swapped the brood box with another bee-tight one so hopefully they'll be able to build up their stores. They have quite a young queen who's not really laying terribly prolifically yet but if this good weather continues [sorry I won't tempt anything] we'll see how she gets on over the winter. They have quite a bit of honey already so ideally they just need to fill up the frames either end now for both insulation and food. I did pop in the super frames of honey that have been sitting on a tray on my hob for the last few weeks. I can now use those two rings, if not to cook on, at least to store things :-)


The other colony is looking well and also has plenty of honey and the nest has reduced in size so there is less brood. The bees emerging from now will be 'winter bees': they have the ability to lay down the insect equivalent of fat reserves and are darker and furrier to keep them warm. Summer bees wear themselves out after about 4-6 weeks' worth of work but those coming into the hive now will live for 4-6 months. The colony really does operate as a whole; it's similar to a mammal in lots of ways. Incredible.

So what with that and a bit of knitting and a bit of revision oh and some homeschool too, it's been a very pleasant day.

Thursday 22 September 2011

Bees, bikes and yarn

Amber has had a bad cold which has required lots of iPlayer and You Tube to get her through the worst of it and to save a row I let her have my laptop, but I have stolen it back for long enough to do a quick blog post. All my wool from Stash arrived yesterday:


I realised, being rather new to the whole yarn lark, that I had sort of slightly mis-ordered, which resulted in me being rather a sad bunny when I thought I might have to send it back. However, having spoken to Nicky we decided I could probably salvage the situation with a bit of creativity. I want to knit Tristan a woolly hat so having never tackled knitting with circular needles or Fairisle/stranded knitting and with 2 end-of-year exams looming, I thought there was no better time to start such a project. Tristan, of course, is overwhelmed with joy at the thought of one of his mother's hand-knitted creations for his birthday just as any 14 year old boy would be. At least that's why I presume he didn't really say anything when I measured his head.

Here it is thus far though:


I'm on row 4. Or was it 3...

My lupins seem to have burst back into life meaning they have been flowering pretty much non-stop since May:


And the bees are still working the Himalayan balsam by the river. It's tricky getting pictures but they are coming back to the hive with bright gold pollen which according to my chart (yes! really!) could be ivy or balsam so although it is a pernicious weed, it's very good for my girls getting ready for winter. They've kicked all the boys out now as they would use valuable resources and I'm hoping to have a look in the hives once more before the winter to check they've enough stores.


Rosie and I cycled to town today which was nice and surprisingly quick, although perhaps a library trip wasn't very wise as my basket was laden and I had omitted to remember that it's slightly uphill all the way back. Still, R enjoyed it and it was great to use my new bike; it ran really well and I hadn't realised how much I had missed not having one.

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Flowers and butterflies

I saw a beautiful Red Admiral butterfly enjoying some late nectar from my asters which seem to have gone a bit bananas:



So I crocheted a butterfly:



And I also thought I'd better take a picture of all the bloomin' headbands I've been knitting my way through:



I have ordered some yarn and also downloaded a hat pattern, so hopefully I'll be able to curse and sweat and bodge my way through that! I also put together an autumnal-inspired garland for the fireplace:


And I have also made a little broochy thing for my Mum's friend - my first commission! - so all in all been quite a busy bunny on the needle and hook front.

The chicks have enjoyed the September sun and had a bath with Mary:



I have also done some home-ed with the children: Rose did a lap-book about feathers and all 3 have had quite a bit of homework so that has kept them occupied.

Sunday 18 September 2011

Knitting and Gardening :-)

I am pleased to say that after my rather dismal day on Friday, today was lovely. Saturday evening had been spent with Nicky which was lovely too, as I was able to get on with my Super-Glam Chunky Headband with 10mm needles and Big Wool as Nicky took pity on me and loaned me a ball in orange (my favourite colour). It's quite strange knitting with such big needles - Teletubbies knitting I called it - but it knitted up really fast:


I finished it while watching Birds Britannica and Horizon on iPlayer, and I also finished the grey headband without too many more mistakes and utilised the crochet flower decoration to hide the worst of the botched stitches.

Today Charles and I decided to head over to Hartfield to see the house where he grew up and also visit a nursery there. We had lunch at a nice pub, The Anchor:


And headed on to Perryhill Nursery. It was fab - I've never seen so many different varieties of the old favourites, even a black pansy, which I didn't really want but it was rather incredible:


Needless to say we ended up with a trolley, but not a trolley-load...


I got a lovely sedum called 'Strawberries and Cream':


The bees love it, and I already have one called 'Rhubarb and Custard' so I am sticking with a pudding theme; nothing wrong with that. There was also a lovely Verbascum in pale pink:


And this one which I can't remember what it's called but I love the flowers:


And as they were quite expensive I managed to split them up a bit so they will go further. I also got a yellow Echinacea and an Achillea 'Apple Blossom' too, which is pink through to white, a bit like the sedum. Yum :-)

Few pics of my grown-up chickles:



And an action shot of the bunnies:


Plus I had a cuddle with both John and Jean the ducks, and I put them down again and they went into their house quacking indignantly - "Did you see what she did to me??" "I know!! - that's the second time this week!" "What is the matter with her???"

I don't think they enjoyed it quite as much as I did, but then they are technically teenagers now...

Saturday 17 September 2011

Grr

I did tell myself that I wouldn't blog if I was feeling fed up as I didn't want to inflict my misery on my dear readers but on the other hand, it's a place for me to brain-dump. So, I have had a couple of things that have really ticked me off.

  1. I sent off my last assignment and I have missed marks because of the ambiguity of the question - I even asked Charles who, being a lawyer and at the Very end of the pedantic spectrum, was in agreement that if I'm going to be picked up for typos in my essay, the question-setters should perhaps have a little look at their comma usage. The other thing was that we were told to plan and write the essay question in an hour to replicate exam conditions. So I did, pretty much, and got back: "more references to the course text and more diagrams needed". We don't have the course text in the exam as it's not open book so I had only used generalised examples, and planning and executing diagrams takes precious time so I had only done one. Grrrrr.
  2. Rosie announced that she wanted to go and live with her father and go to school with her step-sister Lottie which in principle, is perfectly reasonable, except she decided to tell Julian about that wish before she told me. I then said ok, but she would have to come back every other weekend and not, as she was hoping, pick and choose the days when she was here. She then burst into tears at the thought of her room not being kept as a shrine (to the God of Clothes On The Floor) in her absence as Amber would have it as it is the bigger room. After much discussion, she's decided to stay living here.
  3. The CSA are going to send Julian another reminder letter about sending in his accounts as he hasn't responded to the last 5 they have sent him. I did ask the lady to repeat that statement to see if she picked up on the lack of wisdom in that strategy, but apparently because he did say he'd respond, they have to give him the benefit of the doubt.
  4. Amber decided to kick off when Julian came to collect her which resulted in Julian throwing all her stuff out of the boot and driving off. I had said to Amber that if she didn't want to go to her dad's then she'd have to go somewhere else as I had things to do and she said no and why did I have to go out anyway as surely I could spend the weekend with her. Arghghghghhghgh.
  5. My potatoes and tomatoes have got blight.
But Shinies was good yesterday and having shaken off the mantle of responsibility now the children have gone and done a metaphorical two fingers to my tutor, I am going to relax with some crochet and tv and watch my chicks. I had a cuddle with John (the duck) yesterday, he's sooooo soft, but his missus wasn't happy about being left on her own and let out one her foghorn-ish alarm calls. Honestly, you wouldn't think such a tiny creature could make such a racket, she must be all lungs under those feathers. I think I need to buy some wool and spend some more time in the garden...

Here's a video of the ducks. Sorry if it takes ages to download

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Cake, compost and a bad dog

It was history day yesterday which went well - I did about the Early Greeks with Rosie and Tallulah and we used the 'Jason' and 'Diana' Greek Paper Dolls book that I had bought for Amber some years ago. They are very good if a little too authentic and I decided not to use the one of the traditional Cretan costume which involved exposed breasts...! I stuck to a soldier and peasant woman which seemed to have most areas covered up. We also made an apple cake:




Yum! Unfortunately I have my parent's dog staying with me who is remarkably agile when presented with a Dietary Indiscretion opportunity and we found the remains of the cake on the floor and Jonty licking his lips. The cake had some sultanas in it which did rather concern me as a few months ago my brother's whippet Viggo had been forced to regurgitate the raisins he'd eaten (after a Simnel-muffin-stealing incident) as apparently grapes and their dried relations are toxic in quantity to dogs. I rang the vet who knew Jonty and he said it would be fine apart from a possible digestive system response but to get back in touch if the dog started fitting or rapidly deteriorated - "highly unlikely of course". Unsurprisingly I found it quite difficult to relax after that and spent until the small hours listening to Jonty who was breathing rather heavily, then rapidly, then seemingly not at all so I kept having to lean out of bed to poke stroke him to check he was still with us. Scruff thought all this disruption was marvellous and spent his time wimpering by the back door asking to be let out so he could, you know, sniff the cool night air. I was not in the best of moods and I think if Jonty had carried on snoring and Scruff woofed once more then the raisins would have been the least of their problems.

So today I woke rather reluctantly but it's been a lovely autumnal day and I have planted some bulbs and tidied up in the garden a bit. I gave the ducks some duckweed from nextdoor's pond:



And gave my enormous borage plant to the hens to pick over.


 They seem to love both the flower heads and the seeds:


I also took out the compost from the bottom tray of my new wormery. It's great! I had a wormery before but it didn't work very well but this is a Worm Cafe from Wiggly Wigglers and they seem to love my kitchen waste and excess cardboard.


Look at that! 6 months ago that was teabags and potato peelings and stuff!