So I phoned up someone we knew

(he had started us off with bees, a fascinating individual. As nutty as we are)

who came within an hour, we readied a hive and we got what we needed: (a long arm hedge cutters- like a giant sissors; and a duvet cover to catch the bees in) suited up, and headed down the garden to the swarm (they can disappear quickly) 

Bee-Man chopped the hedge around the swarm to make space, we held the duvet under the swarm, and chopped the branch that held the swarm.

It was at that point that the swarm fell sideways and landed on my head. Yes, my head, all 80,000 of them. It all happened so quickly: they slid into the duvet cover, and our Bee-Man brought branch and duvet down the field, where he shook the bees into the new hive. 

(At this point, let me tell you, apparently swarms don’t sting-I found that out after the event. You can, supposedly, even stroke them. But I won’t be chancing that, despite not getting one sting even though I was surrounded by them!)

(a duvet of bees!)

We weren’t sure whether they would stay- it all depends on whether you manage to get the queen inside the hive or not… but last night, it all looked good, and this evening they were still there- yay!! So now we have two hives, and we are watching carefully this new hive. This was, apart from being very exciting, extremely good fortune. 

I’m still trying to recover…

no, not from the adventure of catching the swarm, but from almost being cooked in the bee suit… not the kind of activity one needs to partake in on the hottest day of the year so far!!

Boo hoo… 

(The funny blue false-nail like things on the left are plastic cut from a bottle which we used as our labels, the toilet roll inserts we cut in half and used to plant our peas, the boys planted their own pumpkins and sunflowers, and the dock leaves are a sign that Grace might be transferring her beheading skills from flowers to docks… here’s hoping)

Thankfully we got our seeds planted yesterday- I usually start in February (the excitement overtakes me) and by the end of March I have long, leggy seedlings with nowhere to go (polytunnel and ground just not warm enough)

Yesterday, in the sun (at the end of MARCH!!), we planted our seeds sitting on the bench in the yard- I also stopped myself from buying packets of seeds for things we will never, ever eat

(like rare Peruvian dingledongs that need constant singing to, and a temperature just so)

(not that there is such a thing, mind you)

I told Grace that she was to talk to her plants to make them grow- so every time she put a pea in she would say

“Grow my likky plant, grow!” 

How could they not grow after that?!

Ready to be transferred to the polytunnel! Everything labelled and dated (and yet I have no doubt that courgettes will grow, looking incredibly like broad beans…)

Our childrens favourite place to play… the polytunnel. Every year we give them a “patch”, – it works well; when we are working out there, they are in their part making mud pies, castles and townscapes

(usually with my good cutlery and cups…)

After many heated discussions, beloved husband and I settled on our vegetable-garden plan.

The problem with being married to my wonderful husband is, that he states what he is going to do, then he nods and agrees with everything I say, all the counter-arguments I have made; then goes ahead and does what he planned anyway….

But we had agreed on a living willow perimeter fence for the plot, so last night, off he went to the end of the garden to our other sally garden with his two gnome-helpers…

and within a half hour, my utterly stubborn, incredibly creative, beloved husband had started making this:

(Mr. Gappy Teeth insisted on this photograph for the blog (!))

I’ll photograph the progress of this. It was too dark last night to photograph how he had woven the willow together.

It’s just beautiful.

(And I just might forgive him his subborn insistence after all)

We have had an eventful morning… spent an hour or two lying on the sofa bed reading the same books over and over..

(and just when I was getting into doing the voices and making it all very animated, I was usurped by someone needing to watch The Snowman.

Me: “Sweetpea, will we read “The Paper Caper” again?”

Herself: “No. Me like ‘Nowman now”…)

Then we wandered out to the garden to pick some tomatoes for lunch- our Autumn fruiting raspberries are only  coming into fruit outside, but are ripe and delicious in the polytunnel. We picked a bowl for our dessert, and  before we got as far as the back door …

Me: “Hey! Where did our raspberries go?” 

Herself: “Heh heh heh” (evil cackle) 

“We” made egg fried rice with some left-over rice 

(Me: “do you want to scoop some coconut oil out for the frying pan?”

Herself: “yes” (and scoops out a spoon. And eats it. Then we have a minor altercation over allowing me to have a spoon of it to fry the rice)

Someone had to test each tomato before I could cut them up

and artfully toss some over the rice

(“Isn’t that pretty?”

“No”)

And then after lunch we decided to be creative and cut up the felted blankets to make cushions and a photo tutorial too (cue: delightful images of mother and daughter measuring and smiling and working completely in harmony)

Well. That daughter of mine!

she is so bloody independent, decisive, impatient (with me!!!!) single minded (where did she get all these traits from, I’d like to know?) determined, creative…

funny and soft and cuddly and warm…

I have to run… Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go!!!

and isn’t the little gathering basket gorgeous? Beloved Husband made that a while ago from some of our willows (sallies) from our “sally gardens”… he has been commissioned to make many of these, as soon as the willows are harvested, for our shop. They really are incredibly useful, from gathering blackberrries, eggs, tomatoes… or as often happens in our house… dolls or lego!!

Here is our Wee One with a few delicious tomatoes we picked in the polytunnel… the little wrist purse is from Lush Stuff, it’s also lovely, and beautifully made… check them out here!

Using our tomatoes:

I made a tomato and cucumber salad and dressing a la Sophie (merci mon ami!!) The dressing was liberal amounts of olive oil, balsamic vinegar (oh holy moly, I use Llwellyns Irish Cider Balsamic Vinegar, and I could drink it from the bottle- actually, I have, for scientific purposes you understand – it is truly divine) and some basil… delicious…

 and then…

I chopped up some bell peppers, courgette, tomatoes, ginger, onion, and garlic, stir-fried, and doused in a good soy sauce, and of course some cider vinegar. Beloved ‘Ubby made the brown bread, (he has been closely watching my mother make hers when he gets the chance) which was the perfect accompaniment.

*Sigh*

I’ve found the past few months pretty overwhelming- I had way too much to do, and no time to do it… but now at last, thankfully, things are starting to slow down… and I’m ploughing through my “to-do” list with relief. Orders are being made for new books, puppets and wooden toys; I’m working on a whole new series of personalised illustrative paintings, prints and stationery- more, and photos on that later in the week!- and I’ve started other mixed media paintings- ones I’ve been gathering materials, ideas and drawings for, for weeks and months. 

I’ve also sorted out where we will start our crochet get-togethers – Andrea of Lush stuff and Dream Interiors very kindly has offered her beautiful shop space in Ballinasloe- so we now just to get in a few hooke – (ooops, was just about to say hookers- mightn’t be quite the terminology I was looking for) crochet-minded individuals (on that note: Clare, if you are reading this, will you get in touch with me, my phone has wiped out my entire contact list…  ) and we are away. Hopefully we will have our “Crochet Appreciation Society” up and running in the next few weeks!

And just to leave you with an image that makes me weep…. with delight..!

All from the polytunnel over the weekend… yay!