Last night I went to the penultimate talk in the Leeds Beekeepers Association winter programme, which was also the first I'd made it to this season which is a shame as I do enjoy going. I certainly need all the bee knowledge I can get and I like to feel part of the beekeeping world. When two gentlemen in their early sixties sitting behind me, asked each other if their bees had been out flying during the day I wanted to turn round and say 'Mine were out too'. When one of them started listing heavy metal bands I was more intrigued. It didn't look likely to be their music of choice, although Ozzy Osbourne, himself, is also a gentleman in his sixties. I wondered if this was the music they played to their bees.
The talk was by Dr Steven Martin formerly of the University of Sheffield, now of the University of Salford. He has been conducting some ground breaking research into the interaction between the bee parasite varroa and various bee viruses. . The varroa mite hit the beekeeping world about 20 years ago and had pretty much the same impact as HIV had on the human world, the carefree days of leaving the bees undisturbed and letting them get on with making honey were gone forever. Without monitoring and regular treatment (akin to keeping an eye out for headlice in school children) the varroa mite will multiply rapidly and the colony will dwindle rapidly until it cannot sustain itself.
Recently there has been a new threat to bees in the shape of Colony Collapse Disorder, where entire apiaries can be mysteriously wiped out without warning. This has only happened in the northern hemisphere and has been much more common in the United States although as Dr Martin dryly pointed out, as commercial beekeepers in the US can receive government compensation for Colony Collapse Disorder, any mysterious death of a colony will be blamed on CCD. In the US there is an additional stress on the bees, due to the commercial beekeepers transporting the bees thousands of miles across the country to the fruit orchards.
Dr Martin has suffered the intense hardship of having to go to Hawaii to conduct his research. Actually there is a good reason for this, in that Hawaii is made up of a group of 6 islands which until recently were varroa free, then some years ago it was found on Oahu, the island where most of the people live and from then it was only a matter of time until it made it to Big Island (official name Hawaii) where immense commercial apiaries are sited. Thus by acting quickly, Dr Martin and his team had a set of islands to compare, one had established varroa, one was in its first two years of varroa and the others were still varroa free. Leaving out all the details, the results of the research were that they discovered, that the presence of varroa weakened the bees sufficiently to let one virus, the Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) flourish and it is this rather than the actual varroa mites that are killing the bees.
All very interesting, however the only conclusions from the research are what we already know, that we need to keep on top of controlling varroa.
In answer to a question from the audience, Dr Martin also touched on the scary prospect of the Asian Hornet (vespa velutina nigrithorax) making it to Britain from France, where it was accidentally introduced in 2005. This is scary for our bees, as the hornets hover in front of the hive killing the bees as they return, but it is also scary for humans, as although the sting is not much worse than a bee sting, hornets can organise themselves into an attacking group. Possibly the most useful tip from the evening was, if you see a hornets nest in the woods, leave it well alone.
Thursday 28 February 2013
Wednesday 27 February 2013
All the King's Horses and All the King's Men
Oliver is not an egg.
This is good as yesterday we were called to come and pick him up from nursery where he had been running, tripped and landed on his face and split open his chin. Four hours and a trip to the minor injuries clinic later, he was stuck back together again. Literally. These days instead of stitches they use some sort of magic glue.
However the eggs are eggs, and this morning Oliver managed to fall on the incubator and knock it over. It didn't have far to go as it was already on the floor but it was far enough and now the 11 eggs are down to 6.
Here are the sad casualties:
Most of the cracks are barely visible and show up mainly when candling (shining a high intensity light through the shell) but they are thereand are enough to let infection in to the egg and ultimately infect the other undamaged embryos so I can't risk it but have to discard them.
In more bad news, when I candled the 6 remaining eggs only 3 showed definite signs of life in them. I put all 6 back in the incubator anyway but the prospect is not good. Depressing news.
This is good as yesterday we were called to come and pick him up from nursery where he had been running, tripped and landed on his face and split open his chin. Four hours and a trip to the minor injuries clinic later, he was stuck back together again. Literally. These days instead of stitches they use some sort of magic glue.
However the eggs are eggs, and this morning Oliver managed to fall on the incubator and knock it over. It didn't have far to go as it was already on the floor but it was far enough and now the 11 eggs are down to 6.
Here are the sad casualties:
Most of the cracks are barely visible and show up mainly when candling (shining a high intensity light through the shell) but they are thereand are enough to let infection in to the egg and ultimately infect the other undamaged embryos so I can't risk it but have to discard them.
In more bad news, when I candled the 6 remaining eggs only 3 showed definite signs of life in them. I put all 6 back in the incubator anyway but the prospect is not good. Depressing news.
Tuesday 26 February 2013
The Boy Done Good!
I was going to give you an update on how the seeds are progressing but that can wait, this is much more thrilling,
Yesterday when we picked Oliver up from nursery, Amy his carer, showed us a list of words she had written out which Oliver then learnt.
I was highly impressed, as he isn't 3 until April. I said as much to her and she said half apologetically 'I think he's only memorised them' but what else is reading? When I read I don't sound out the word first, letter by letter.
So this morning when I was reading to him in bed, I was tempted to try him with another word. I chose zoo because as I since discovered, it appears 30 times in the book, we are reading 'Put me in the Zoo'.
He soon picked it up and started looking for it on the next page, but unfortunately he can read it but he can't say it, he was saying 'Look hoo'.
On the way to nursery I bumped into my neighbour Nicky and had to tell her. As a former primary school headmistress and a keen reader herself, I knew she would understand my excitement. Oliver rose to the challenge by reading out to her all the words on yesterday's list. Rather than dismiss this as a memory trick she pointed out that there were no visual clues on the paper so he is literally reading them.
We then contentedly shared the prospect of the pleasures and benefits to him, if as seems likely he is reading properly by the time he goes to school. Nicky pointed out the extra knowledge of the world children gain from reading and this is very true, the only knowledge I have about sailing I gained from Arthur Ransome, the care of horses from 'Jill has Two Ponies' and the first stirrings of a feminist consciousness at the age of 6 from reading the Famous Five books.
Just the other day there was a report from Dutch university on how reading fiction increases empathy. I'm sure this is true, I spent my childhood reading obsessively and compulsively and now I cannot bear horror films in particular films of torture like 'Saw' as I cannot stop myself feeling the victim's pain.
So I want Oliver to have increased empathy, and knowledge and to have a head start on school but most of all I want him to know the complete pleasure of being able to lose yourself in a book.
Yesterday when we picked Oliver up from nursery, Amy his carer, showed us a list of words she had written out which Oliver then learnt.
He soon picked it up and started looking for it on the next page, but unfortunately he can read it but he can't say it, he was saying 'Look hoo'.
On the way to nursery I bumped into my neighbour Nicky and had to tell her. As a former primary school headmistress and a keen reader herself, I knew she would understand my excitement. Oliver rose to the challenge by reading out to her all the words on yesterday's list. Rather than dismiss this as a memory trick she pointed out that there were no visual clues on the paper so he is literally reading them.
We then contentedly shared the prospect of the pleasures and benefits to him, if as seems likely he is reading properly by the time he goes to school. Nicky pointed out the extra knowledge of the world children gain from reading and this is very true, the only knowledge I have about sailing I gained from Arthur Ransome, the care of horses from 'Jill has Two Ponies' and the first stirrings of a feminist consciousness at the age of 6 from reading the Famous Five books.
Just the other day there was a report from Dutch university on how reading fiction increases empathy. I'm sure this is true, I spent my childhood reading obsessively and compulsively and now I cannot bear horror films in particular films of torture like 'Saw' as I cannot stop myself feeling the victim's pain.
So I want Oliver to have increased empathy, and knowledge and to have a head start on school but most of all I want him to know the complete pleasure of being able to lose yourself in a book.
Monday 25 February 2013
Aaargh!
Just a quick post, to say that I am doing as I promised yesterday, and getting stuck into the soapy business, in particular the designs for the packaging.
And it's hard.
I will have 6 soaps, 3 lip balms, 2 skin balms, 2 body butters and about 7 different gift bags for combinations of the above. When it comes to design I am a perfectionist who will agonise over whether it should be Lavender or Lavender or whether the font should be Bookman Old Style, Century, Copperplate Gothic or Poor Richard. I'm leaning towards Poor Richard at the moment as I like the name.
As I have about 20 designs to do (leaving out the debate as to whether the jar lids should have a design), this is going to take a while.
I'm also having doubts about whether to change the recipe of my soap. I made a soap called Apricot Skin Softener as it has apricot kernel oil in which is my favourite to date but it is not the recipe I was going to use for the range and as it also contains shea butter it is about 50% more expensive to make. I have three choices 1) Leave the range as it is 2) tinker with the recipe adding small amounts of apricot kernel oil or shea butter or both 3) Make the apricot kernel oil soap as well and sell it at a higher price. I'm favouring the latter choice but that will ruin my strategy of having all soaps at the same price thus being able to sell any three in a gift pack.
Decisions, decisions, hence the title.
And it's hard.
I will have 6 soaps, 3 lip balms, 2 skin balms, 2 body butters and about 7 different gift bags for combinations of the above. When it comes to design I am a perfectionist who will agonise over whether it should be Lavender or Lavender or whether the font should be Bookman Old Style, Century, Copperplate Gothic or Poor Richard. I'm leaning towards Poor Richard at the moment as I like the name.
As I have about 20 designs to do (leaving out the debate as to whether the jar lids should have a design), this is going to take a while.
I'm also having doubts about whether to change the recipe of my soap. I made a soap called Apricot Skin Softener as it has apricot kernel oil in which is my favourite to date but it is not the recipe I was going to use for the range and as it also contains shea butter it is about 50% more expensive to make. I have three choices 1) Leave the range as it is 2) tinker with the recipe adding small amounts of apricot kernel oil or shea butter or both 3) Make the apricot kernel oil soap as well and sell it at a higher price. I'm favouring the latter choice but that will ruin my strategy of having all soaps at the same price thus being able to sell any three in a gift pack.
Decisions, decisions, hence the title.
Sunday 24 February 2013
The Balanced Scorecard- 2013 to date
It is cold and grey and I have been feeling more than a little lethargic recently so I thought it was a good time to review the year to date and see what progress I'd made in the main headings.
The balanced scorecard is a concept from accountancy which means setting targets in areas of the business rather than just financial ie no good congratulating yourselves on record sales if your safety record is dire and customer service appalling. When I worked for a clinical waste company that tried to implement this, the drivers had to record if they had missed any collections and why (normally accidents or traffic holdups), it then amused me to discover that they were allowed to input a code meaning tactical miss as if it could every be a part of a company's tactics not to service its customers. In practice these were occasions where to stop at a clinic to pick up one bin of waste would make the driver too late to pick up 20 from a hospital. Still no tactical misses allowed here.
So the headings on my scorecard in no particular order are:
Poultry
Bees
Garden
Frugal Living & Food
Soap Business
House & Garage
Personal Development
Crafts
Wildlife
Possibly I should have one for health and wellbeing but I think the list is quite long enough so I will roll that in with personal development
Poultry
This has been going well, there was the sad loss of Amelia (or was it Edna they looked very much alike) but to offset that Edna is laying well and I managed to partially roof the run and also get their wings clipped. In the incubator upstairs are the 11 little quail eggs, committing me, should they hatch to sorting out first a brooder box and then a cage for them. The brooder box would also be able to be used by chickens in due time.
Bees
I'm also satisfied with the bees. Truthfully there is little I can do in winter apart from ensure they have enough food and the hives are protected from mice and woodpeckers but to see all three hives were alive and active mid February was encouraging. I have also booked to attend the British Bee Keeping Association Spring Convention in April which I'm sure will fire my enthusiasm to learn more and there is my name down on the swarm collection list for summer.
Garden
Progress has been made, seeds have been sown, currant bushes pruned, larger trees cut back at risk to life and limb. As always there is much more to do, more seeds need sowing, the greenhouse needs cleaning, the prunings need chopping up and disposing of, the vegetable plot needs digging and preparing but I can take satisfaction from the fact that I haven't been ignoring the garden throughout the cold weather.
Frugal Living and Food
Here I think I may have been concentrating too much. I have done terrifically well on my frugal food challenge but possibly at the expense of other items on the scorecard. I have already posted that I seem to be baking everyday and as I write I do have a carrotcake in the oven (made with dried cranberries instead of raisins for a change and because I had them in the cupboard). Going forward the challenge will be to try and turn the efforts I have made since Christmas into normal routine but to keep them in their place. I want to keep on making my own bread and cakes and biscuits but to make the freezer take the place of the convenience store. As Rosie has decided that she does like Chicken Korma, the Curry in a Hurry curry base will become a regular in it as will other dishes that allow me to concentrate on other things some days.
Soap Business
The other things will mainly be the soap business which I am ashamed to say has not made huge progress since Christmas despite being my hope for an income this year. I have attended a course at the Chamber of Commerce (run on a Wednesday which is why postings can be scarce on that day) and I have had regular meetings with a business mentor who has been helping me with my business plan and cashflow forecast to be submitted to a board who should approve me receiving Enterprise Allowance. I feel that all this guestimating future sales and doing market research on the natural cosmetic industry has distracted my attention from the important parts of the business namely making a good product with attractive packaging. Must try harder.
House and Garage
I haven't been doing too much in this category either, I have done some mild decluttering, bought a new freezer which will reduce my energy bills and we now have a working shower once more. There is much decluttering left to do and a list of DIY projects as long as my arm but I am relaxed over this, I am sure I will do more in the warmer weather.
Personal Development
Well this is quite a wide category, I include it, as it is part of the balanced life that I should keep learning and keep trying new things. Writing the blog has been very pleasurable and I would like to do more writing in future. Joining the reading group will also be good for me as it will make me read books I would not have chosen myself. I have also agreed to go on a dry stone wall building day, I can't see any immediate use for that knowledge but it will be interesting. I suspect that I am falling back on the health and exercise front since Jess left. The compulsory twice daily walks were getting me fitter and keeping the calories at bay. I shall have to do more about this before summer as I need to drop a dress size having bought a wet suit in a sale that was a size too small. Ho hum. I've also learned that I am not a dog person, although Jess left us because she was not getting on with Oliver, I didn't find enough compensation in having a dog for all the work and time involved. I may have liked the image of me strolling through the countryside with a dog at my heels but not the reality. Jess is now living with someone who finds having a dog all over you every time you sit down, enjoyable.
Crafts
I am a craft person, I enjoy almost everything that involves making things with your hands. Sadly I am not artistic, I can't paint or draw but I can sew and knit and embroider and hook rugs and generally have a go at anything which involves reading a set of instructions and visualising what they mean. In the last few years I have been extending this to try to tackle DIY projects ie plastering, fence building. Last summer shocked by the price of a new one, I attempted to build a bee hive which is basically a series of wooden boxes. I managed it but also discovered that I can't cut straight. As I need two more bee hives (or at least brood boxes) and a quail house and a broody house then I think I will be learning a lot more about woodworking this coming year. I was going to go on a course but had to cancel as I couldn't leave Jess alone in the house for two days. Likewise I couldn't do any knitting whilst she was with us, as she kept pouncing on the wool, but I have wool and the pattern for knitting Oliver a sweater.
Wildlife
The part of having a dog that I did really enjoy was being forced out for a walk and seeing wildlife. I really enjoyed seeing the small changes that happened almost daily. I can't do anything about this as the twice daily walks were taking up too much time and leading to other things being neglected, but I am going to make the effort to get out once a week at least. I have my tree spotting to continue and I am of course missing the kingfisher.
Apologies for the very long post but I have found it helpful, it has reassured me that really I have made progress since the start of the year and it has pointed out areas where I need to spend less time (food planning) and areas where I need to spend more (soap business).
The balanced scorecard is a concept from accountancy which means setting targets in areas of the business rather than just financial ie no good congratulating yourselves on record sales if your safety record is dire and customer service appalling. When I worked for a clinical waste company that tried to implement this, the drivers had to record if they had missed any collections and why (normally accidents or traffic holdups), it then amused me to discover that they were allowed to input a code meaning tactical miss as if it could every be a part of a company's tactics not to service its customers. In practice these were occasions where to stop at a clinic to pick up one bin of waste would make the driver too late to pick up 20 from a hospital. Still no tactical misses allowed here.
So the headings on my scorecard in no particular order are:
Poultry
Bees
Garden
Frugal Living & Food
Soap Business
House & Garage
Personal Development
Crafts
Wildlife
Possibly I should have one for health and wellbeing but I think the list is quite long enough so I will roll that in with personal development
Poultry
This has been going well, there was the sad loss of Amelia (or was it Edna they looked very much alike) but to offset that Edna is laying well and I managed to partially roof the run and also get their wings clipped. In the incubator upstairs are the 11 little quail eggs, committing me, should they hatch to sorting out first a brooder box and then a cage for them. The brooder box would also be able to be used by chickens in due time.
Bees
I'm also satisfied with the bees. Truthfully there is little I can do in winter apart from ensure they have enough food and the hives are protected from mice and woodpeckers but to see all three hives were alive and active mid February was encouraging. I have also booked to attend the British Bee Keeping Association Spring Convention in April which I'm sure will fire my enthusiasm to learn more and there is my name down on the swarm collection list for summer.
Garden
Progress has been made, seeds have been sown, currant bushes pruned, larger trees cut back at risk to life and limb. As always there is much more to do, more seeds need sowing, the greenhouse needs cleaning, the prunings need chopping up and disposing of, the vegetable plot needs digging and preparing but I can take satisfaction from the fact that I haven't been ignoring the garden throughout the cold weather.
Frugal Living and Food
Here I think I may have been concentrating too much. I have done terrifically well on my frugal food challenge but possibly at the expense of other items on the scorecard. I have already posted that I seem to be baking everyday and as I write I do have a carrotcake in the oven (made with dried cranberries instead of raisins for a change and because I had them in the cupboard). Going forward the challenge will be to try and turn the efforts I have made since Christmas into normal routine but to keep them in their place. I want to keep on making my own bread and cakes and biscuits but to make the freezer take the place of the convenience store. As Rosie has decided that she does like Chicken Korma, the Curry in a Hurry curry base will become a regular in it as will other dishes that allow me to concentrate on other things some days.
Soap Business
The other things will mainly be the soap business which I am ashamed to say has not made huge progress since Christmas despite being my hope for an income this year. I have attended a course at the Chamber of Commerce (run on a Wednesday which is why postings can be scarce on that day) and I have had regular meetings with a business mentor who has been helping me with my business plan and cashflow forecast to be submitted to a board who should approve me receiving Enterprise Allowance. I feel that all this guestimating future sales and doing market research on the natural cosmetic industry has distracted my attention from the important parts of the business namely making a good product with attractive packaging. Must try harder.
House and Garage
I haven't been doing too much in this category either, I have done some mild decluttering, bought a new freezer which will reduce my energy bills and we now have a working shower once more. There is much decluttering left to do and a list of DIY projects as long as my arm but I am relaxed over this, I am sure I will do more in the warmer weather.
Personal Development
Well this is quite a wide category, I include it, as it is part of the balanced life that I should keep learning and keep trying new things. Writing the blog has been very pleasurable and I would like to do more writing in future. Joining the reading group will also be good for me as it will make me read books I would not have chosen myself. I have also agreed to go on a dry stone wall building day, I can't see any immediate use for that knowledge but it will be interesting. I suspect that I am falling back on the health and exercise front since Jess left. The compulsory twice daily walks were getting me fitter and keeping the calories at bay. I shall have to do more about this before summer as I need to drop a dress size having bought a wet suit in a sale that was a size too small. Ho hum. I've also learned that I am not a dog person, although Jess left us because she was not getting on with Oliver, I didn't find enough compensation in having a dog for all the work and time involved. I may have liked the image of me strolling through the countryside with a dog at my heels but not the reality. Jess is now living with someone who finds having a dog all over you every time you sit down, enjoyable.
Crafts
I am a craft person, I enjoy almost everything that involves making things with your hands. Sadly I am not artistic, I can't paint or draw but I can sew and knit and embroider and hook rugs and generally have a go at anything which involves reading a set of instructions and visualising what they mean. In the last few years I have been extending this to try to tackle DIY projects ie plastering, fence building. Last summer shocked by the price of a new one, I attempted to build a bee hive which is basically a series of wooden boxes. I managed it but also discovered that I can't cut straight. As I need two more bee hives (or at least brood boxes) and a quail house and a broody house then I think I will be learning a lot more about woodworking this coming year. I was going to go on a course but had to cancel as I couldn't leave Jess alone in the house for two days. Likewise I couldn't do any knitting whilst she was with us, as she kept pouncing on the wool, but I have wool and the pattern for knitting Oliver a sweater.
Wildlife
The part of having a dog that I did really enjoy was being forced out for a walk and seeing wildlife. I really enjoyed seeing the small changes that happened almost daily. I can't do anything about this as the twice daily walks were taking up too much time and leading to other things being neglected, but I am going to make the effort to get out once a week at least. I have my tree spotting to continue and I am of course missing the kingfisher.
Apologies for the very long post but I have found it helpful, it has reassured me that really I have made progress since the start of the year and it has pointed out areas where I need to spend less time (food planning) and areas where I need to spend more (soap business).
Friday 22 February 2013
Quailing at the prospect
Although that isn't true, I'm quite excited at the prospect. I have been fancying keeping quail since I started keeping chickens. Unlike chickens, if you keep quail you keep them in a cage or aviary, due to their habit of shooting 20 foot in the air when startled and flying off in a straight line, there is no nagging worry that really they ought to be free range and hence no retrieving of quail from next door's garden. Although they can make a variety of noises, the cocks do not crow thus it is easy and beneficial even to keep them in groups of one cock to three hens giving the prospect of raising little quail. And they do lay their posh little eggs. Most people eat then hard boiled and use them decoratively but I do rather fancy having 6 little poached eggs dotted around my toast for breakfast.
Anyway I decided to leap in and order a dozen eggs to put in the incubator. Hence the parcel that arrived yesterday
When buying chicken eggs, they are normally sent in specially designed polystyrene protective boxes. Either they don't make these for quail's eggs or my ebay seller is as much into recycling as I am, for the packaging had a definite home made look about it
Whether it was as a result of that or just one of those things, one of the eggs arrived broken but no matter, they cost me £5 including postage and are very much an experiment. If it works, I will have my quail and I will also have had the pleasure of watching them hatch. I have seen quail chicks described on the internet as like fluffy bumblebees and I can't wait.
However my incubator is of the cheapest of the cheap variety and there is much that can go wrong. It has a thermostat and a fan and a thermometer and hygrometer (for reading humidity) but last year when trying to hatch chicken eggs I had two failures. Both times it was due to the bulb which provides the heat, failing and allowing the eggs to get cold. The first time, one chick heartbreakingly made it through to hatching only to die within 24 hours.
Quails eggs should take 18 days to hatch and I shall post updates regularly. As it is a basic incubator I shall have to turn the eggs every 4 hours or so to stop the growing embryo sticking to one side, because of this I have moved the incubator to the side of the bed which means that I should also be able to keep a better eye on the bulb. Oliver thinks the box is for cooking eggs, we will have to impress on him that he isn't to open the lid until they are done. He will get a surprise if the eggs hatch.
After 5 days (for chickens at least, not sure about quail) the eggs can be candled by shining a bright light through the shell to check if there is a living embryo inside. This is a magical moment, a bit like having a scan in pregnancy when the egg stops being just an egg and turns into the home of a living creature.Sadly I can't think of any way I could take photos of this to share with you. You'll just have to take my word for it.
So they went in to the incubator at 10 am on Friday 22nd February and hopefully they will emerge some time between Sunday 10th March and Wednesday 13th March. I'll keep you posted.
Anyway I decided to leap in and order a dozen eggs to put in the incubator. Hence the parcel that arrived yesterday
However my incubator is of the cheapest of the cheap variety and there is much that can go wrong. It has a thermostat and a fan and a thermometer and hygrometer (for reading humidity) but last year when trying to hatch chicken eggs I had two failures. Both times it was due to the bulb which provides the heat, failing and allowing the eggs to get cold. The first time, one chick heartbreakingly made it through to hatching only to die within 24 hours.
After 5 days (for chickens at least, not sure about quail) the eggs can be candled by shining a bright light through the shell to check if there is a living embryo inside. This is a magical moment, a bit like having a scan in pregnancy when the egg stops being just an egg and turns into the home of a living creature.Sadly I can't think of any way I could take photos of this to share with you. You'll just have to take my word for it.
So they went in to the incubator at 10 am on Friday 22nd February and hopefully they will emerge some time between Sunday 10th March and Wednesday 13th March. I'll keep you posted.
Cakes and Quail
Living the frugal life as we are, I feel the need to make sure there is a constant supply of cakes or biscuits in the house to keep everyone on course and stop them succumbing to temptation in the supermarket or newsagents. Sometimes I can be too successful though and feel that I am having to bake every day. On Monday I made a dozen fairy cakes and about 8 iced buns, by teatime this is all that was left of the buns
and this is what was left of the buns, although I had managed to get two of them into hiding in the freezer.
It is all well and good people enjoying what I bake but I have other things to do in my life than to be baking constantly. What I needed to find was a recipe for a biscuit that was just okay, good enough to have with a cup of tea or a sweet snack but not good enough to disappear in one sitting. Of course when looking through recipe books there aren't many that are labelled 'Not Too Nice Biscuits' or described as 'the family will be unenthusiastic about these fellers and leave them in the biscuit tin' but I succeeded. Here they are the Crunchy Oatmeal Biscuits
and they have the added bonus of using up 2 oz of All Bran Golden Crunch cereal which we received as a free sample and didn't really like. I was worried that my scheme had gone awry when Rosie declared they were tasty but all is well, two days later there is still a mass of them in the biscuit tin. I was going to write up the recipe here but think it is unlikely that anyone except me will be looking for not too exciting biscuits. If you do want it leave a comment below and I will post it another day.
It seems only fair when talking about cakes that I should report my failures as well as successes. Yesterday I made some flapjack but somehow got the proportions of ingredients wrong. Rosie says it is like oaty toffee
It tastes good, like buttery toffee but it is so hard, each piece has to be sucked for a while before it becomes soft enough to bite. Delicious in its own way but not what you expect from flapjack.
Now unlike the biscuits I feel my quail news is really exciting enough to deserve a post of their own but I couldn't pass up the chance to use that title, so here is a trailer for my next post.
It is all well and good people enjoying what I bake but I have other things to do in my life than to be baking constantly. What I needed to find was a recipe for a biscuit that was just okay, good enough to have with a cup of tea or a sweet snack but not good enough to disappear in one sitting. Of course when looking through recipe books there aren't many that are labelled 'Not Too Nice Biscuits' or described as 'the family will be unenthusiastic about these fellers and leave them in the biscuit tin' but I succeeded. Here they are the Crunchy Oatmeal Biscuits
and they have the added bonus of using up 2 oz of All Bran Golden Crunch cereal which we received as a free sample and didn't really like. I was worried that my scheme had gone awry when Rosie declared they were tasty but all is well, two days later there is still a mass of them in the biscuit tin. I was going to write up the recipe here but think it is unlikely that anyone except me will be looking for not too exciting biscuits. If you do want it leave a comment below and I will post it another day.
It seems only fair when talking about cakes that I should report my failures as well as successes. Yesterday I made some flapjack but somehow got the proportions of ingredients wrong. Rosie says it is like oaty toffee
Now unlike the biscuits I feel my quail news is really exciting enough to deserve a post of their own but I couldn't pass up the chance to use that title, so here is a trailer for my next post.
Tuesday 19 February 2013
Wanted One Nerve, Last Seen February 18th
So I lost my nerve yesterday, pruning the hawthorns.
When I left them on Sunday they were like this:
When I left them on Sunday they were like this:
I was pruning the right hand tree, which was basically down to the two trunks, which had to come down by about fifteen feet. Without thinking too much about it, I cut through the left hand trunk and waited for it to fall. Nothing happened. As you can see from the photo, the upper branches had grown through the branches of the other trunk and the two were intertwined. I tied a rope round it as high up as I could and pulled. It made no difference. I was left with a tree trunk dangling in the air unattached. I couldn't leave it like that, it might blow down in a storm and hurt someone. I daredn't cut the other trunk down, as then both trunks may come crashing down on me at once.
I didn't know what to do. I felt like I had in childbirth and wished I had never started it, wished I was sitting comfortably inside with a book and a cup of tea. I rang the ex for help but he was hundreds of miles away. I considered who else would be free at 3 o'clock on a Monday afternoon, that I could call on for help, but there really wasn't anyone.
I dithered unhappily for a bit longer and then decided that I would just go ahead and cut the other trunk down. Gingerly I perched on the ladder, my nerve had long since departed for somewhere sunny and warm, and almost cut through the trunk. Then I scooted down the ladder, dropped the chainsaw and went to pull on the rope attached to the first trunk. The extra pressure on the almost severed trunk caused it to split and both trunks fell to earth.
The split wasn't elegant, I should tidy it up today to stop the tree getting diseased, but the job was done and I was safe.
Here is a photo of Archie, the Killer Cat from next door, surveying the remains. He was no help at all.
I'm not sure what to do with the other hawthorn, it definitely needs lopping, both trees had grown far too tall and were keeping too much light out but when I inspected it this morning I saw three great tits singing their territorial challenges, followed by a blackbird and a long tailed tit and I felt mean at depriving them of a home. Added to that is a general disinclination to pick up a chainsaw or go up a ladder.
We will see.
Monday 18 February 2013
February Frugal Challenge -Part 3
Well the February Frugal Challenge is still going well, the spend on food since the last update has been £9.25 bringing the total spend for February up to a paltry £52.83. I have mince, sausages, meatballs and turkey steaks left in the freezer so still plenty of potential meals.
As the point of the challenge was to see if it was worth busting my £20 a week budget in the first week of the month to take advantage of the Lidl offer of £5 off on a spend of £30. I am now into the third week and have caught up with the overall budget so the answer has been yes, it is possible to have your cake and eat it by sticking to a budget and taking discounts offered.
However...... I have been bored. I realise that I don't like planning my meals more than a week ahead, it is annoying to read a recipe and realise I won't be able to make it for three weeks as I don't have the budget for it. So I have been looking at recipes that I don't usually make but that I already have most of the ingredients for which led to me making Chicken Korma on Friday. This used Elaine Colliar's fabulous 'curry in a hurry' curry base http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/2012/05/curry-in-a-hurry/ which has left me with 6 individual portions left over in the freezer for another day, maybe to be used with yellow split peas for dal when I am on my own (Rosie doesn't share my enthusiasm for pulses or liking for curry). Elaine's recipe for korma called for 3 tablespoons of coconut powder. Now in Tesco coconut powder is £2.90 for 300g which I was reluctant to spend if I was to try to stay within budget, so instead I used desiccated coconut and ground that in my food processor as finely as it would go. I expect I could have got it finer if I had used the coffee mill but it was just for me and I wasn't bothered. So the extra ingredients I needed for the korma were, ginger, chillies and cream and cost £1.35.
I hadn't finished there though, as I fancied chapattis with them. These turned out to be ridiculously easy to make. It was simply wholemeal flour (8 oz should be enough for four people unless you are overcome with greed which you may be) mixed with water to a soft dough, kneaded as if for bread and then divided into small balls and rolled out to the size of a plate and cooked on a griddle or dry frying pan for 30 seconds on each side. Fresh out of the pan they were far nicer than any chapatti I've had from a takeaway.
So there we are, my Friday night takeaway, the korma arranged on a bed of rice like a 1970's Vesta curry with chappatis on the side.
As the point of the challenge was to see if it was worth busting my £20 a week budget in the first week of the month to take advantage of the Lidl offer of £5 off on a spend of £30. I am now into the third week and have caught up with the overall budget so the answer has been yes, it is possible to have your cake and eat it by sticking to a budget and taking discounts offered.
However...... I have been bored. I realise that I don't like planning my meals more than a week ahead, it is annoying to read a recipe and realise I won't be able to make it for three weeks as I don't have the budget for it. So I have been looking at recipes that I don't usually make but that I already have most of the ingredients for which led to me making Chicken Korma on Friday. This used Elaine Colliar's fabulous 'curry in a hurry' curry base http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/2012/05/curry-in-a-hurry/ which has left me with 6 individual portions left over in the freezer for another day, maybe to be used with yellow split peas for dal when I am on my own (Rosie doesn't share my enthusiasm for pulses or liking for curry). Elaine's recipe for korma called for 3 tablespoons of coconut powder. Now in Tesco coconut powder is £2.90 for 300g which I was reluctant to spend if I was to try to stay within budget, so instead I used desiccated coconut and ground that in my food processor as finely as it would go. I expect I could have got it finer if I had used the coffee mill but it was just for me and I wasn't bothered. So the extra ingredients I needed for the korma were, ginger, chillies and cream and cost £1.35.
I hadn't finished there though, as I fancied chapattis with them. These turned out to be ridiculously easy to make. It was simply wholemeal flour (8 oz should be enough for four people unless you are overcome with greed which you may be) mixed with water to a soft dough, kneaded as if for bread and then divided into small balls and rolled out to the size of a plate and cooked on a griddle or dry frying pan for 30 seconds on each side. Fresh out of the pan they were far nicer than any chapatti I've had from a takeaway.
So there we are, my Friday night takeaway, the korma arranged on a bed of rice like a 1970's Vesta curry with chappatis on the side.
Timber!
So who let me loose with a chainsaw?
First I wanted to prune the apple tree of this long branch which overhangs the path:
Then I lopped 18 inches off a holly bush but the fun really started when I turned on the hawthorn trees. There are three of these and I expect they were planted as a bit of a hedge but left to there own devices they are now around 25 foot tall. We tackled one of them , two years ago so that just leaves two to go. Unless I decide to remodel the garden completely and plant fruit trees there, I don't mind keeping them, the blue tits are often in them, but I want to cut them down by about half.
After an hour or two, Rosie and Oliver came out to see what I had been doing:
First I wanted to prune the apple tree of this long branch which overhangs the path:
Then I lopped 18 inches off a holly bush but the fun really started when I turned on the hawthorn trees. There are three of these and I expect they were planted as a bit of a hedge but left to there own devices they are now around 25 foot tall. We tackled one of them , two years ago so that just leaves two to go. Unless I decide to remodel the garden completely and plant fruit trees there, I don't mind keeping them, the blue tits are often in them, but I want to cut them down by about half.
After an hour or two, Rosie and Oliver came out to see what I had been doing:
I was nervous anyway of using an electric chainsaw whilst being perched on an 8 ft stepladder balanced on soft ground but the possibilities of an accident seemed to increase tenfold with a fast moving toddler around.
Possibly fortunately, the chainsaw solved the problem for me by cutting out around then. It was rather annoying as I had not even finished one tree, I still had two (admittedly rather large) branches left.
This photo illustrates the problem quite neatly, in the middle of the picture about a centimetre from the bottom, you can just make out the top of the stepladder. I would be happy if I could get the tree down to this height.
Saturday 16 February 2013
The Rat, the Cat and the Bees
The above title sounds like the name of some 1930's thriller but this is literally a tale about bees, a cat and a rat.
It was a beautiful day yesterday, sunny and what passes for warm at 9 degrees compared to the 2 degrees we've had recently. I was out in the garden checking on everything and was relieved to see bees emerging from all three hives. There is some time to go before winter is passed but to see that all three hives have made it to mid February is encouraging. During cold spells, bees stay huddled in the hive trying to keep the temperature round the queen at 35 degrees and eating their stores of honey or the candy I provided to top up their stores. During this time they produce waste as normal but rather than dirty their hives they have the ability to hold it in their bodies until the next fine day. So when I saw a cloud of bees outside each hive I assumed they were all rushing outside to relieve themselves like coach passengers at Leicester Forest Service Station rushing to the toilets. However sitting on the familiar stone outside the hive, I was very encouraged to see some of the bees were managing to bring pollen back to the hive. There are not many sources of pollen at the moment but the alder catkins are one.
Incidentally the tape you can see round the hive is because I bought the hive off ebay from China and it is so badly made that without the tape there are gaps between the brood box and the super which would allow other bees to enter and rob this hive of its stores. When spring is here properly, I shall put on a second brood box, encourage the bees to move into that one and then take the first one away for cleaning and to fix the gap.
Whilst I was sitting peacefully watching the bees, next door's cat Archie was sitting on the wall of the compost heap. Archie is a mean cat, he has never been the same since a terrible accident when he got caught in some wire and spent three days trapped in a hedge. The vet had to amputate his tail and it has left him soured and bitter. Nevertheless, I was I suppose, grateful to him when he dropped behind the compost heap and came out after a short struggle with a dead rat.
The compost heap backs against the fence, the other side of which is the neighbour's chickens so I presume the rat was after chicken feed or possibly eggs. I was less grateful when he deposited it in the middle of the lawn. It was not an object of beauty as you can see. I wrapped a paper tissue round my hand and gingerly picked it up by the tail and walked it the full length of the garden down to the bin, leaving it on the bin whilst I went inside to get a bag or something to wrap it in. It then occurred to me that rather than sending it to landfill, it would be more environmentally friendly to let it decompose naturally and become food for other creatures. So I picked it up again and once more strode the length of the garden until I could hurl it over the fence into the wooded undergrowth of the valley beyond.
I feel I spent too much time yesterday striding round the garden in wellingtons with a dead rat swinging from my hand. Such behaviour will not get me on the cover of Vogue.
It was a beautiful day yesterday, sunny and what passes for warm at 9 degrees compared to the 2 degrees we've had recently. I was out in the garden checking on everything and was relieved to see bees emerging from all three hives. There is some time to go before winter is passed but to see that all three hives have made it to mid February is encouraging. During cold spells, bees stay huddled in the hive trying to keep the temperature round the queen at 35 degrees and eating their stores of honey or the candy I provided to top up their stores. During this time they produce waste as normal but rather than dirty their hives they have the ability to hold it in their bodies until the next fine day. So when I saw a cloud of bees outside each hive I assumed they were all rushing outside to relieve themselves like coach passengers at Leicester Forest Service Station rushing to the toilets. However sitting on the familiar stone outside the hive, I was very encouraged to see some of the bees were managing to bring pollen back to the hive. There are not many sources of pollen at the moment but the alder catkins are one.
Whilst I was sitting peacefully watching the bees, next door's cat Archie was sitting on the wall of the compost heap. Archie is a mean cat, he has never been the same since a terrible accident when he got caught in some wire and spent three days trapped in a hedge. The vet had to amputate his tail and it has left him soured and bitter. Nevertheless, I was I suppose, grateful to him when he dropped behind the compost heap and came out after a short struggle with a dead rat.
The compost heap backs against the fence, the other side of which is the neighbour's chickens so I presume the rat was after chicken feed or possibly eggs. I was less grateful when he deposited it in the middle of the lawn. It was not an object of beauty as you can see. I wrapped a paper tissue round my hand and gingerly picked it up by the tail and walked it the full length of the garden down to the bin, leaving it on the bin whilst I went inside to get a bag or something to wrap it in. It then occurred to me that rather than sending it to landfill, it would be more environmentally friendly to let it decompose naturally and become food for other creatures. So I picked it up again and once more strode the length of the garden until I could hurl it over the fence into the wooded undergrowth of the valley beyond.I feel I spent too much time yesterday striding round the garden in wellingtons with a dead rat swinging from my hand. Such behaviour will not get me on the cover of Vogue.
Friday 15 February 2013
Goodbye to Jess
I'm afraid to say that we decided we had to rehome Jess. There have been quite a few difficulties since we got here (eating our food, trying to eat neighbours chickens, keeping neighbours awake howling) but we thought these were just natural difficulties that you could expect with a puppy and with perseverance things would get better in time.
However there were more frightening problems between her and Oliver. Jess was trying to establish her place in the hierarchy and put Oliver below her, Oliver is too young to know that if a puppy is chewing your toy, you don't kick her and also if said puppy comes racing across the field and bounds up and knocks you over, that is just natural exuberance. The mutual antagonism culminated in Jess nipping Oliver in the face which was when we thought enough was enough.
Another of Jess's problems is that she suffers from separation anxiety and cannot bear to be left alone. She became reconciled to being left alone between the hours of 12 and 6 and would also tolerate being left in the house for perhaps two hours, during the day if we had to go out, but if we wanted to do anything upstairs which meant shutting her in the kitchen she would whine frantically and claw at the door trying to join us.
So I am delighted to say that we have found Jess, a new and probably better home, where there are two other dogs to keep her company at all times. Although it is with a family, all the children are teenagers or older and unlikely to be intimidated and best of all they live in a house with a fantastic three acre garden for Jess to express all her boundless energy in.
I am very grateful to Claire and Andrew for coming to our rescue.
However there were more frightening problems between her and Oliver. Jess was trying to establish her place in the hierarchy and put Oliver below her, Oliver is too young to know that if a puppy is chewing your toy, you don't kick her and also if said puppy comes racing across the field and bounds up and knocks you over, that is just natural exuberance. The mutual antagonism culminated in Jess nipping Oliver in the face which was when we thought enough was enough.
Another of Jess's problems is that she suffers from separation anxiety and cannot bear to be left alone. She became reconciled to being left alone between the hours of 12 and 6 and would also tolerate being left in the house for perhaps two hours, during the day if we had to go out, but if we wanted to do anything upstairs which meant shutting her in the kitchen she would whine frantically and claw at the door trying to join us.
So I am delighted to say that we have found Jess, a new and probably better home, where there are two other dogs to keep her company at all times. Although it is with a family, all the children are teenagers or older and unlikely to be intimidated and best of all they live in a house with a fantastic three acre garden for Jess to express all her boundless energy in.
I am very grateful to Claire and Andrew for coming to our rescue.
Tuesday 12 February 2013
Radish Readers Group*
Last night, friend and I joined a book club. This was part of our New Year's resolution to try new things and meet new people. I know most people have already joined the gym, gone a few times and then returned to pre January sloth, but we don't like to rush things. Better late than never as they say.
It is held at the Inkwell Arts Centre in Chapel Allerton http://www.inkwellarts.org.uk/about-us/ which is in a building, I used to frequent twenty five years ago, when it was the Shoulder of Mutton pub. I could see absolutely no trace of the rather dingy pub I remembered, in the clean white interior, although they do still have the big pub garden which must be nice in summer.
I hope the members of the book club don't mind me saying it, but they were overwhelmingly white, middle class, middle aged and female but then so am I, so I should fit in well. It was a refuge of Radio 4 listeners.
Last night was the annual meeting, where they chose what books they would be reading for the forthcoming year. Members put forward nominations and described them a little, generally said why they liked them and we voted on them at the end. One woman put forward a book and described why she didn't like it although thought it might be a good one to discuss. Unsurprisingly it didn't get any votes, she had been too eloquent in her dislike. The chair (I can't remember any names) said that she would accept suggestions on the night so I was toying with the idea of suggesting A Daughter of Time, given its topicality but was then surprised to find that someone else had nominated it. The person who had nominated it had either forgotten or wasn't listening as there was a dead silence when the time came to describe it so I leapt in and started talking about it. It turned out that maybe 6 people had read it and a few others had heard it discussed on the radio, and interested in knowing more about Richard III, nearly all the group were open to it. So that is the first book I will be discussing with the book group next month, which is very convenient, as I am already halfway through re-reading it.
* I have absolutely no idea why they are called the Radish Readers Group, that will be a question for next month. It makes me think of Peter Rabbit.
It is held at the Inkwell Arts Centre in Chapel Allerton http://www.inkwellarts.org.uk/about-us/ which is in a building, I used to frequent twenty five years ago, when it was the Shoulder of Mutton pub. I could see absolutely no trace of the rather dingy pub I remembered, in the clean white interior, although they do still have the big pub garden which must be nice in summer.
I hope the members of the book club don't mind me saying it, but they were overwhelmingly white, middle class, middle aged and female but then so am I, so I should fit in well. It was a refuge of Radio 4 listeners.
Last night was the annual meeting, where they chose what books they would be reading for the forthcoming year. Members put forward nominations and described them a little, generally said why they liked them and we voted on them at the end. One woman put forward a book and described why she didn't like it although thought it might be a good one to discuss. Unsurprisingly it didn't get any votes, she had been too eloquent in her dislike. The chair (I can't remember any names) said that she would accept suggestions on the night so I was toying with the idea of suggesting A Daughter of Time, given its topicality but was then surprised to find that someone else had nominated it. The person who had nominated it had either forgotten or wasn't listening as there was a dead silence when the time came to describe it so I leapt in and started talking about it. It turned out that maybe 6 people had read it and a few others had heard it discussed on the radio, and interested in knowing more about Richard III, nearly all the group were open to it. So that is the first book I will be discussing with the book group next month, which is very convenient, as I am already halfway through re-reading it.
* I have absolutely no idea why they are called the Radish Readers Group, that will be a question for next month. It makes me think of Peter Rabbit.
Monday 11 February 2013
A new purchase!
I have just bought something new from a high street retailer. This is not my style at all. I am very much of the reduce, re-use and re-cycle brigade so my first choice for purchases is the shop attached to our waste disposal site (a fabulous place), then ebay, then if I have to buy new I search the internet for the cheapest price. On this occasion though I found myself standing in a large retailer wondering what to do. Normally I am fending off sales assistants with a polite 'Just looking thanks' but today there were none in sight. I wanted to buy a freezer and could hardly pick it up and take it to the sales desk. I did eventually manage to flag someone down who could help me.
I wanted to buy it new, so I could get the most energy efficient I could afford. According to http://www.sust-it.net/running-costs-of-old-appliances.php if my chest freezer is twenty years old, which it well might be, a new one is on average 62% more efficient . In addition the seal has gone on the old freezer causing it to let warmer air in and start icing up within a week or so of switching it on. I knew it wouldn't be energy efficient but since switching it off I have noticed a saving of 2-4 units of electricity a day at a cost of between £80 and £160 a year. I could buy a new upright freezer to tuck just outside of the kitchen at the top of the cellar steps for £150 which is claimed to cost an average of £25 a year in electricity. It is smaller than the old freezer, but then the old freezer was rarely crammed full and if need be I can still use the old one in an emergency. For I intend to keep the old freezer, I have room in the cellar and I will use it as a mouse proof food storage place in the meantime, although I will have to remember to prop the lid up a little to allow air to circulate.
So at the moment, I have a new freezer sitting in its cardboard box in the back of my car, I'm afraid I shall have to get the Weakest Girl in Yorkshire to help me carry it in but maybe Oliver can give us a hand.
I wanted to buy it new, so I could get the most energy efficient I could afford. According to http://www.sust-it.net/running-costs-of-old-appliances.php if my chest freezer is twenty years old, which it well might be, a new one is on average 62% more efficient . In addition the seal has gone on the old freezer causing it to let warmer air in and start icing up within a week or so of switching it on. I knew it wouldn't be energy efficient but since switching it off I have noticed a saving of 2-4 units of electricity a day at a cost of between £80 and £160 a year. I could buy a new upright freezer to tuck just outside of the kitchen at the top of the cellar steps for £150 which is claimed to cost an average of £25 a year in electricity. It is smaller than the old freezer, but then the old freezer was rarely crammed full and if need be I can still use the old one in an emergency. For I intend to keep the old freezer, I have room in the cellar and I will use it as a mouse proof food storage place in the meantime, although I will have to remember to prop the lid up a little to allow air to circulate.
So at the moment, I have a new freezer sitting in its cardboard box in the back of my car, I'm afraid I shall have to get the Weakest Girl in Yorkshire to help me carry it in but maybe Oliver can give us a hand.
Sunday 10 February 2013
The Valley in February
It was cold, wet and miserable on the valley this morning, every tree and bush had raindrops clinging to it.
I thought that I would make it a quick walk for exercise purposes only, no hope of seeing anything unusual, but then as usual I began to find things to interest me.
First it was the trees:
I don't know enough about trees, I can recognise a few,oak, beech, willow,hawthorn but most are just trees. I decided this morning that I am going to have a Tree of the Week where I look closely at one and then go home and try and identify it. The above tree is my first, it was a nice shape, clearly deciduous, and had little pine cone like things (I think I will have to learn the language as well).
It also had long greeny red shoots on it:
Now, I've been on the web and I think it is an alder although if anyone has any better ideas please set me right. The greeny red things will develop into catkins and hang down I think. Alders grow well on wet or marshy ground and are frequently planted on reclamation land as they fix nitrogen into the soil in a similar way to legumes. The wood was popular as it didn't rot very easily and was used to make the soles of clogs and also the pilings on which Venice stands are made from alder. According to Wikipedia so is the body of the Fender Stratocaster although I can't see that that is anything to do with water resistance.
Moving on down the valley I was interested to look out for any traces of a house which is marked on my 1906 map next to where it says Primrose Valley:
Judging by the size of the shape on the map, it must have been quite a reasonable size yet there is no trace at all today. I think this is the area where it would have been:
It is difficult to imagine that there was ever a house there, The woods look as if they have been there forever but as I learnt this morning that the alder tree is capable of growing almost a metre a year I suppose it is quite possible that they are only fifty or thirty years old. I was also thinking how lonely the house would have been with just a track to it and half a mile or so from any other building but then I realised that this is how lots of houses in the country would have been before the advent of cars meant that all houses needed a good metalled road up to them,
It was at this point that I would have liked to have gone home, I was quite cold and the sleet was sending little icy darts into my face, but then I heard a woodpecker from the other side of the railway line. I'd caught a quick glimpse of the woodpecker last week (greater spotted) but it had flown off across the railway line. I couldn't resist trying to track it down.
By the time I had reached the footbridge and crossed into the grassy area on the other side, I couldn't hear it any more, but this tree (blighted as they say in books) seemed promising:
I went up to investigate , there were no birds in it apart from a blue tit, but on the other side of the tree there were distinctive round holes so I am pretty sure this is the woodpeckers haunt.
So now I have another place to check on as well as the jays' trees and the kingfisher's pond, I will have the woodpecker's tree to keep an eye on. I will also be checking on the alder tree to see if those inflorescences (see I have looked up the correct word since starting this post) develop into catkins like the pictures in the books.
First it was the trees:
Moving on down the valley I was interested to look out for any traces of a house which is marked on my 1906 map next to where it says Primrose Valley:
It was at this point that I would have liked to have gone home, I was quite cold and the sleet was sending little icy darts into my face, but then I heard a woodpecker from the other side of the railway line. I'd caught a quick glimpse of the woodpecker last week (greater spotted) but it had flown off across the railway line. I couldn't resist trying to track it down.
By the time I had reached the footbridge and crossed into the grassy area on the other side, I couldn't hear it any more, but this tree (blighted as they say in books) seemed promising:
Saturday 9 February 2013
February Frugal Food Challenge - Week 2
Just a quick update to say that the FFF Challenge is going well and I have not spent anything on food this week. Meals during the week included Eggs Benedict, Turkey Schnitzel (with the Lidl turkey steaks), spaghetti (with HM pasta from the freezer) and Pasta with cheese sauce so I still have plenty of meat left. Today I think I will roast the chicken as we will probably be out tomorrow, if not we can have it cold and there will be some left for another chicken based meal either pie or risotto plus stock for the freezer. I still have two packets of turkey steaks, three packets of mince and some sausages.
The things I will need to buy before the next two weeks are up, are milk (used 6 pints in a week), bread flour (used 1 1/2 bags but not helped by interventions from the dog, first the dough and later in the week, half a loaf) and maybe oats, I have used 500g this week, I have another 500g bag unopened and about the same in the storage jar. I will also need to buy butter, that too has been subject to ravages by dog but was also used in the hollandaise sauce for Eggs Benedict.
I have not done much baking this week so the store of cakes and biscuits has gone down but I have all the ingredients for another batch of carrot cake and am also fancying trying my hand at digestive biscuits.
So at the moment the budget of £20 for the next two weeks does not seem to be in danger.
The things I will need to buy before the next two weeks are up, are milk (used 6 pints in a week), bread flour (used 1 1/2 bags but not helped by interventions from the dog, first the dough and later in the week, half a loaf) and maybe oats, I have used 500g this week, I have another 500g bag unopened and about the same in the storage jar. I will also need to buy butter, that too has been subject to ravages by dog but was also used in the hollandaise sauce for Eggs Benedict.
I have not done much baking this week so the store of cakes and biscuits has gone down but I have all the ingredients for another batch of carrot cake and am also fancying trying my hand at digestive biscuits.
So at the moment the budget of £20 for the next two weeks does not seem to be in danger.
Friday 8 February 2013
A Swarm in May
Exciting news this morning, for me at any rate, I received an e-mail inviting me to add my name to the Leeds Beekeepers Association swarm list. This is a list of volunteers who are prepared to drop what they are doing and go and rescue swarms from gardens, shops, buildings wherever.
The requirement for going on the swarm list is that you have had at least 12 months beekeeping experience so I couldn't apply last year. Nevertheless I did get to deal with a swarm, when my own hive decided to swarm. I had already lost a swarm in May when half the hive took off and settled at the top of my neighbour's 60ft tree, all I could do was watch it in frustration whilst devising wildly impractical plans for trying to reach it. After a few days the scout bees had found a good site for a permanent home and the swarm took off never to be seen again.
As my initial nucleus of bees had cost me £100, I didn't like this, so took action to prevent them swarming again by splitting the remaining hive into two. Neither of the two new hives had active queens and the theory goes that the first of the queen cells to hatch in each hive will kill any other prospective queens and then on a fine day fly off, get mated and then return to the hive to spend the rest of her life laying eggs whilst the colony builds up around her.
So I was quite annoyed when my by now very small original colony decided to swarm again. Fortunately they landed in a hawthorn tree in my garden:
However I was not totally unaided, Oliver wanted to help:
Here again the theory says that bees are at their most docile when they are swarming as they have no hive to defend and they are in fact unable to sting as they have gorged themselves so much on honey in preparation for the journey that they cannot get their stingers in to the right position. Be that as it may, when I went up the ladder with a clothes brush to sweep them into a box, I was wearing the bee suit and I did still get stung on the hand. It was such a terrible summer last year that I don't think my bees had any honey stores to gorge on.
Once I had the queen and most of the swarm in a cardboard box, I tipped it up on a sheet below the tree and left it propped up for the bees I had missed, to come to find the queen.
Then at night when they were all quiet and had stopped flying, I took the box down the garden to the spare hive and emptied them into it.
After that it was a waiting and wondering time, hoping that the virgin queen managed to get mated and start laying. It is recommended that they are disturbed as little as possible during this time, so I used to go and sit on a stone near the entrance to the hive and watch the foraging bees coming into the hive. If I could see pollen on the back legs, I felt reassured as pollen is used to feed newly hatched bees although it is stored as well. Oliver would come and join me watching bees, hence the photograph at the top of the blog.
Well, I was lucky in that by the end of the season all three hives were queen right, that is mated and laying. They were all small in size and amount of stores as would be expected given the poor summer so I fed them with a sugar candy I'd cooked up, rather like making crystallized toffee. All I can do now is cross my fingers that they make it through to spring.
The requirement for going on the swarm list is that you have had at least 12 months beekeeping experience so I couldn't apply last year. Nevertheless I did get to deal with a swarm, when my own hive decided to swarm. I had already lost a swarm in May when half the hive took off and settled at the top of my neighbour's 60ft tree, all I could do was watch it in frustration whilst devising wildly impractical plans for trying to reach it. After a few days the scout bees had found a good site for a permanent home and the swarm took off never to be seen again.
As my initial nucleus of bees had cost me £100, I didn't like this, so took action to prevent them swarming again by splitting the remaining hive into two. Neither of the two new hives had active queens and the theory goes that the first of the queen cells to hatch in each hive will kill any other prospective queens and then on a fine day fly off, get mated and then return to the hive to spend the rest of her life laying eggs whilst the colony builds up around her.
So I was quite annoyed when my by now very small original colony decided to swarm again. Fortunately they landed in a hawthorn tree in my garden:
However I was not totally unaided, Oliver wanted to help:
Here again the theory says that bees are at their most docile when they are swarming as they have no hive to defend and they are in fact unable to sting as they have gorged themselves so much on honey in preparation for the journey that they cannot get their stingers in to the right position. Be that as it may, when I went up the ladder with a clothes brush to sweep them into a box, I was wearing the bee suit and I did still get stung on the hand. It was such a terrible summer last year that I don't think my bees had any honey stores to gorge on.
Once I had the queen and most of the swarm in a cardboard box, I tipped it up on a sheet below the tree and left it propped up for the bees I had missed, to come to find the queen.
After that it was a waiting and wondering time, hoping that the virgin queen managed to get mated and start laying. It is recommended that they are disturbed as little as possible during this time, so I used to go and sit on a stone near the entrance to the hive and watch the foraging bees coming into the hive. If I could see pollen on the back legs, I felt reassured as pollen is used to feed newly hatched bees although it is stored as well. Oliver would come and join me watching bees, hence the photograph at the top of the blog.
Well, I was lucky in that by the end of the season all three hives were queen right, that is mated and laying. They were all small in size and amount of stores as would be expected given the poor summer so I fed them with a sugar candy I'd cooked up, rather like making crystallized toffee. All I can do now is cross my fingers that they make it through to spring.
Wednesday 6 February 2013
Progress Report
This search of mine for the good life does not always move forward smoothly, recently I seem to have been plagued by a series of annoyances although I suppose one of them could be called a tragedy.
On Friday, when I went to give the chickens their afternoon corn, there were only two birds waiting by the gate. This was unusual, the birds do often wander, particularly to join the other chickens in the next door garden but they are nearly always back for tea and if one is laggardly, the sound of the other two enjoying their nosh, normally brings her running. I was concerned but hoped she'd return in time and took Jess onto the valley for her late afternoon walk. We had not gone far, before I came across a sorry pile of familiar feathers, so I presume that Edna had gone wandering too far from the safety of the garden and met a grisly end at the hands of a fox.
The other annoyances were much more mundane and mainly seem to feature Dog ie Dog ate half a bowl of bread dough left to rise on the kitchen table,with the inevitable follow up: Dog suffered diarrhoea on the kitchen floor. Then there was Dog upset at being left in the kitchen whilst I put Oliver to bed managing to hurl herself at the kitchen door and dislodge the screws from the bottom hinge leaving the door hanging on by a whisker.
Monday's annoyance was to get halfway up the street before realising I had a puncture. Kind neighbours dropped Oliver and I at his nursery, leaving me to walk the two miles home. It could have been quite a nice walk had it not been for the cold, cold wind and my being in such a hurry when I set out, not to keep kind neighbours waiting that I forgot my scarf and gloves.
Today I was expecting to be able to make a much more upbeat report as I went on the first of three courses on setting up your own business but a lot of it was stuff that I was familiar with already, from when I had my chutney business. The first half of the session seemed to be trying to prepare people for long hours and risks and stresses of running a business. There were some interesting points though, including the pros and cons of being a sole trader compared with a limited company and on choosing a business name. I'm expecting next week's talk to be much more practical as there is someone coming in from HMRC to give us the lowdown on what is tax deductible and what we must do if we want to employ somone.
On Friday, when I went to give the chickens their afternoon corn, there were only two birds waiting by the gate. This was unusual, the birds do often wander, particularly to join the other chickens in the next door garden but they are nearly always back for tea and if one is laggardly, the sound of the other two enjoying their nosh, normally brings her running. I was concerned but hoped she'd return in time and took Jess onto the valley for her late afternoon walk. We had not gone far, before I came across a sorry pile of familiar feathers, so I presume that Edna had gone wandering too far from the safety of the garden and met a grisly end at the hands of a fox.
The other annoyances were much more mundane and mainly seem to feature Dog ie Dog ate half a bowl of bread dough left to rise on the kitchen table,with the inevitable follow up: Dog suffered diarrhoea on the kitchen floor. Then there was Dog upset at being left in the kitchen whilst I put Oliver to bed managing to hurl herself at the kitchen door and dislodge the screws from the bottom hinge leaving the door hanging on by a whisker.
Monday's annoyance was to get halfway up the street before realising I had a puncture. Kind neighbours dropped Oliver and I at his nursery, leaving me to walk the two miles home. It could have been quite a nice walk had it not been for the cold, cold wind and my being in such a hurry when I set out, not to keep kind neighbours waiting that I forgot my scarf and gloves.
Today I was expecting to be able to make a much more upbeat report as I went on the first of three courses on setting up your own business but a lot of it was stuff that I was familiar with already, from when I had my chutney business. The first half of the session seemed to be trying to prepare people for long hours and risks and stresses of running a business. There were some interesting points though, including the pros and cons of being a sole trader compared with a limited company and on choosing a business name. I'm expecting next week's talk to be much more practical as there is someone coming in from HMRC to give us the lowdown on what is tax deductible and what we must do if we want to employ somone.
Monday 4 February 2013
A Daughter of Time
The second daughter rang me today to ask who Richard III was and why they were excited about finding his bones. This is unlike her as she is normally a pretty regular reader of the BBC news site so I had expected her to have followed the story.
I have had a soft spot for Richard III since reading A Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. Josephine Tey was a writer of detective fiction in the 40's (died 1952) and in this book her detective hero is laid up in a hospital bed and bored and starts trying to find out whether Richard III did murder the princes in the tower by going back to contemporary sources. It makes for a fascinating story presenting the point that history is written by the victors.
Sunday 3 February 2013
Sowing seeds for summer sustenance
I expect with a title like the Wood Be Good Life you were expecting this blog to be all about growing things and gardening and you were probably wondering when I was going to get on with it.
Well, today is the answer to that.Today I went through my box of seeds, removed the Thomas the Tank Engine toddler sock (don't know how that got in there) and sorted out what I could use, what needed to be thrown out and what I needed to buy.
Then I got down to it and planted two types of tomato (normal and hanging basket), peppers, onions, basil, lettuce and cress.
The tomatoes and peppers are planted in carefully accumulated empty cream cartons not only as it makes it easy to throw them away after use but because the little clear plastic lids that come with cream cartons do a really good job at keeping the warmth and moisture in the soil whilst the seeds are germinating.
Now with the exception of the onions, lettuce and cress, these seeds are all going in the airing cupboard where they will sit on the bottom shelf of the electric clothes airer until they germinate, after which they will go on the south facing windowsill of Rosie's bedroom.
I need to buy sweet pea and nasturtium seeds as I want to mix flowers and peas and beans climbing up all the fences. Also I am wondering of the practicality of starting parsnips off in bigger cream tubs and then cutting the base out when I come to plant them out. Or cut the base out now maybe?
Well, today is the answer to that.Today I went through my box of seeds, removed the Thomas the Tank Engine toddler sock (don't know how that got in there) and sorted out what I could use, what needed to be thrown out and what I needed to buy.
Then I got down to it and planted two types of tomato (normal and hanging basket), peppers, onions, basil, lettuce and cress.
Now with the exception of the onions, lettuce and cress, these seeds are all going in the airing cupboard where they will sit on the bottom shelf of the electric clothes airer until they germinate, after which they will go on the south facing windowsill of Rosie's bedroom.
I need to buy sweet pea and nasturtium seeds as I want to mix flowers and peas and beans climbing up all the fences. Also I am wondering of the practicality of starting parsnips off in bigger cream tubs and then cutting the base out when I come to plant them out. Or cut the base out now maybe?
Saturday 2 February 2013
February Frugal Food Challenge
I was doing pretty well with the budget food strategy of not buying anything unless it was strictly necessary but then Lidl which is my main supermarket offered £5 off if I spent £35. I didn't particularly want to do this as it would mean I'd spent nearly half my monthly food budget (£80 for 2 adults and a child who eats a lot at nursery) in the first week but I thought if I plan this carefully I could buy nearly everything I need for the first three weeks. I shouldn't need to buy anything extra in week 1 which would leave me £10 a week in weeks 2 & 3 to buy milk and fruit etc and then £20 for the last week. This should be doable.
So this is what I bought:
So this is what I bought:
I reckon there is enough meat there for at least 10 meals and then these will be mixed with pastas, soups, risottos etc. We will see.
It wasn't quite all I bought, I got to the checkout and found my trolley added up to £34.60. I was forced to add these to bring it over £35.
Life is tough sometimes.
Comments
Due to popular demand (well two people in all) I have taken the captcha anti spam device off the comment form. I know how irritating this can be and frequently find myself staring hopelessly at a jumble of letters. Allegra says I now owe her five minutes of her life because of it. I'm not sure how I can get this back to her, the only thing I can think of is to come up with some wonderful time saving tip.....might take some thinking about that one.
So friends, family, colleagues and unknown strangers who I would like to meet, you are now free to comment unhindered.
Any comments?
So friends, family, colleagues and unknown strangers who I would like to meet, you are now free to comment unhindered.
Any comments?
Friday 1 February 2013
Lemonade
I had a bunch of lemons sitting in the fridge left over from Christmas, bought in the delusion that we are the sort of family who might fancy a slice of lemon in their drinks. I have these delusions at Christmas, at least thank God I have fought off the delusion that someone might like to eat dates at Christmas.
So something had to be done with them, I could have made a lemon meringue pie but as only I like that it would be encouraging gluttony, I could make a lemon drizzle cake but I actually fancy cherry cake at the moment, a practical answer would be to freeze them so that I always had a lemon available in the house, but what I actually fancied was home made lemonade.
Very simple to make, take the zest of 3 lemons and put in a bowl, add the juice of 6 lemons (obviously that includes the 3 you have already zested, don't go buying 9 lemons).
Add 6 ounces of sugar, pour on two and a half pints of boiling water, stir to dissolve the sugar and leave to stand overnight. Strain in the morning and you have your lemonade. Drink as is or pep it up and make it last longer by adding something fizzy.
This is where I thought I'd dig out the soda syphon:
Cue daughter saying it looked like something out of the seventies. Well durr, of course it does, who bought a soda syphon after the seventies? It also looked filthy as it had sat in the back of my cupboard since the eighties. I cleaned it up, found the little gas cylinders to fire it up with, and then was foiled as I couldn't find the black plastic bit that screws the gas cylinders onto the syphon. I gave up and bought a bottle of Lidl's basic lemonade at 17p instead. Probably cheaper in the long run.
So something had to be done with them, I could have made a lemon meringue pie but as only I like that it would be encouraging gluttony, I could make a lemon drizzle cake but I actually fancy cherry cake at the moment, a practical answer would be to freeze them so that I always had a lemon available in the house, but what I actually fancied was home made lemonade.
Very simple to make, take the zest of 3 lemons and put in a bowl, add the juice of 6 lemons (obviously that includes the 3 you have already zested, don't go buying 9 lemons).
Cue daughter saying it looked like something out of the seventies. Well durr, of course it does, who bought a soda syphon after the seventies? It also looked filthy as it had sat in the back of my cupboard since the eighties. I cleaned it up, found the little gas cylinders to fire it up with, and then was foiled as I couldn't find the black plastic bit that screws the gas cylinders onto the syphon. I gave up and bought a bottle of Lidl's basic lemonade at 17p instead. Probably cheaper in the long run.
White Rabbits!
White rabbits everyone!
You do all say that on the first of the month don't you ? In case you have never heard it before saying it is supposed to bring good luck for the month ahead.
And woo! it's February! Already sunrise is at the dizzyingly early time of 7.53, I always feel better when it passes the eight o'clock barrier. I've noticed the birds have started pairing up already, the blue tits swooping around in pairs. Spring is on its way!
You do all say that on the first of the month don't you ? In case you have never heard it before saying it is supposed to bring good luck for the month ahead.
And woo! it's February! Already sunrise is at the dizzyingly early time of 7.53, I always feel better when it passes the eight o'clock barrier. I've noticed the birds have started pairing up already, the blue tits swooping around in pairs. Spring is on its way!
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