Springing into Life

Sunday morning was absolutely gorgeous here. A perfect early Spring morning that just can’t be beat.

I was up early to go for a run and a swim, did a bit of work, got ready and then headed into Machynlleth. The temperature was around 1°C there and mist was hanging in the valleys with gorgeous sunshine overhead. A met 6 others and we set off for a run in the hills above Machynlleth. I was only supposed to be doing a 45 minute run, but it was such a lovely day that I stayed with everyone else and did the full 1hour 10 minute (7.83 mile) loop instead. As the sun got higher in the sky we were treated to some amazing views of the hills and Valleys around Machynlleth. Just perfect.

It was then into the pool for a quick swim. I was able to use my new Garmin Forerunner 910XT watch during both the run and swim so had something new to play with, but I shall write a separate article about that soon. There was then just time for a quick bacon sandwich, a coffee and a chat before heading back home.

The drive back was equally nice as the run, swim and bacon sarnie. The mist had now burnt off completely, it was high tide and the River Dyfi was full. The sky was clear, there wasn’t a breath of wind and the hills of the Tarren Ridge were reflecting beautifully in the river water at Glandyfi. What a lovely place to live.

At home the sun was shining so I decided to have a quick look at the bees at the bottom of the garden. They were really active with hundreds of them out enjoying the sunshine, flying around the entrance to the hive, covering the front of the hive and better still, the patch of crocuses that we have was seething with honey bees. Not only were the bees out and about, but with the crocuses in full bloom they were managing to get their first taste of nectar and pollen for quite some time.

Crocuses on not such a sunny day - You can still see a bee in on of them though

There were plenty of bees returning to the hives covered in pollen too, so things were looking good. Now is a critical time for them though as this early rush of activity with encourage the queen to start laying and the hive will start to get busier, they’ll need more in the way of stores in order to rear the brood and will need energy for themselves too. The trouble is, the weather could well take a turn for the worse yet and if that happens with the colony already ramping up for the summer then there may not be enough food to go around. We’ll have to make sure we keep on top of things and keep them topped up with food.

We then headed into Aberystwyth, had a walk along the prom, had an ice-cream and did some shopping. We also managed to find a geocache that had eluded us before through no fault of our own – We were in the right place last time but the container had been removed for maintenance. We got it this time though.

By now it had clouded over so we headed home for a delicious roast pork dinner lovingly cooked by Anna.. Mmmm Mmmm!