Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
At least we are still allowed out into our garden during the Coronavirus lockdown. The weather has been pretty good for it too. 9 days without rain and counting means that the floodwaters have receded and I’ve been able to do a bit of tidying up out there. Hedges and taller shrubs have been cut...
You saw my attempts at social distancing yesterday with a nice surf-ski paddle on the sea miles from anyone. Luckily we can self-isolate in the garden too. It was feeling quite Spring-like out there over the weekend. The sun was shining, I mowed the lawn for the first time this year and there was quite...
Despite a certain amount of neglect and being constantly battered by storm after storm things still seem to be coming along in the garden. Narcissus, Daffodils, Primroses, Crocuses and snowdrops are all out and flowering. The Hellebores are still going strong and even the rhubarb is coming on well. The bottom of the garden is...
It was a chilly start to the day today. Minus 2 degrees Celsius with a heavy frost. Back Pain I didn’t sleep much last night thanks to my back pain. I don’t know what’s wrong with it but it feels like a typical compressed disk type pain and there’s little I can do to make...
The good news is that our honey stores have been replenished. Jars and jars of gorgeous golden honey from the bottom of our garden. All stacked up to keep us going. The bad news is that we didn’t get any honey last year, there wasn’t huge amounts this year and there is no guarantee that...
Our bees have been ‘bee-having’ themselves fairly well so far this year. They had looked like swarming at the end of April so we split them first thing in May. That all seemed to go well and by the end of May we had a new laying queen and the colony with the original queen...
Don’t get too excited, I’m not talking about Anna and I, I’m talking about our bees. We’ve always had trouble getting newly emerged queens to mate. We perform an artificial swarm as the perceived wisdom dictates, but for some reason the queen that emerges from the queen cell never seems to be able to start...
The weather wasn’t great last week. There was quite a bit of rain most days as far as I remember and it was chilly too. The sun did come out now and then so I managed a windsurf in the sunshine on Saturday afternoon despite the fact that the morning was pretty wet. Riding in...
As it’s such a nice day I just couldn’t resist lunch in the garden. Not the best time of day for photos but here are a few photos from the garden anyway. The bees were certainly busy. Not just our honey bees but all sorts of other bees too. It’s always nice to see the...
After a 21 mile paddle in the morning it was time for some recovery in the form of gardening. The garden itself is in recovery mode as well having been battered by the winds of Storm Hannah. The trees took the brunt of it with all of their fresh spring growth ripped from their branches...
Fitness / Technology / Triathlon
Fixing the Altimeter on my Garmin Forerunner 910XT
Monday, March 17th, 2014
 |
 |
More live data from Ynyslas
Subscribe for full access.
Weather trends, weather extremes and historic data. See what you get here.
Surf Ski, Kayaking and Canoeing
Bringing Two Surf Skis Back from the Dead (Maybe)
Tuesday, June 16th, 2026
Beekeeping / Family / Gardening / Recipes & Cooking / Windsurfing
Monday, June 8th, 2026
