Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
We’ve been busy this weekend building our new hives. Morgan has been helping and then today all three of us were at it and we’ve gradually turned the pallet of wood that arrived last week into two new beehives. There’s another two to build yet though. First we have to seal all of the cut...
Things are beginning to get busy in our beekeeping world again. Yesterday we took delivery of a pallet of supplies. I was sat working at my computer when a huge articulated lorry pulled up outside, there was a knock on the door and the delivery driver said there was a pallet for us. My mind raced, I...
Hopefully, if our bees survive the next month or so, they’ll expand rapidly in number and we’ll end up with more colonies than we started with. Our plan this year is to ‘make increase’ by performing artificial swarms and re-housing the swarms in new hives. Our garden isn’t big enough for too many hives and not really...
I mentioned the other day that the bees were busy. Well, they’re at it again, out enjoying the Spring sunshine and feasting on the pollen and nectar from out little patch of crocuses. As new beekeepers who are just coming out of their first winter with bees, it’s a lovely sight to see. It must...
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...
After to big freeze of last year, the winter of 2011-2012 has been fairly mild. So what does this mean for our honey bees? Well, we had a check on our three hives this winter and things don’t look too bad. It’s difficult to know if bees consume more food in warm winters than in...
We may have had some of the coldest temperatures of the winter last week, and the rest of the UK is currently under a blanket of snow and ice, but not so here in West Wales. The temperature hasn’t got anywhere near freezing today, there hasn’t been any snow in sight and even that on...
After a glorious night of star-gazing last night we were treated to an amazing sunrise too. You can’t beat the natural world for a light display.
I’m really keen to take some photos through our new telescope. I knew this wouldn’t be easy. The world of astro-photography is complex with many diverse techniques that need to be learnt, practised and perfected. Some of the photos you can achieve are truly outstanding, but I think it will be many years before we...
The weather has been terrible here since Christmas, but we really wanted to get Morgan out for a decent ride on his new bike. We had a quick spin around Nant yr Arian on it on Boxing Day and he’d been over to the beach on it, but really needed an easy, long ride to...
Fitness / Technology / Triathlon
Fixing the Altimeter on my Garmin Forerunner 910XT
Monday, March 17th, 2014
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