The Apiary.

At times, life gets in the way of important things like Blip.

Responsibilities at the camera club mean that I get less time to take photographs and no time to post them.

Similarly with the bees; I have never before had so many viable colonies to care for at this time of the year, though the one on the far end of the row belongs to a rather attractive young tyro who has yet to find a suitable apiary site. 
Myself and a couple of friends have decided to concentrate on breeding native bees on behalf of our club; to that end we have applied to both the lottery and a bee charity for the funds to buy native bees and have ordered 10 mated queen bees at enormous expense from Andrew Abrahams who keeps bees on the protected island of Colonsay.
The purpose of today’s visit was merely to check that the hives were still upright after the gales yesterday. The more astute of you will notice that the front doors are blocked with snow; that won’t be a problem as they have under-floor ventilation and it may just reduce the draughts a little. Anyway, the snow will have melted long before the bees feel the urge to venture out of doors again.

With the intention of freeing up time to concentrate on the more important aspects of life, some of my other activities are being pruned a little which should allow me time to return to Blip and even include some cycling.