A Tryptic of Lenses.

This week’s lesson from A Year With My Camera is about lenses, and so the homework is to take a picture from the same point with each one I possess. I settled for three of them: the fish- eye (at 7.5 mm), the macro (60 mm) and the tele-zoom (300 mm). I’m sure you can work out which is which. Not the most artistic of shots, I know of many who could do far better. I like the little holy growing amongst the roots of an oak but couldn’t find a view-point that gave an interesting picture at the different focal lengths. A month or so earlier when the bluebells were in flower might have been a better possibility, but that’s only a feeble excuse.
 
Other activities included dog-walking – at least Hamish is fun to be with, replacing the rotten timbers in Herself’s potting shed – an exercise in creative bodging, and tending the bees.
 
On the bee front, I’m in serious danger of losing my credibility; for thirty years I’ve been saying that I can’t find the single queen amongst her forty thousand followers – while boasting that I know a work-a-round; today, I found one in one of the two hives at the Lost Garden. The other one is newly mated and not yet laying, so she is rather lively and few beekeepers would have the necessary skills to find her. In a few days, when she is laying, she will be heavier and so far less nimble. But, I have now found the queen in each of my three colonies over the last couple of weeks and am wondering whether I should proudly announce the achievement it to the beekeeping world,  or just casually demonstrate the new found ability at a meeting. But – then again, I might have just been incredibly lucky this last few weeks.
 
It is now time to start increasing the number of colonies, I should be able to make up two new ones from the strongest colony, while the other two will need all of their population to build up for the winter. My preferred process is named after Louisville beekeeper George Demaree who devised the method over a hundred and thirty years ago. The instructions begin, as always, first find the queen – well I may just be lucky – but, if not, I do know a work-a-round.