Penicuik House Sunset.

I need to check the bees about once a week, just to make sure that the hives are still upright; though the rangers do usually alert me to any obvious problems very promptly. Occasionally I will check the thermometers, if the temperature is above ambient there is something living inside. The centre of the cluster is likely to be at 35 C so that the bees can raise young brood, but bees are good insulators so that the temperature just under their ceiling, where the probes are, is usually about 10 degrees above ambient. Sometime soon there will be pregnant ewes in the field and they can cause havock by using the hive stands as scratching posts; last year, one of the buggers chewed through the wire of a thermocouple – I did lodge a complaint with the management, but they only laughed at me.
 
I was back at the estate car park just before sunset and managed to squeeze into a space and walked down to the old house; while it’s good that the sun sets directly behind the house at this time of year, the façade of the building looks pretty mucky. I’m reminded of my youth when Bristol Cathedral’s west end was badly soiled and eroded due to it being on the lee side of the gas works. Anyway, the sunset was rubbish so I took a walk around the grounds while waiting to see if the “blue” hour was any better.
 
I returned to find the spotlights on but without shedding any visible light on the house; however, the sky wasn’t too bad, so I took a pot at it. Perhaps I should try again and hour or so later.