Honey and Heat

It is the time of fools

Daisy and a bee

It is hot. Very hot. Uncomfortably hot. Too hot. Normally we get a day or two like this over the course of a summer but this year the heat has come early and has been more consistently present. The dogs are hot and are hiding in a part of the house where they find it cool. They are quiet now but come later in the evening when it cools down, they will be the fools that they normally are - loudly bouncing about the place, causing chaos. For the moment I enjoy the peace and quiet.

Normally at this time of the day we would be in the garden. Today we have retreated to inside after a brief moment outside. I knew it was hot outside but the dogs wanted to know for themselves, just to see what it was like. The sun is scorching and prompts a quick return inside after a quick snuffle around the garden (dogs not me). Windows are open, curtains are closed to create some coolness. I feel sleepy. A mid afternoon nap might be in order. I tell myself that I too will be like the dogs (perhaps less foolish?) and have more energy to do the tasks on my to do list in the evening when it is cool. You can justify anything on a hot day.

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We went bee keeping on Sunday and it was hard work. With such warm weather the honey flow has been a good. To create space for both bees and honey we add boxes which means the hives continue to grow until they are too tall for me to work. Aside from the height, the boxes are heavy and I have to ask for help in lifting them when I put the hive back together after checking they are queen right. It is also heavy work just getting them open. Boxes are stuck together with comb and honey. For something that looks so delicate, honey comb can hold a box to another rather well. It is stubborn much like my dogs. It takes work to prise them apart and when you do, you see the golden shimmer of honey which is quickly smothered in bees. They hunt it out and steal it back, hiding it away in less visible honey combs in the hive. A few, the older worker bees, zeously guard the golden honey. I identify them by their persist buzz. It is cranky like they are. They have had a hard life over their 6 week existance and now it looks like someone is trying to steal their life work. I would be grumpy too if that happened to me.

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Current smells in the garden:

• honey, of course. The hive in the garden releases it scent when the evening comes.

• the lillies are still flowering and it is such a delicious smell

• I have summer fruit, nectarines, peaches and cherries sitting on my desk. The warmth of the day releases their scent.

• Mowed lawns, always a favourite. With the heat it has a tinge of dry grass a smell of childhood, of harvests.

• I water the tomatoes and the scent wafts up of green and ripening.

• I grow basil on the window sill and the scent wafts everytime I open the curtains.

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I wake during the night. I am sleeping lightly, it is too hot and I have a head ache from overheating when we bee kept earlier in the day. It was 27 degrees and after learning this we acknowledge that our timing for working the hives was a bit foolish. I wake to a sound and like a panicked mama bear I leap out of bed, worried, something is wrong with Eos. I hear a panting sound, is it her? Is she too hot? She is sleeping in her bed at the foot of ours. I check, gentle pats and realise it is not her I am hearing. It is outside. What can it be? As I trundle back to bed I suspect my mystery sound is a hedgehog, snuffling about in the garden bed outside our bedroom window, hunting out snails. The quiet heat of the night has applifed the night sounds it makes.

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