April 2017

April has been quite a busy month, one way or t'other, so what to tell first? Well there is the stair carpet saga. In last month's post I was getting quite excited about the stair and hall carpet, which was to be fitted on the 21st. Lunchtime came and went but no carpet fitter and when Andrew telephoned he was told that they had forgotten to book it in (although we had seen them write it in the diary when we ordered the carpet) and it would be fitted the following Tuesday. The carpet fitter, with carpet, arrived, took one look and with a sharp intake of breath said it would look rubbish (not actually his phrase but I'm quite polite) We had been told that the carpet could have the edge turned at the base of the banisters to give a neat edge but apparently not.

Still carpetless

The carpet fitter said it needed whipping and for this it would need templating (something he didn't do), took the carpet away and said he would talk to the carpet shop. They phoned and, after some harsh words from Andrew, said it would be at no extra cost and the guy would be round to template the following day. Which he was. Unfortunately the templating couldn't be done as the carpet shop had decided to precut the carpet and had got it wrong. Bearing in mind that whipping takes three weeks and the carpet took three weeks to arrive I don't think I'll be showing you the new carpet soon.

We also said good bye to Kip this month. Kip is Patricia and David's latest trainee guide dog puppy, he's been with them for over a year and it's time he moved on to more advanced training. Luckily his last Sunday outing to the orchard was a beautiful day and he & Mortimer had a great time.

Kip & Mortimer

Bowled over

While we're on dog topics I couldn't resist this last one of Milton and Mortimer.

Me & mini me

Latest obsession this month is with clothes moths! No I haven't had them but am concerned that my collection of jumpers may suffer if they go into long term storage. In my search for a deterrent I found this site Total Wardrobe Care which even has a blog. Many of you know I'm a bit particular about my wardrobe and cupboards (if it's not in colour order I can get into a real hissy fit) so this site is heaven. I ordered a load of products so feel more relaxed now.

Total Wardrobe Care

Andrew's birthday was this month and although we went out for the day I didn't take any photographs. Well apart from this one - Andrew received a rather splendid hamper of charcuterie which Mortimer was keen to share.

I'll help you with that!

Next a bee update. April was a sad month for my girls. They were doing great in March, lots of food, the queen was laying eggs and all was well. The hive is within sight of the back door and it has become reflex to glance across to see bee activity. It was a warm, sunny day but only a couple of bees were about and they didn't look happy. I opened the hive and they were all dead. It was horrible - a deep layer of dead bees at the bottom of the hive as well as bees who had just died - young bees in the middle of hatching, older bees cleaning out the cells. I'm not sure what happened as everything seemed normal but I suspect some insecticide drift from the orchard. Anyway I didn't have time to clean the hive properly, just took out the frames with honey (which I got rid of in case it was tainted) and closed the hive up to stop mice. My plan was to clean it thoroughly over the Bank Holiday weekend.
On Monday (OK we've slipped into May but I didn't want to leave you wondering) I noticed that there were a few honey bees around the hive, keen to get in. I assumed that they wanted to get to any scraps of honey that had been left in so I quickly opened up the hive and left them to it. Yesterday I was gardening and noticed a few more bees at the hive. Half an hour later I got a shout from Andrew, because of this...

 I'm keeping my fingers crossed that a local hive (possibly the ones that have a temporary home in the orchard) has swarmed and liked the look of my hive. They seemed to have gone inside and there was a lot of activity today. I'm desperate to take a peek but if, big if, I have a new queen inside they can be a bit flighty so I'm going to give it a couple of weeks. Still it's very nice to see bees at the hive again.

I've finally got my headphone/speaker issue sorted and have been trying to do more French lessons. You may remember that we are both doing Rosetta Stone courses. Andrew is like a demon on his whereas I had a slower start. Mine is currently concentrating on listening and pronunciation. I had to pronounce this sentance 'je vais prendre des oeufs brouillés'  which has (for me ) two difficult words with oeufs & a double ll. But apparently I had to practise the 'je'!

Their system is quite good. You hear, and see, how a word or phrase is pronounced and then speak it. The programme records you so you can hear yourself and then shows your pronuciation against that of the native French speaker.  I'm only showing you these because I did quite well - you can see on the second one I didn't need to practise anything. If only it were all that simple!

Native speaker is black - I'm in green

We now feel that we're on the final push to get the house finished, so much so I've got a spreadsheet of tasks to be done. The biggest is the front of the house, the garden and drive have been very neglected. Hopefully next month you can have the 'after' shots. And maybe even a stair carpet!

Finally April was peak blossom month in the orchard - I don't think I'll ever tire of taking photographs.