Bees, Berries and Outdoor Cooking

I've decided to put a few updates in one post again. This week the weather has been absolutely belting and after work on Friday I went to do my inspection of the Bees. Upon arriving at the land my Dad and Brother-in-law were just leaving for a pint over the road. Not wanting to miss the opportunity of a free pint I tagged along! After a swift drink I returned to the land and got on with my inspection.

Not a lot to say on the inspection so I'll keep it brief. The main colony have loads of supplies and the supers are starting to get some stored in them too so with any luck I may have some honey for myself and some to sell this year. Fingers crossed! The nucleus hive wasn't checked as there should be a newly hatched Queen in there and I don't want to disturb her until she has done her mating flight and started laying.

After checking the Bees I decided to take a few strawberries as there are a few ready for the picking and it would be a shame to leave them for the birds to decimate!

And finally as the weather was good I decided to do a spot of outdoor cooking. We have recently had some conifers cut down and trimmed in my back garden and all the wood was lying around so I wanted to get rid of it. What better way then having a fire. There was lots of very dry bits and they set fire with no effort at all. I had a nice long branch that looked ideal for suspending my dutch oven from so I dug a hole and placed one end of the branch in the ground then propped another branch up to the side of it over the fire. I now only had to attach the cooking pot to the branch to suspend it above the flames. The photos below hopefully show this better. I cooked some chilli in the pot and using the lid cooked some sweetcorn as well. It was lovely!

Beer, food and fire, no wonder I'm smiling!