This is my new watch strap hand made by Craig Kidd.

Excellent quality leather. The workmanship and finish of the strap is really good. Craig measured my wrist and the strap fits perfectly.

If you are interested in a strap like this, I’m sure Craig would craft one for you as well. His contact number is 07881 527457

As you may remember Pi is 3.14 and is used in the formula to calculate the area and circumference of a circle.

Today is March 14 or 3 14 (March being the 3rd Month of the year)

So today is recognised as Pi day.

Thank you to Alsager Camera club for organising speaker Adrian Lines who gave an excellent, informative and very well thought out talk last night.

Adrian’s title was Monochrome is not a filter? (In a photographic sense). I will not spoil it for anyone who has not heard his talk but I thought Adrian put a lot of thought into making his talk both informative and useful for camera club members.

His aim was to help photographers improve the quality of their Black and White (monochrome) images.

Is todays date the best we can do for a Palindromic date?

(Reads same forwards as backwards – or could be looked on as a mirror image)

We would have to take the shortened form of 3/2/23

Not perfect but I don’t think anything else works – or does it? I’m happy to be proved wrong

Wishing everyone a peaceful, healthy and above all else a HAPPY New Year

For those who are unable to attend the funeral, there is a webcast available.

There are many old sayings, but one about bees is “ A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of Hay, a swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon and a swarm of bees in July is not worth a fly”

If anyone has variations on this saying please let me know. My wording may not be perfect but the sentiments are right.

So, imagine my delight when a good friend of mine phone to let me know there was a swarm in a bush in their garden and I could have it if I wanted. Needles to,say this too good an offer to miss, particularly as the origin of the bees was known. And as we are in the month of May the swarm is worth a load of hay! ( those who keep sheep or horses know that hay is a vital commodity for feeding to those animals)

Often with swarms it is not possible to know where they have come from and whether they are carrying any disease.

If you are wondering how they are collected. It is as follows. the bees are shaken into a skep or in this case a polynuc ( small hive made out of strong polystyrene). However, any box would do.

It is vital that as many of the bees as possible go into the skep, polynuc or box. In particular, the queen needs to go in although there is no way you can be sure you’ve got her other than by the reaction of the rest of the bees. If the queen has gone into the container the rest of the bees are happy to follow her.

Once in the skep, polynuc or box the bees will happily stay with the queen and can easily be transported in the back of a car without having to worry about them flying around everywhere. They tend to “ sit still” where they are.

The benefit of using the polynuc is that there will be small numbers of brood frames for the bees to live on and once the bees have settled the frames can easily be lifted out and put into their main hive.

It’s always a good idea to offer food., either sugar fondant or liquid sugar solution to them to help settle them.

We are fast approaching the swarming season. It is a busy time for bee keepers who try to limit the opportunities for the bees to swarm- but that’s another story!

25 years ago today ( on this date)
I did the Lyke Wake walk with 5 others from Madeley High School assisted by a support team of 3 who followed us in a mini bus. ( on the roads I hasten to add- not across the moors!)
We started at 6pm at Osmotherley, walked through the night finishing at Ravenscar at 12 noon the next day. We walked using head lamps during the night.

42 miles in 18 hours.

As you may know the Lyke wake walk is described as a coffin trail following paths and various standing stones across the North Yorkshire Moors. The club badge is a small black coffin.

Happy days and fond memories. Thanks to those who did the walk and those who supported.

The walk was actually done on the equivalent of the Saturday night and Sunday morning of the bank holiday weekend just gone.

This is what happens when you leave the bees – they fill any space with honey comb. Always the beekeepers fault- not the bees – they are only doing what’s natural to them.