Leatherhead Matters

Yep literally and now I am suffering the consequences!

Yesterday I was cutting the grass near my bee hives when I noticed a swarm of honey bees, hanging in a large ball, from a nearby conifer tree. Oh dear, the swarming season has started early. Off I went to fetch a step ladder, pruning shears and a hive box.

I suited up in protective bee suit & gloves since capturing a swarm can sometimes cause mayhem. It was around 5:00pm and a warm calm evening. The forager & scout bees were returning so there were many flying bees around the swarm cluster. Up the steps, cut the branch the swarm are hanging on to & dump the bees into a box for hiving later. The picture shows the end product, with the bees in a box on top of the steps & the remaining bees clustering to enter the box & join the queen.

That’s how it’s supposed to go except, this time, somehow a very angry bee got inside my bee suit into the protective helmet..bzzzz, bzzzz, bzzz. What do you do when a very angry bee is trapped inside your bonnet? Well I suppose you are supposed to stay calm  & slowly remove the helmet. However the bee had other ideas and immediately landed on my ear lobe and ensured retribution by stinging me. 15 hours later the right side of my face is beginning to resemble the Elephant Man. Hopefully it will subside by tomorrow!

Still, my reward is a new, very large colony of bees and hopefully even more delicious honey in August-September. Note to myself: Next time double check all bee suit fastenings!

The service station trade was slow.
The owner sat around,
With sharpened knife and cedar stick.
Piled shavings on the ground.

No modern facilities had they,
A log across the rill
Led to a shack, marked His and Hers
That sat against the hill.

“Where is the ladies restroom, sir?”
The owner leaning back,
Said not a word but whittled on,
And nodded toward the shack.

With quickened step she entered there
But only stayed a minute,
Until she screamed, just like a snake
Or spider might be in it.

With startled look and beet red face
She bounded through the door,
And headed quickly for the car.
Just like three gals before.

She tripped and fell — got up,
and then in obvious disgust,
Ran to the car, stepped on the gas,
And faded in the dust.

Of course we all desired to know
What made the gals all do
The things they did, and then we found
The whittling owner knew.

A speaking system he’d devised
To make the thing complete,
He tied a speaker on the wall
Beneath the toilet seat.

He’d wait until the gals got set
And then the devilish guy,
Would stop his whittling long enough,
To speak into the mike.

And as she sat, a voice below
Struck terror, fright and fear
“Will you please use the other hole,
We’re painting under here.”

H/T Ted Foster

Recession is when your neighbour loses his job.

Depression is when you lose your job.

Recovery is when Gordon Brown loses his”

Very odd. When I scanned the headlines in Reuters I thought there was a wave of fountain pen snatching. But, click on the link and it  may make your eyes water: Penis theft panic hits city…

Rice is a staple food commodity worldwide & it’s in short supply. There are already food riots in undeveloped countries like Bangladesh. But it’s set to get worse because consumers in developed countries are starting to hoard rice.

Looks like the cost of an Indian Takeaway is also set to soar

Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club limits member rice purchases

Bay Area shoppers asked to limit rice purchases 

Americans hoard staple food products like rice

Era of cheap food ends as prices soar