I'd always believed that BT had a very low opinion of the general public, ie: customers
I was out plugging through the mud on the mountain bike on Saturday when I came upon a little area of greenery, close to a tiny private road but remote from anything one might conceivably consider to be foot traffic, there was a BT van parked nearby, complete with hard-working engineers enjoying a cuppa after, presumably,digging a hole and complying with all the relevant health and safety regulations. I was so impressed by what I saw that I stopped and took a photo...
One can't help wondering, in these circumstances what evil befalls those who choose to walk the path less travelled ...
Let's face it, sometimes you need a break, you've had your fill of mindless violence, glamorous locations, gratuitous sexual content and exquisite computer generated graphics. You'd like something that involves you, that makes you think, an intelligent movie.
So, just me then?
Never mind, at my suggestion the lovely Mrs Stuffy booked seats for us to enjoy 'The Ides of March', George Clooney's directorial debut, and I was looking forward to an involving exploration of the personalities, politics and intrigue surrounding the fictional race for the democratic candidate nominations in the US presidential contest.
I'm a fan, as my regular reader will recall, of american politics as portrayed in the sublime West Wing and based on the reviews and publicity I'd seen, I was hoping for more of the same. I wasn't disappointed, this is a well-crafted tale adapted from a stage play, a low-key piece of nicely structured exposition, essentially a series of dialogues gradually expounding the story and with each conversation, changing ones view of the characters.
It's not a film full of fireworks, it's a slow-burn narrative of ambition, pride, intrigue, deceit, disappointment and dismay. Nobody comes out of this story well with the exception of the cast, writers and director. Clooney has chosen a very manageable story for his first attempt at directing but truthfully, everybody on screen deserves praise although Phillip Seymour-Hoffman and Paul Giametti earn particular note for pitch-perfect portrayal of competing, bright,perceptive, ambitious but very human political animals.
It's a simple tale, told extremely well and I commend it to anyone who is happy to watch a film that rewards a little attention and a little thinking.
In other news Mrs Stuffy dozed off 20 minutes in and resurfaced as the credits rolled.
A hustings-related haiku
Intrigued and enthused
Whilst her ladyship snoozed
politicos used
Once again, the bee season (our second) draws to a close, the hardworking little ladies of the Oakwood Apiary prepare for the winter so I thought I'd share a brief review of the season, our successes and as trendy educationalists would have it, not our failures but our learning points (which coincidentally, I've discovered through failing).
Things we've achieved, me and the girls
We've split the original hive into two and grown new queens, one of whom promptly and a little unkindly in my view, took half the second hive off on an adventure. Uncle David thinks he's discovered their new home, there's a colony in a hole in an oak in the wood, now that's not necessarily a bad thing, certainly for the planet, but did make it a bit touch and go for hive two (the plastic Beehaus) as it meant that we had to grow yet another queen to take over the management of the remaining 1/4 of the population, this meant that the Beehaus colony has been pretty much in recovery mode for most of the summer but they're now looking healthy and numerous enough to make it through the winter with a little bit of help from me, (sugar syrup to supplement their honey stores) and a bit of luck. The weakness of this hive results from two contributory factors, both my fault, I split them too early and then they swarmed, which I didn't see coming, this means that there was no surplus of honey from the Beehaus team but hopefully next year will be better, healthier, stronger and fruitful.
The original wooden-hived colony had a very strong year and produced a good crop of honey, but, (and we always knew there'd be a 'but' didn't we?), there are two types of beeswax foundation the beekeeper can supply to his or her bees. The bees build cells on the foundation and fill them with new bees, honey, nectar, pollen, depending on the need. Now, of the two types of foundation used for honey one has thin wire running through it which makes it robust enough to spin the heavy frames full of honeycomb and thus expel the honey, the other, unwired, is too fragile and is intended for the creation of cut-comb. As a novice beekeeper, I was unaware of the bees apparent preference for unwired foundation and gave them a choice, so although very productive I've only gleaned 4 jars of liquid honey, (enough, to be honest, to easily see the Barn through to next autumn) and around 15 pieces of cut comb, honey still in the comb, great on toast or with yoghurt. So another lesson learned and they'll not get the choice next year.
In the meantime, despite their evident reluctance, friends and family will be receiving little gift boxes of goldenly oozing honeycomb, if you can cope with the tiny amounts of wax, the honey is, to my taste, delightful.
So, as November commences the bees are making the most of late warmish weather and topping up their stores for the winter. I've treated both hives for varroa, a nasty parasitic mite that destroys colonies and I've put guards in place to prevent naughty mice from taking up residence in a nice warm winter retreat with a constant supply of sweet comestibles. I suffered a lot of mice damage to the frames in the wooden hive last winter and that's partly why one of my winter projects is the building of another wooden beehive, to which I'll transfer the strong colony next spring. That will free up the old wooden hive for cleaning and enable me to do some much needed housekeeping. I'll then transfer the Beehaus bees to the refreshed old hive and fit the upgrades supplied by the manufacturers to the Beehaus. Honestly it's worse than software (Windows, not Mac obv) Anyway, beekeeping wisdom is that one always needs a spare hive to address the swarming problem and I'm not keen to have more than two active colonies.
Right, that's enough for now, I'm in desperate need of a cup of tea, toast and honey. Definitely time to enjoy the fruits of my (and the bees) labours.
... an aimless wander through the dusty and moth-eaten corridors of a once beautiful mind, alternating between grumpy optimism and cheerful misanthropy...
Ramblings from the dusty and neglected corridors of a once beautiful mind, alternating 'tween cheerful misanthropy and grumpy optimism, enjoy, or enjoy not, as you wish ...
