Greetings to Beelistener Followers.
Warm wishes for happy holidays to all of you out there, and thank you for following my blog. Over the year, some of you have commented on posts and shared knowledge and I thank you for that. It’s really encouraging to notice interest from all parts of our world. Recently, I discovered how to access sophisticated statistics and, to my surprise, I find that you come from 41 countries, so far. A big welcome to: Mexico, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, South Africa, Malaysia, China, Jamaica, The Netherlands, Norway, Macedonia, Malta, Latvia, Jersey, Croatia, Pakistan, India, Romania, Japan, Albania, Hungary, Argentina, Slovakia, France, Portugal, New Zealand, Sweden, Greece, Poland, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Slovenia, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Spain, USA, and UK.
International Guest Blogs.
It would be interesting to learn about beekeeping in your countries and I’d like to feature some guest blogs next year. If you would like to share beekeeping experiences, please tell us all where you live and how the climate and geography shape your beekeeping practices. Share with us the good aspects and the challenges of looking after bees where you are. You can subscribe free to beelistener to receive weekly blogs by email. Let’s create a global beelistener for 2021?
This Week in walks.
2020 has been the perfect year for long walks, and the soles of my Keen walking shoes, bought in the US last October, are just about worn through. I’ve covered 20 miles this week. Disgusted by all the roadside rubbish, I had a clear up yesterday with my yellow handled tool that Connie always wants to use when she accompanies me. Mostly the load comprised drinks cans, empty cigarette packets and food wrappers chucked out of car windows. My sister Christobel picks up rubbish too on the other side of Scotland. Recently, she found a briefcase which was a lot more interesting than the usual empty cans and big Mac wrappers. Sadly, she didn’t find wads of bank notes; only some boring papers. Perhaps it reflected the joy or regret of it’s owner packing in employment.
Hang in There.
This tenacious little Christmas tree has been growing in the fence post for years. I admire it every time I pass and think that we all need to anchor ourselves as we prepare for another roller coaster ride of challenges in 2021. By the way, Connie and I made the tree candles (see first photo) from our best bees wax and candle moulds. The tree is small and appropriately reflects the scaling down of Christmas in this house. My online grocery order will arrive next Wednesday instead of yesterday as I misread the delivery dates when ordering for only the second time online. Keeping things simple will be my motto for next year too I’ve decided. Now I can spend tomorrow outdoors instead of in the kitchen.
Varroa.
This week, I want to share my friend Jon Zawislak’s excellent varroa booklet with you. Jon is a biologist and lecturer at The University of Arkansas (uaex.edu) and an experienced beekeeper and gifted teacher. He is also an excellent communicator and gives great presentations for beekeepers bridging the gap between science and practical beekeeping.
Diversifying.
Along with his wife and family, Jon runs https://www.walnutvalleyhoney.com/ in Little Rock. Patricia from Ireland recently ordered some beautiful candles from Walnut Valley Honey for friends of hers out there. The internet has greatly reduced our global world to a cooperative community and we have much to look forward to as we soon enter the 2020’s.
Peace and goodwill to all.
Till next week…….
Ann,
Many good wishes over the festive period from Ilona and I. You are making quite an impact on the world wide bee community with your lovely informative and homely writings. Keep up the good work and being an optimist like yourself I know that things will eventually get better.
Kind regards,
Seonachan.
Thank you, Seonachan. Very best wishes to you and Ilona.
Happy Christmas Ann and Connie, I really like your tree candles! Looking forward to reading more adventures in beekeeping in 2021, your blog is both informative (I often find myself thinking “I’m sure Ann has covered this…”) and a pleasure to read. Keep it up please! Yours, KT.
And you too, KT. Connie will have a nature diary to record all her findings in 2021. She found 2 bumble bee nests in the local woods this year and she wears the jeweller’s loupe round her neck on a yellow ribbon to closely investigate things. I will keep the blog going, don’t worry. Always looking for guest blogs though so if you would like to write about trees and bees sometime we would all enjoy that. Keep up your own good work in Lochaber and get the wellies on when you hit treacle!