Summer review

[Podilia]

Many times wanted to write about my affairs but it's like to write a composition at school.
So, the season is over. Usually November is a gloomy month with gray sky. But a week ago the weather was fine, I walked in a valley where I live and made photos, some are here.




20 years ago when I was a kid it was so-called Little Clay Pond, with the yellowish soil and clear water. Kids liked to swim there, the pond never dried up in summer. Now it's full in spring but then water evaporates and sometimes in autumn it's dry completely. Now willows, shrubs and cane grow around the pond.


Today it was snowing in the morning but the temperature is positive. I still have fruits in the garden, persimmon, the first crop - four apples! My grand dad whose old apple tree you can see behind could not even dream of that.

 

[pargyle]

Glad to hear you are OK Podilla ... your valley looks lovely - But climate change seems to be affecting you as it does for the rest of the world. Hope you had a good season with your bees, I often think about you when I see the dreadful news of the war situation over there. Keep safe, you know you have all our good wishes behind you.

 

[Podilia]

As for honey the season was not good. There was a heat wave in July. The temperature reached unbelievable 40C when sunflower flow started. Sunflower likes hight temperatures, 30-33 is good, but it was too much even for sunflower. The bees worked in the morning and in the evening, not effectively. It was like an oven outdoor. The first part of summer was wet so the soil contained some moisture and the sunflower was alive. Somehow the bees filled the hives with honey, not bad for those conditions. I exctracted it during 10 days, living in a cabin at the apiary. Sometimes wild deers visited my location, pretty animals. I never lived in the wilderness so long.
The situation here is weird. People, I mean men, stay home if they don't have a special military ID. Since december 2023 there was a lot of discussions as "they" were preparing a new mobilisation law. Too much nerve wracking, depression, speculation etc. Media exploited that issue, for example the possible punishment for draft dodgers. I think they all must pay for their stupidity which impacted mental health of the entire population. The law was voted in May, so during those months "they" were eating our nerves (I don't know whether you use this idiom in English ). Since then men have been staying at home. If you leave home you have high chances to be detained by the police (black uniform) or by the special military staff (green uniform). Those men having uniform, guns, high wage and social care given by the government, are hunting so-called civilian draft dodgers. It's like a weird version of Hunger Games or something like this.
For this reason I lived in a cabin sometimes because couldn't travel back and forth every day. Actually the work with the bees was minimazed as much as possible. Only God knows how many swarms left my apiary this summer. However, I managed to catch some of them and even presented 4 swarms for other people who decided the bees were something they needed very much.
...

 

[pargyle]

Goodness Podilla, we have no idea about what you must be going through over there. I find my bees and looking after them is a welcome relief to the stress of modern life and hopefully your bees have the same effect on you. We hear a lot about the Russians targetting your power supplies - as winter encroaches do you have heat and power ?