5 May 2018

Friday night is my favourite night of the week.  Everyone is home, and we have a TV dinner of pizza and salad for tea. I attempt to cook “proper” food all other nights, but this is everyone’s favourite!

We had an especially good start to the week end yesterday as my Bee Keeping Buddy and her two teenage children came round for tea and cake, which we ate sitting on the front porch, and to clean up all our bee hives.  We have been friends since our oldest boys were small…we and a few other mums even started up a playgroup in our town. So, we have a lot of shared history and memories. She has been there with me through some of my darkest seasons of parenting, especially through the times in our adoption journey when it felt like God was a long way off …Threre is something comforting about old friends; who see the clutter in our shed, and the “Somme” which is currently our back garden, and don’t judge! Yesterday seemed slightly poignant as I know this particular season is coming to an end, with her son heading off to Uni soon.  We will all miss him, especially Lanky Dude; they’ve been friends since small boys crawling around a wooden train track together!

Our bees, sadly are non existent again.  I fed them early in the spring, and was delighted to see some buzzing around the hive, having survived the winter.  However, when we went to check them last week, we found an empty hive, save for a mouse nest underneath.  It feels sad.  We initially thought it was a disease which would mean we would have to burn all the frames and clean and torch the boxes.  However, advice from a much better local beekeeper reassured us this wasn’t the case.  So, we cleaned everything with a solution of soda crystals, and have put a box ready in the field in the hope of attracting a swarm.

Our bees often remind me of God’s grace to me; I mess up so often, but He never stops giving me more chances to try again.