Cleopatra is enthroned

She had a rather low key arrival on the passenger seat of a rusty white courier van. Rather weirdly (and this happens to me so often I don’t often think about it anymore) I decided to walk the dogs to the end of the drive, which is something I almost never do and the rust bucket courier and I converged at the letter box. (The roofers think I have ESP – they see everything from up there).  “Have you been waiting here all morning?” the freckled courier boy  said as he tapped on his little hand held technological device. “”Not really.” I said, then he casually flicked Cleopatra and her girls, in a brown envelope, out his window into my waiting hands and roared off back down the dirt road.

I held tight to my wee package as we fought the gale force winds all the way back down the long drive.

Can you see her in there, with her attendants?

It is sheltered in behind the pine trees where the hives are so i donned my bee hat and proceeded with her installation straight away.

I stole two frames laden with bees from the extra strength hive after carefully inspecting to make sure their queen was not there (I hope I did not miss her) and transferred them to Cleopatra’s hive.

They immediately converged on the little cage that Cleopatra and her girls were in and she sat there all serene and wafted her pheromones about. You can just see the tip of her plastic box jammed between two frames.  She has a plug of candy at the entrance of her box so it will take a couple of days for them to open her door, by then she will have wooed them all and they will be eager to do her bidding.

There now. I created a new look for Cleopatra’s hive (on the left). Now we sit back and watch for signs of activity.

The roofers came and spent time preparing the roof for a roof and the old walls for their new siding (you will either be thrilled or horrified when you see what i am planning for the walls!) after they have put in the other red door.  What other red door I hear you ask!?  Goodness, you didn’t think I would only put ONE red French Door in, did you? I have made a few changes to this whole side so that the new house and the old house look like they belong together. It will all happen very fast now.

Daisy doesn’t care, all she cares about is getting to that green, green pasture.

She simply cannot understand why she has such short dinner times. Already her milk has increased by a gallon a day.

Good morning. The unDaily View is so different now. Do you see the new rain barrel John found on one of the sites he is working at. He will cut the top off, then install screen into the top piece to keep the insects out of the water and I am looking for a paint that will stay on plastic so I can paint it something outrageous and it will be installed around the front to catch rainwater beside the new recycled glasshouse.

It is the most perfect calm warm day outside. Clear and shimmery. I can’t wait to get out there. Yesterday we had piles of warmth along with the wind. We ate late out on the verandah, (grilled lamb chops with rosemary and garlic and fresh asparagus) after the winds had died down and it was glorious.

Have a lovely day.

your sun kissed friend celi