Every now and then I like to have a pajama day, a nice lazy day during which I never bother getting dressed. A nap is also a requirement. Sometimes, however, I want to have a slightly more productive yet still relaxed sort of day. These days are best observed when the weather is warm and the sky is blue, and everyone else is at work, and you can just do whatever you want. Attire must be comfortable, just a notch above pajamas-because you might just go out in public (but only if you feel like it), and must include flip-flops. That’s the kind of day I had on Friday. I’ve been needing a couple days off, so I told Mr. HeyLucy I wasn’t going to work Friday or Monday, but he shouldn’t expect much out of me, I was only going to do whatever I felt like doing at the moment.

Here’s how my flip-flop day commenced. I slept in until eight, which is not too late, but enough to feel like I got a little bonus sleep. I took care of the basic morning chores in a leisurely manner (unlike my usual rush to get everybody fed and watered on my way out the door), and finished assembling and painting another box for my beehive. I glued and nailed the ten frames that fit inside. I have a little more to do with the frames, but I’ll tell you about that later.

Because a new hobby requires as many cute new accessories as possible, I whipped up a little headscarf from Weekend Sewing. The first time I wore my hat and veil to work the bees, my hair got twisted up and fell in my face, and you can’t exactly reach in and move it once you’ve got 10,000 buzzing bees in front of you. It worked perfectly when I wore it for yesterday’s hive inspection. Although it’s quite adorable, and I’ve worn it for most of the weekend while working in the yard, it’s not particularly flattering with my short hair poking out the back, so I’m afraid I will not be able to model it for you.

This pattern was just as easy as can be, and took all of 30 minutes. I highly recommend it!

Before leaving to go for a nice swim, I enjoyed a quick breakfast of Greek yogurt and strawberries. One of the best things about living in Southern California is our ridiculously long strawberry season, and I had the most perfect strawberries.

I headed to the pool, swam for a half hour or so, and then I got to just lay in the sun for another half hour. It was perfectly warm, with a tiny breeze and the bluest sky. It was such a treat since I usually swim on my lunch hour, which means 30 minutes in the pool and then rush to shower and dry my hair and get back to my desk.

I went out to lunch with a good book and had some spicy Thai food. I ordered some extra to take home for our dinner, and then headed over to Lowe’s to pick up everything I needed to build a raised bed for a vegetable garden this Summer.

Back home for the evening, I watched a little Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while knitting, of course. And then, worn out from my perfectly relaxing day, I went to bed and slept like a baby. I feel like such a braggert telling you all about my day, but it was just the nicest ever. I hope everyone takes a flip-flop day soon!

Speaking of knitting, I could use an opinion. I’m nearly done with my pumpkin sweater (Alpaca! Just in time for Summer!) and I have this lovely coral heather laceweight, enough for either the Whisper Cardigan or Featherweight Cardigan (Ravelry link). I just can’t decide. I love the back of Whisper, but being somewhat busty, i don’t know if the front is very flattering. I like the Featherweight Cardi, but it’s still a new enough pattern that there aren’t many finished versions on Ravelry yet. I love Ravelry just because you can see what the finished products look like on a variety of figures. Which do you prefer? Explain please. Oh, and the yarn? Knit Picks Merino Laceweight, $2.99 a hank, either sweater requires two to three hanks, and even including shipping that’s less than $12 total. Bargain sweater!

And one last thing, because this is rather long, but I did one other project recently that I’m quite pleased about. I made a little pin board for above my work table, and it’s so handy and it was very easy. I had a 12″ cork tile laying around, so I cut four one inch strips. I cut one of the strips in half, and then butted two strips together and glued a third, centered between the two. on top. That left the two halves, which I glued on either side of the centered strip, so I ended up with a double layer, 24″ strip of cork. I cut fabric into a 3 1/2 by 28 inch rectangle, and sewed it around the cork I just hung it up with strong double-sided foam tape, and that was that.

So handy! Now of course I’m going to have to make some cute push pins to coordinate. Maybe tomorrow.

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See the big bee with the green dot to the left, in the center? That's my queen! I did my first solo hive inspection this morning. I was a little nervous about doing it, and kept procrastinating, but once I got out there, lifting up the frames and talking to the bees, all the apprehension just left, and I felt amazingly calm.

A couple years ago, I read quite a bit about beekeeping, and thought I had a pretty good idea what to do, what to expect. With the arrival of the bees, however, I realized that I had forgotten nearly everything, and so have been feverishly re-reading everything about the subject I can find, combing (bee pun, sorry!) bee forums, actually reading all the e-mails from beekeeping lists (which, oh my goodness, the organic beekeepers list I subscribe to? Those are some seriously opinionated people. I didn't think there would be so much drama on a beekeeping list), and referring regularly to my stack of books. They say, ask five beekeepers what to do in any given situation, and you'll get six different answers, and I can confirm that this is true.

Back to the inspection. I could probably go on for paragraph after paragraph about bees, but I'll try to just stick to what I did while inspecting my hive. I was all decked out in my veil, jacket (an old Nautica scuba windbreaker of Mr. HeyLucy's-bright blue and green) and orange wellies. It's quite an outfit. My gloves have not yet arrived, so I used a pair of yellow rubber gloves-the kind you probably have under your sink, for doing dishes. I just thought you might enjoy the visual of my ridiculous outfit. The neighbors can all see me too, and I would love to know what they thought about my get-up. I filled my smoker with pine needles, lit it up, and gave it a few puffs from the bellows to get it going. I took my newly assembled hive body (more on that later), just in case they had filled the frames in their current box. I also had a bee brush and a pry bar, since my fancy Italian hive tool has also not yet arrived.

When I got to the hive I took the cinder block off the top (placed there to keep the lid on in case it gets windy), and set it next to the hive. I sat on it for the duration of my visit, since the hive is only one box so far, and quite low to the ground. I puffed a little smoke in the entrance, which sent everyone hanging out there inside the hive. Then I lifted the lid slightly, and gave them another good puff, lowered the lid and waited a few moments. It's important to work from  the side of the hive, rather than looming over it. I noticed a change in the hum of the hive as I moved around and over the top of it-it's truly a hive mind, and they are all constantly communicating. There were a few bees clinging to the underside of the lid, so I gently brushed them back into the hive, where they went without a fuss.

The whole time I was working there was only one bee who was really bothersome. One of the roles played by the workers is that of guard bee. There are usually a couple guard bees at the entrance. Their job is to ward off any danger, let everyone know if there is a threat, and check the bees returning from their nectar/pollen/water gathering flights, to make sure they are a part of the hive and not robber bees come to rob them of their honey. I think I had a somewhat over-zealous guard bee, trying to chase me away. She buzzed and buzzed and charged my veil. I just kept talking to her, to let her know I wasn't a bear, and I wasn't there to hurt anyone. She wasn't buying it, however, and kept right on buzzing at me until I left.

One by one I lifted out the frames to see what progress the bees had made this week. This is a 10-frame hive, but I only have 9 in it at the moment. The beekeeper who brought me this hive included some empty frames and added some comb to others with rubber bands to get the bees started. Here's an example of tied comb. Mine have rubber bands wrapped around the frames vertically, holding the comb, rather than horizontal string like that one, but the principal is the same. Typically, you can add plastic or wax foundation to your frame, but I'm keeping everything as natural as possible, and letting the bees build their own. Some say using the foundation is faster, some say foundation-less is faster, and there's all sorts of controversy about the size of the cells on the foundation being larger than what the bees make on their own, which has led to larger bees, which in turn is a contributing factor to colony collapse disorder. I told you, there is all sorts of drama in the beekeeping world. Still, I'm going with the natural comb. I'm going to try giving them some strips to start building off of, but I'll talk more about that another time.

During my inspection I pulled out one frame at a time, and examined it front and back. I returned each frame to its same location, in the same position as I finished examining it. I was looking for a few different things:

• Were they building new comb? Yes, there was some new comb, although I had hoped for more, and most of it was empty-they haven't been filled with eggs, pollen or nectar.
• Was the queen alive and active? She's there, and was moving around busily
• Are there eggs/larvae/capped brood? Yes, but I didn't see a ton of new eggs and larvae like I saw last week. Some of the brood cells seem scattered, but I don't know if that's just because bees have hatched and left the empty cells, or if the queen skipped them, or if they just didn't develop. You can see the caps below, and the new, light comb they've built, to the right.
• Are they building up pollen and nectar (to become honey)? One of the frames had lots of pollen in the cells, but I didn't see nectar, which has me concerned. I think I may need to feed them some honey as they develop. I'd guess there are somewhere between 10,000-20,000 bees in there now, but to get strong they should build up to 60,000-80,000 bees. Plus, more bees=more honey :o) 

So, I'm not too worried, but a little concerned about a couple things. I think I'll feed them some honey this week, and see if their productivity increases. Up here in the mountains, blooming is really just getting started, so they should have more resources over the next few weeks. Right now the poppies are just starting to bloom, and I saw some mustard blossoms this morning for the first time this Spring. They've been in the rosemary, but there's only two bushes in our yard, not nearly enough for a whole hive.

When I was finished with my inspection I carefully and slowly slid the lid back in place, making sure I didn't crush any bees in the process. And that was it! It didn't take too long, and it was so fascinating to watch them all hard at work. I will have to get my camera all set up before I go out next time, it's not too easy taking picture through my veil, and I couldn't change the settings. I wish I didn't have the aperture set so low, all the pictures I took are have lots of bokeh around the edges, which is cool most of the time, but not for this. I am also going to need to do some beekeeper accessorizing, I think. An apron or box for my tools would be very handy. I sense some sewing coming on this weekend.

I hope that was interesting, feel free to ask questions, I am loving talking about bees. Also, if you want to learn more, but not necessarily take up beekeeping yourself, I highly recommend Robbing the Bees, by Holley Bishop. It's a fascinating history of bees, honey, and beekeeping, definitely worth reading.

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Fresh Peas

I found a not-too-out-of-the-way farmer's market on my drive home Wednesday. I love fresh peas, don't you? I'm going to steam these and eat them with a tiny bit of butter and salt. Do you have any good pea recipes?

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I feel so extravagant this weekend. I have been dying to try macarons, and I finally found a French bakery that makes them. So I splurged yesterday and bought a ridiculously expensive box.

And then I ate some with a cup of my favorite tea (citrus mint).

They were wonderful, slightly crispy on the outside, and chewy inside, it's just a wonderful texture. I haven't read any recipes, but the outside seemed like a meringue with ground up almonds and the insides were a variety of creamy and jelly deliciousness. Learning how to make them is still on my to-do list for the year.

I needed all that sugar to renew my strength after getting the beehive all set up this morning! Not really, the Very Nice Beekeeper (and I suspect that bee people are, in general, my kind of people-nice, calm, hard-working) did most of the work. We looked through all the frames, and I saw the queen and all the eggs she's been hard at work laying. Some were brand new eggs, some were looking decidedly grub-like, and there was even one tiny baby bee emerging from her cell! I worked the smoker, but they were really quite mellow, and not too concerned about us poking around in their home. I went back for a look after they'd been there for an hour or so, and bees were flying in and out, just like they'd always been there.

You may want to look at it a little larger to see all the bee activity. On the opposite side of the house we have a couple big rosemary bushes, which are blooming nicely. There are regularly bee visitors there, but today it's just a-buzz with bees. I ordered my fancy, cute hive, so eventually I'll move the frames into the new, much cuter hive. I can't have my girls living in a tenement now, can I?

The beekeeper also brought a chunk of comb he broke off yesterday. It had a little nectar in it for me to try, and it was quite tasty. I also happen to think it's really pretty.

I hope you won't mind learning a little more about beekeeping over the next few weeks, I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject lately, and it's so fascinating. This hive is well established, so I should be able to harvest a nice big jar of honey soon, if there's enough blooming. And what could be more extravagant than honey so local it's from your own backyard?

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Preparations are underway for the arrival of the beehive (in case you missed it, that mysterious implement a couple posts ago was a smoker, to use on bees when you inspect the hive). I've been re-reading all the bee-related books I've collected over the past couple years and I think I'm ready. The beekeeper arrives with my hive on Saturday morning. I found him via craigslist, and sent him an email asking if I could buy a hive from him. He's re-queened a nice hive of very calm bees just for me.  I might need to get this hive and make the bees move eventually. How cute would that be once it's painted white and the copper top has developed a nice patina? I am also weighing my options and trying to select a hive tool. I could go with the standard, economical, and utilitarian model, or I can get the cheery yellow, flashy Italian model for twice the price, which looks like the Ferrari of hive tools. It's a dilemma.

In other minor, daily news, chicks are being fed, watered, held and smooched morning and evening, and games of fetch are played with the adorable dogs. Lest you think it's all cute fuzzy chicks and teddy-bear like dog noses around here, this is the state of the living room as of this morning.

I have strategically not captured the carpet close up. I suppose I should be happy that the surest sign of Spring-the prolific shedding of dog hair-is apparent in clumps and handfuls everywhere I go. I really should get that vacuum out tonight-there was that whole vacuum more often goal I set at the beginning of the year. But that will cut into my chick cuddling time. Also my Buffy the Vampire Slayer watching time. Also, I still need to hem my curtains and slipcover my chair. I just thought I'd keep it real here at chez Lucy. That morning light sure is pretty though, don't you think?

On the last visit to my mother-in-law I brought home not only a mandolin, but also another quilt top. This one was made by her mother when she was expecting. My mother-in-law has always said that her mother was never very good at sewing or needlework of any kind, and I have to say, I kind of agree. I may have to take this one apart and re-assemble it, but I love the big yellow pinwheel shapes, and all the sweet fabric prints.

I'm all over the place tonight, but one more thing, because I need your opinion: You may have noticed that I switched my comments to the new Typepad system. About the same time I made that switch I finally figured out how to connect my heylucy.net email to my gmail account. I think this is all good stuff, but it's taking me awhile to adjust to this new workflow (sorry for the technical term, but I do have this job, you know, where I sometimes have to use that office-speak). Before all these changes I would get comments in my email, which was web-based. Unfortunately, the company I use has a really crappy webmail service and I would have to load the messages every time I logged in. That would often take a good 5 minutes because their spam filter was completely useless and so my inbox would be full of 90% spam and 10% actual mail. Half the time the whole thing would just lock up and I couldn't even get to my email. So that is much better, now that it just goes straight to gmail. This is kind of boring, sorry about that. I never know if anyone cares about these long explanations, but I do have a point, so please bare with me!

Previously, when I would get a comment, I could just reply to the email notification I got. I really like responding to comments as much as possible, because I think this is really a conversation, not just me talking at you. Now, however, when I reply to a comment email, the reply is posted directly under the comment for everyone to read. I mostly like this, but I would like it if the reply was also sent as an email to the person who left the comment. I will have to investigate to see if that's possible, because otherwise you have to keep coming back here to see replies to your comments and I don't think anyone has the time to do that very often. The whole point to this uninteresting and long-winded explanation is that I want to know your opinion! Do you like the comments like this, or did you prefer the old way? As a reward for sharing your thoughts I give you another cute chick photo:

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Some weekend photos:

The chicks are five or six days old. They're doing fine, but the dogs are about to come undone, especially Bear who sniffs them worriedly and yet can't stop drooling.

One of the Maggies. I think I will print and frame this one for her namesake.

This was the view to the left as I was trying to take photos of the chicks.

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I have some thank you's to share. First of all, I mentioned in passing that I won a pair of earrings from Pamela Susan, but I wanted to show you how pretty they are. She had a little contest to find a good name for them and was inspired by my suggestion of Rain to call them Falling Rain. It's a good thing it was a rainy day that day! Pictures are from her website:

You can even get yourself a pair right here. I love the simplicity of them and have worn them often since they arrived.

Another thank you to lovely blog reader Maili, who sent me the sweetest little glass flowers for my birthday. I think my nutcracker doll (who is not yet named, poor thing) has taken quite a liking to them, don't they look sweet together? Thank you Maili!

Things may be a little quiet here for awhile, I think I may have some posts that are more photos than words. I am busy, busy, busy right now. First with the arrival of these little peepers.

There are two Rhode Island Reds, two Araucanas, and two Barred Rocks, all of which we already have in our little flock and are really nice breeds. I also ordered a couple Cuckoo Maran hens, which I haven't had before, but they are back ordered and so may not arrive for another week. They are a French breed, known for laying the very darkest brown eggs, so I'm quite excited to add them to the flock.

And something else is coming next Saturday, can you guess from this picture of one of the tools I will be needing?

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