I’ve heard the new song Mine Smell Like Honey [...]]]>
I’m looking forward to the release of a new R.E.M. album having loved them since they first played on my Walkman roaming around Bristol as a young lass and the local band I hung around with collaborated and toured with them.

I’ve heard the new song Mine Smell Like Honey on the radio and think its a great song to rock around the kitchen to. Good on them for continuing to write and record. I’m still loving those Stipe/Mills harmonies two and a half decades on from first hearing them.

Speaking of smelling like honey… my neighbour and I joined the local beekeeping society last week (Montgomeryshire Beekeeping Association) in order to attend their one-day introduction to beekeeping course. They are keen to keep the beekeeping movement growing and so offered the course at a low cost of £20. The membership fee covers interesting insurance aspects such as repayment of the loss of equipment if we have to have hives destroyed by government agents if the colonies we keep contract a notifiable disease!

The course was held at the very beautiful Gregynog Hall and I went along knowing far less about the subject than Mr Neighbour as had borrowed a few books from the library but they had sadly not been opened over the Christmas period as hoped.

My neighbour, however, had spoken to beekeeping friends of his, read several books on the subject and already had plans on creating a homemade hive or two – well on the way to becoming a proper wannaBee…

I wasn’t even sure why I was going on the course other than the fact that I like a day out, have a sweet tooth for honey, like bees and all that they do for pollination and have an inquisitive nature especially where traditional rural pursuits are concerned.

I sat at the front of the class making copious notes while Brian Goodwin, President of Shropshire Beekeepers, explained the craft of keeping bees for honey and demonstrated a huge array of related paraphernalia required to keep the 50,000 to 80,000 stinging insects safe from harm while they create the honey food stores and I came out keen and eager to get cracking on this potential new hobby and income stream. I love that we could potentially become self-sufficient in sweet honey (far more nutritious than empty calorie sugar I now understand) and especially loved that all of Brian’s beekeeping equipment he passed around the group really did have a fantastic smell of smoky honey.

I’m really looking forward to speaking with my friend Janet who has kept bees in Worcestershire for many years. I remember calling on her when I had a swarm of honey bees high in a tree several years ago.

The only predicaments now are how to afford the essential kit (quite a lot required even just to start beekeeping), where to obtain the first colony of lovely bees from, whether they will survive let alone thrive at this high altitude and where to position the hive(s).