Language Lesson

Fiona says the English call a faucet, a tap. I woke up last night thinking.....when we go to a bar or a pub, we don't say, "what do you have on faucet?" We say, "What do you have on tap?" So why do we call it a faucet, and not a tap?

Cindy Bee

Birds and Bees!

I haven't been able to blog in awhile. Nor have I felt like it. I was meaner than a snake Sunday. Could be peri-menopause, building a house, chasing dogs that chase kitties that do not belong in our yard, or all of the above. I did find the kitty a home, and today, found another one in the back yard. Actually, Winston found it. And RJ's husband is ruining her dream...of having a kitty. He said no. And our back yard is a jungle, I'm sure there's all kinds of creatures living out there. I just hope Winston or Dixie doesn't catch one of them. When I let the dogs out now I yell, "run, kitties, run"...just in case....

So here are the birds...

It was impossible to get a pic of all of them.

The lines went on forever and so did the birds.

See 'em.

Nothing else about the birds.....just thought it was cool and wanted to show you.

As for the bees...I got into the hive today...so far so good! LOTS of bees in the new hive. I was very surprised to see them still there. I hope they make it.

Hey janis...think you could come and remove this from my door! (not a honey bee - a hornet with a big stinger)

Cindy Bee

Hive of bees...not a Swarm

OK folks...listen up...because I'm only going to explain this once...and I expect not to have to explain it again. I might even test you on it someday....See this picture. Look at it closely. Click on it if you need to, to make it larger. You will not see any comb in this picture...none..at all. It is a SWARM.

That is an entire ball full of bees. Slightly larger than a football. It's a lot of bees.

Now look below at this picture. Looks the same, right?

WRONG. This probably WAS a swarm at one time, but now it is bees building a hive on the outside of a tree. Look at it again. See the white stuff. It's comb. That's the difference.

These bees are building hive on an apple tree. Why? Who knows. If they stay there, they'll die this winter. And when you move them to a hive, they usually don't stay. The shop vac hive.... Gone. I put the above bees in the same hive. I wasn't even going to mess with it, but the man that called yesterday morning was concerned about his grandchildren. It was probably a waste of time. We'll see.

The comb broke the minute I put it in the box to move it.

And I put the branch they were on in front of the hive, after I shook most of them into the hive. Hopefully they will smell the Queen's pheromone and stay near or in this hive.

So when you call someone to get a swarm of bees, now at least YOU know whether it's a swarm of bees or a hive. Swarms usually stay in the hive, they are bigger, and worth the trouble. Hives are not!

And now I'm in a bad mood because Winston (my husband's Welsh Terrier) ran a kitten up a tree and would not stop barking. I know the neighbors just love us when this happens. I chased him around the yard until I couldn't breathe, in my pj's...well you can just imagine how lovely I looked. Thank God we have a privacy fence. And who's kitten in our back yard anyway?

Shop Vac Bees

You all were right about the honeybees. I got a phone call from someone who had honeybees that swarmed, then went inside this shop vac to build a hive.

They were building comb on the lid. There was a queen and brood cells. My Shug helped me and we gently removed the comb and set it inside a hive.

They seemed to settle in just fine. However, when the guy called he said, "there are just thousands of bees." And to a non-beekeeper, this looks like a lot of bees. It isn't. A "real" beekeeper, one that keeps bees for a living, would not have even messed with this. I will be surprised if they make it through the winter. A swarm this time of year usually isn't worth messing with.

The problem when moving a hive, (or a wet vac). When you move it, the bees that are out in the field, gathering nectar, always go back to the old hive location. Not the man's house that gave me the wet vac. But the place I had the wet vac until I could get a real hive together. And remember last winter I lost several of my hives.

Well I've done splits and gathered swarms and such, so now my hives are full. But I had an old bottom to a hive, and I had a hive body, super, and inner cover, which is plenty of room for these bees. But I didn't have a top. So my Shug said he'd make a top for me.

Sweet!

Inside the top...Very Sweet!

And here's the thing....I just now got a call. JUST NOW. A guy has a swarm of bees in his yard. "They're the size of a five gallon bucket!" We'll see. I'm a nature girl first. So I'll go look at them and check them out and probably drag them home and try to find a place to put them. Maybe put them with this hive, if I have the stomach for it. Because here is what I know if I combine them. Those queens....they'll fight....until one of them dies. The strong survive in nature folks. I'll let you know how it goes. Might have ringside tickets for sale.....

And keep praying for those people on the East coast. Cousin Troy - stay safe. Cake Chick and Julie & Matt keep us posted on your situation. Any other blogger friends, stay safe and keep us posted.

Cindy Bee

A Mish-Mash of Stuff

More on this later....maybe tomorrow.....Can you guess what it is?


And thanks to my favorite brother-in-law for stopping by yesterday with these!!! YUM! Thanks Trent!

I bought this bag yesterday! I know.......My name is Cindy Bee and I am a bag-aholic (Hiiii Cindy)
{you know you want it....17 bills on clearance.....Hey, do you all know what I mean when I say "17 bills?"...just wondering...)

So, last night at Granny Bees, Jan was making these ornaments. 27 of them. She always makes ornaments for every family member. 27 I said...and I asked her if I could have the pattern. She told me what book she got it from and I said, "I HAVE THAT BOOK! I just haven't had time to look at it yet"

LOOOOOOVE this book

and LOOOOVE these mags....these are two of my favorite mags. They are UK publications! I'm trying to learn their language you know.....(see upper right hand corner and help out if you can - all you Fionas.....have you ever noticed they have a lot of Fionas ;-) we have a lot of Cindy's)

Some pics inside these mags....

And this is my blanket I'm trying to finish.....help....please.....what kind of a border should I put on it?

Cindy Bee

PS - My friends who witnessed the murder are "hanging in there, trying to be normal." (but feeling a lot of guilt over the what if's)

PSS - Pray for North Carolina. They are evacuating - Hurricane Irene is raising hell.

Bright Spots!

Lately, I've been to two farmers markets. I went to the one in our town to look for green beans and I came home with a scone, but no green beans.

On Saturday, I went to a Farmer's Market in another town, and I came home with a scone, and green beans. The scone is gone, the green beans are still in the fridge. {sigh}
I don't know if this is the reason I'm craving scones lately.

or if it's the scone recipe in the back of the book I want to try. But I borrowed this book from the library, and it was due back before I had a chance to try the recipe. So I e-mailed the author.....
who also wrote this book, btw....

and these....and more. (she also has another series out, which I haven't read yet - sorry Laura)

The first book is part of a series about Theodosia, who owns a tea shop, in Charleston, SC. There is always a murder...somewhere...and Theo solves it. Or helps Burt Tidwell (the local cop) solve it. Charleston is one of my favorite vacation spots, which is what got me interested in this series. And I love tea shops. Plus you get some great recipes in the back of the book.

The second book is part of a series about Carmella, who owns a scrapbook store, in New Orleans. She also solves murders. In the back of the books in this series you get scrap booking ideas.

So yesterday, I needed a bright spot, and here it is..... I got an e-mail from THE AUTHOR! Personally... from her! Totally unexpected. Here it is...

----- Original Message -----

Sent:Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:56:05 -0400 (EDT)
Subject:recipes
Is it possible to put the recipes in your books on your web site?

Cindy

********************
In a message dated 8/22/2011 5:43:34 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

writes:
Dear Cindy,
I'm in a writing crunch right now, but I will try to get a few up in a few months
All my best,
Laura Childs

**********************
----- Original Message -----

Sent:Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:01:29 -0400 (EDT)
Subject:Re: recipes

OMG! Seriously, YOU...Laura Childs...in the flesh...answered my e-mail personally! AAACCKKK!!!! Can I put this on my blog?

Cindy
***********************
My dear Cindy,
I answer all my emails personally. Seriously. There's just me and my computer (and not a very good one at that!). No assistants, no burning sage, no personal masseuse. Although . . . I do have two lazy dogs who sleep at my feet most days.
I don't know how interesting this all is, but, yes, put it in your blog if you'd like.
All my very best,
Laura Childs

**************

Is this cool or what? And it couldn't have come at a better time. Try her books blogettes. Any author that gives you the time of day, or answers her e-mails personally....she deserves a read don't you think?

The other bright spot. That little 12 year old I spoke of yesterday...his Mom brought him over to see me, so I could give him an embarrassingly way too long hug. I couldn't let him go. Still can't. How do you do it blogettes? Let them go.... {sniff}

Cindy Bee

What is wrong with people?

Well Bloggers and Bloggettes...I was planning on doing a post about honeybees today, but my world changed this morning around 7:30 with a phone call. And I can't get this off of my mind. And I can't stop wondering.......what has happened to the morals and values of people in our society.

You see, yesterday a 12 year old boy and his Dad, two people who happen to be very important to me and our family, were walking the Nickle Plate trail with another boy scout and their Assistant Scout Master. They were working on their 5 mile hike badge. As they were stopped...standing shoulder to shoulder...looking at a tree...a man walked up, took out a knife, stabbed the Assistant Scout Master in the neck, right before their eyes, and walked away. The father told the boys to run. He tried to save the Scout Master's life. He couldn't.

So I have to wonder...what in the world would possess a person to walk up to someone and murder him. He didn't even know him. The killer...murderer...was 23 years old.

Do you suppose this killer watched a lot of violent movies or tv shows growing up?
Do you think he played a lot of killer type video games?
Maybe he didn't have a proper father figure in his life? Or Mother figure?
Maybe he was never taught morals or values.
Maybe he comes from a dysfunctional family.
Or maybe he was just plain old mean.

I don't know what his problem is/was, but I do know this...
Maybe we should just stop making up excuses for bad behavior, and start holding people accountable for their actions. Now there's a concept.
Okay....I gotta stop.... I'm starting to rant.......I'm over the shock, now I'm mad.

The 12 year old told his Mom, "I should have taken the first aid kit. Maybe I could have saved him."

Cindy Bee

Honey, Granny Bee, Mats!

Guess what I've been up to.....

Yup...it's honey. To see a post I did last year on how I process it, click on this.

And guess who I got a visit from the other day?

The Granny Bee!!! Along with the tree, she threw in some of those little lights for the tree.

Thank you Beth.

And remember I told you RJ and I met janis from Just Breathe Janis the other day? Well, after coffee with janis, we met my Sister for lunch.

And I had been making my sister some "mats" for her birthday.

You see, my Sister has a friend who is from England, or some such place, and they don't say rugs or coasters...they say mats. Or at least she does...this person from England. So we've decided to call them mats too. I made a mat out of variegated yarn, large enough for a pitcher...so I suppose it would be a pitcher mat. And then I made smaller mats for her glasses. I didn't get them all finished by her birthday and I had the last one in my purse. When we were having coffee, I pulled it out of my purse. And when I did, RJ was laughing at it...wasn't she Janis?"....tell the truth....she was making fun of it. And I said, "you can make fun of it all you want, my sister will use it."

And when we met my sister for lunch, I gave it to her, and she set it right under her drink! So ppphhhbbbbtttttt....RJ!

And btw, they make nice, quick, easy gifts...little beer, wine, iced tea, soda mats. I think I shall make a whole stack of them! I knitted the mat and crocheted the edge.

Oh yes, and now I think I shall start calling shopping carts..trollys...it appears that's what the English do. Gasp! I just realized, we're learning a new language!

Cindy Bee

I'm a WINNER!

I'm a WINNER! Check this out. I won one of those little grapevine trees from Blogger Beth Notaro, The Granny Bee. Cool for me huh? Now Beth we are gonna have to meet for coffee or lunch or something....

And, speaking of bloggers, and meeting...I don't think I mentioned a week or so ago, Reality Jayne and I met janis, from Just Breathe Janis, at this cute little coffee house in Noblesville, IN. When we got there I told RJ I would buy her coffee/donut because she drove. She insisted I not, and I insisted it's fine, "I have an account here." "WHAT? You have an account in an out of town coffee house?" well, yeeah, doesn't everyone? {sigh} I had to prove it to her. (Thanks Billie ;-) for the gift card)

And that janis...what a sweetie. We knew it was her because she had a white shirt on. She knew it was me because I told her I'd carry this bag, she knew it was RJ because...well, there was only two of us, and RJ was the other person she was meeting. So the coffee shop was nice, janis was nice, well, except for the time I got this 'look' from her when RJ told her that Cindy Bee is one of those "green people". "Yeah, she recycles," she said. Like I was a bad person. Well here's the truth peeps. I'm coming clean. I have not been recycling. There, I said it. I want to, I will again someday, but right now, well let's just say we didn't even get the trash to the curb Sunday night. But anyway, it was fun taking a break, meeting janis, and going out for coffee. Now I want to go see the movie "The Help." Has anyone seen it? Is it any good? I read the book and loved it.

Cindy Bee

Camping, fishing, hunting, trespassing!

Life is getting back to normal, whatever normal is anymore! And I am way behind responding to comments and checking up on my blog buddies. So this morning as I sit, looking around, trying to decide what to do first, I decided to respond to the camping post. I promised I would, and I don't want you to think of me as a total loser for not keeping my promise. It started out with this post from Reality Jayne. Imagine my surprise when I read that My Shug was ruining RJ's camping dreams! To really get the whole story you should read the comments from the above two posts, as well as, the posts.

Anyway, I started thinking about how cute it would be to have "spam-pers", as Debbie M called them (in the comment section of Rj's post), on the property. I was envisioning retro campers with banners and little gardens and such. I even 'drew up' a plan....the big squares are the actual lot size and the small squares are the spam-per. That's my area, right there in the left hand corner!

And I figured there would be room for three more campers...then I had a little area for a tent for Hookin It with Mr Lick Lick or Cake Chick~~(you really gotta read the comments) That little house thing in the bottom-right corner is the outhouse! We have no electricity back there or running water. Very primitive. And it's surrounded by woods.

But my Shug said "NO"! So I told RJ with a sad face. But I explained the long version to her. And I found out her assistant said if he had land he wouldn't let people camp on it either!

My Shug's reasoning...The Short and Long Version follow...

The Short Version - and, WARNING, some people may not like this - he deer hunts and if there are people back there all the time, human scent and noise will scare all the deer away. Plus "we wanted it to be a nature preserve....remember?"

The Long Version - And this is long so I'll just put it in a different color...and you can skip it if you want to. Truthfully, it's something that I've just wanted to explain for quite a while, and I figured this is the perfect opportunity. You see, I've had to tell very dear friends, special people to me, "no" and it's hard for me. So I'd like to explain.

When we first bought the land, we let people mushroom hunt, fish, and walk the woods. We felt blessed to have it, and wanted to share that blessing. We still feel blessed. We'd say "sure, go on out there, enjoy it!"

We never even had gates up until two years ago, when someone dumped an entire truck load of roofing materials (trash) in our driveway, including roofing nails. They did this at night, of course, in the dark. We weren't surprised that they never came back to get it!

The second year we had the property, we came home from an April vacation and people told my Shug they went mushroom hunting....

One said, "I took my buddy and went mushroom hunting...." My Shug gave HIM permission to hunt, not his buddy. And he was supposed to let us know FIRST that he'd be in the woods. But he said he didn't see us to tell us he was going hunting.

The second person said, "I went mushroom hunting the other day with my friend. I didn't think you'd care since you gave me permission to fish." Really?

The third person was my brother-in-law and his daughter. They called and asked first. He always does. You see, we have 15 immediate family members and all but a couple of them enjoy the outdoors and our property in one way or another.

Then, one day when four of our family members were all standing in the driveway talking, wondering whose motorcycle was parked along our woods, an acquaintance came walking out of our woods with a bag of mushrooms! He admitted that he's been told to stay off of other peoples property but he loves to mushroom hunt and feels the risk of getting caught is worth it. I'm serious.

The next month of that year....my Shug noticed some fishing poles along the bank of our land. The lines were in the water, with bait on the end of the lines, but no people on the other end of the pole. My Shug wondered...'WTH?' Within the hour a neighbor came over, said he didn't think we'd care if he and his buddy went fishing. His idea of fishing is putting a pole in the water and coming back to check on it now and then....not the same as our idea of fishing where you sit at the other end of the pole and reel the fish in when they are caught. And yes we do mind, and the next time ask first. Oh yeah, and throughout the conversation he mentioned "the last time he fished here" and right before that he said it was the first time he'd ever fished on our property. Hello Mr. Neighbor...do you hear yourself lieing?

The final straw for me was when I was floating on a raft while the boys I watch played in the water and there were people fishing on our bank and I didn't know them. Awwwkward! Apparently, they were a sister, and a wife of a guy that my Shug said could fish. The guy wasn't with them.

The final straw for my Shug was when we got a phone call at 9:30 PM, and we were already in bed. Someone we didn't know, looked up who owned the property, was asking to hunt deer. My Shug does not like to be woke up when he is asleep. He gets up at 5:00 AM for work.

And just a couple of months ago, my Shug asked two people to leave our property who were turtle hunting. They got belligerent, my Shug called the police, the police said they could hunt the creek, stay off of our property, and they are not allowed to park their car on the road while hunting. They left. One of them did claim he was going to school for the DNR and he has the right to turtle hunt, he knows the rules.

I won't even go into the stories about the times we've called police because of the meth we've found on our property! S C A R Y! We didn't even know what it was at first. We'd been throwing the bottles in the trash!!!

These are all true stories. So, you see peeps, we wanted to share..... but people take advantage, sometimes unknowingly. And some people have no common courtesy or common sense. And where do you draw the line? It's hard to do. It's not fair to say yes to one and no to another. So we just limit it to immediate family. Because before you know it, you have people on your property who claim they have permission when you have no idea who they are. Might be the serial killer that was walking around our campsite back in June when my niece and I were camping!

I explained this long version to RJ. She understood. I hope you do too.

"Massholes" Cake Chick? Too funny.

Cindy Bee

Family....

Our company left yesterday.
It was a very bittersweet moment.
I told my them I was going to put my sunglasses on so they couldn't see me cry.
My cousin was ready to go home and I was ready to get life back to normal.
But I will miss her.
I will miss my Aunt.
And it certainly wasn't the same without my Uncle.

My parents (on the right) have/had several brothers and sisters.
Most of them had children. And we grew up playing with our cousins while our parents played cards or visited. So, as children, our family was our friends. And we still are friends. We're scattered all over, but we call, text, facebook, e-mail, and yes I admit, I still instant message.
It's nice to have a big family.
One that cares about each other.
When our Aunt Barb and Uncle Bud would come home from Texas, Mom's family would get together many times to visit.
They still do.
And even though we didn't attend every family function in the last two weeks, I'm still way behind in everything.
And I feel disconnected from real life.
And I don't know where to start.
And I'm a little restless, a little overwhelmed, and a little melancholy.
And I miss the "good old days."
When more family was around.
When we got together more. We still do things together, just not as much. People are busy with their own families now, as it should be.
Time changes things.....and people.
I'll get back in the swing of things...give me a day or two.
Here's the thing. I always say it's good to be sad over missing people or missing times in your life, because that means they were good people and good times.
And we're fortunate we have good times to look forward to.
To make more good memories...to miss!
So let's get on with it....
and I'll stop rambling on in this melancholy mood!

Cindy Bee

Crocheted afghan

Last year I started my very first crocheted afghan by following Lucy from Attic 24 using her ripple stitch pattern. I decided I would use yarn I already had, and I had a lot of cotton. I had this brilliant idea to make a bunch of dishcloths and towels for friends, family and myself, and it never happened. So, I started hooking, lots of bright colors, and I was going to do the border in the three different shades of blueish/turquoish/aquaish. I did two borders, but didn't have enough to do the darkest shade.

I decided not to sweat it. I figured I'd come across the color some day, and in the meantime I'd use the blanket.

Well guess what folks...I came across it. And now I know the picot stitch so I'm thinking I'll finish this blankey up for once and for all.

Cindy Bee

PS - Now I only have three afghans in progress. Geeeesh. Anyone else finishing up afghans?

Family Reunion

On August 6 we had a family reunion. When this side of the family gets together, we have to rent a place to meet. This is one half of the room.

My cousin Troy, who is a blog stalker btw, came home from Rhode Island so he could see Susie and Aunt Barb. He's in the white shirt in the middle. Bob on the left and Jacque on the right.


My nieces showed up for the reunion. The one in the back got caught sticking her tongue out at someone. Funny how you don't notice things in pics until you download them and look at them.

Such as...Why isn't Jamie bowing his head in prayer...and why is someone talking on their cell phone?

My nephew. He's the guy that drew my bee lady on my header.

I told the girls the playground was too small for them.

Ryan (left) got in trouble from his Mom (Vickie) because when they passed around the list for everyone to sign their name he wrote his sister's name down as Assley instead of Ashley. I told on him :) I think the count was 74 people.

This is what several of them do every time they get together. It is not a reunion without a card game.

Susie went to stay with my cousin Gloria, whose son is Troy, so they could visit a couple of days during the time he was home. So one person left but then another one came home with us. She saw the donut cake mold and that was it. She had to make one.

Hey at least I'm not boring you with home movies.

That's all for now folks...

Cindy Bee