While others sleep Bob and Sophie and their master prepare for the arrival of the bee man. He's coming at first light while the hive and its occupants are still dozy.
A gentleman in his late 30's arrives. He's driving an Opel estate with a variety of aluminium ladders strapped to it. He sets up the ladders, clambers onto the roof and uses a drone to see where the bees are nesting. Angus and the PONs find this use of technology to be interesting.
Satisfied that he knows the ins and outs of the bees sleeping arrangements the apiarist comes back down and dons a blue bio-hazard suit. The PONs don't like the look of this at all. After a howling, designed presumably to let me know there is something large and blue and untoward in the garden, they retreat to a safe distance to watch events unfold.
The bee man shimmies back up and disassembles the capping's on the smoke stack. He then ties a rope round the base of the chimney, clambers up onto it and lowers himself down inside.
There are a few broken tiles but all in all it's 120 euros well spent.
Angus has developed classic flu symptoms. Runny nose, sore throat, itchy eyes. ' The Font ' goes to the pharmacy to get something to make him act less like a ''grizzly bear ". The pharmacists says '' That's not the flu. Everyone is suffering from it. It's ragweed allergy ". Seems that the heavy rains earlier in the year followed by the long period of high temperatures has turned the whole area into ragweed heaven. Angus looks up ragweed and finds that Google directs him to this young mans helpful advice. The video is quite spellbinding. He apparently says 'PACE' at the end which presumably means something to a younger generation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEsfMrtk5Cs
Let's hope that's the bee problem sorted out for a good long while.
ReplyDeleteBeing a perennial runny nose sufferer (worsening with age) I too was spellbound by the video. Pace Angus! (No I have no idea what it means either - I don't suppose he's mispronouncing the Latin...)
Cheers,
Gail.
Somehow me thinks Latin isn't his forte.
DeleteIs he saying 'peace ?'
ReplyDeleteDid the €120 include any homemade honey?
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photo of the sunrise. I assume the PONs didn't pose and that it was a lucky shot.
A very lucky shot.
DeleteYour sunrise photo reminds me of your blogging icon of Wilf and Digby.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you were able to get the bees safely captured - I hope that included the queen. I was recently reading an article about how 500,000 honey bees were killed in Iowa this past spring because of the senseless mischief of 2 teenagers. They were charged with 3 felonies, as they should be. A terrible loss of business and bees.
PS: Hope you feel better!
DeletePace !
DeleteWhat good luck that you found someone to take the hive away. Not a job for the overweight...the chimney doesn't look that big.
ReplyDeleteRagweed allergies a big problem here in the Texas hill country.
First time yours truly has ever had a run in with ragweed or L'Ambroisie as the French call it.
DeleteLove the sunrise photo! When I moved to Chicago, I thought I had a constant cold until I realized how bad allergy season is here!
ReplyDeleteYours truly once went swimming in a downtown Lake Michigan beach and developed a rash from the toxic chemicals.
DeleteGlad you found someone to take away the bees, and that they will be resettled elsewhere. I was afraid they'd make honey in there, and you do not want that stuff oozing through your walls.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful sunrise photo.
Or, heaven forbid, honey dripping down the chinmney into the fireplace.
DeleteThat video.
ReplyDeleteMade my day.