I flippin' hate wasps 1

There's a paving stone, partway down the garden, where my bees crawl to to die...

It does seem a bit grim, I'll grant you that.  But the bees are doing the colony a favour, dead bodies don't pile up in the hive and foragers are not distracted from important foraging work by needing to keep clearing out the dead bees before they start to rot and spread disease through the colony.

I've been watching birds come and clear up the corpses - I guess they are a crunchy candy snack for passing Magpies and Robins.  But some other critters are learning about the snack bar, and some of them are especially not welcome...

Its like a macro level Serengeti down there. Wasps are patrolling the edges of the dandelion leaves...

Wrestling the dying bees to the ground...grabbing them from behind so the bee can not sting them...

Chewing through the bee's body to separate the abdomen from the thorax...

I'm guessing they are after the abdomen as it is mainly softer tissues, including the stomach, where there may be traces of honey...

Finally flying off with the abdomen...

Nature in action - brutal even at the macro level.  :(

First frost....

I really can't believe it!

We've made it all the way to December 6th and not really had a proper frost.
I do like frost.
It makes everything properly cold and crispy, and definitely NOT soggy.
I don't do soggy and cold.

So I popped down the garden to check the girls were all right...

Nothing to see here ...only a few crispy leaves on top of the hives...

 


I'm hoping the carrots and beetroot are safe below ground....

 

Unlike so many other leaves and buds....

I probably should have put the dragonflies away a while ago now...

 

 

and the wasp trap....fairly sure that any wasps in there that haven't drowned will have frozen solid by now...(shame!)

 





I'm just going to enjoy all these tiny ice crystals for a while, before the sun comes up and melts them all...

If life gives you chillies...

The late September sunshine has given us quite a glut of chillies....

Its been lovely watching them ripen from green - purple - scarlet red...

 

 

I definitely needed some ideas as to what to do with my super harvest...

Sweet chilli dipping sauce, from my favourite jam and chutney book, looks simple enough....

First, wash and de-stalk them...

 

How small do they need to be chopped?

Mmmmm  .... this might take some time....

Recruit some help from 'im indoors....

There....that's more like it....

Dissolve the sugar in the rice wine vinegar...

 

 

Bring the solution to rapid boiling and ignore the comments from other members of the household about making the house "stinky"...

Add all the chopped chillies and simmer for just a couple of minutes...

Then pour into hot sterilised jars....

Quite a few of them as it happens....

Now then, what other than prawn crackers and spring rolls is good to dip into sweet chilli dipping sauce?

North Country quilting weekend

The best bit about getting the earlier train to Durham for this "girls quilting weekend away" was that we got to explore the Botanical gardens for the afternoon....

There was lots of colour...

 

 

Some interesting characters watched us ...

 

I found some big hints that there were bee hives in the vicinity...

 





We decided to explore the woodland walk...

 

And found some mighty strange things...

 





And sure enough I found the beehive in the middle of a woodland clearing....

All too soon it was time to head back to Collingwood College to spend the evening admiring Lilian's collection of wonderful quilts...

 

 

 

Saturday brought lots of hard work.

So much hard work that I only managed to take four photographs...

The template for the Weardale chain...

My three chosen patterns...sketched, traced and inked...

Fabric pinned and ready to be marked....

First stitches quilted...

and after that arduous day's work we had to wind down with an evening stroll around Durham...

If you find the right cobblestone alley... 

It takes you right to the most magnificent cathedral...

 

The castle is pretty impressive too...

We walked on...to the Kingsgate bridge over the Wear...

The views back up river and into the city were amazing as the sun dropped even further over the horizon...

One last glimpse of the cathedral and it was off home to bed...

Sunday brought some more busy quilting, I managed to take one photo of my work table...

The weekend finished with show and tell from the other workshops..some had quilts nearly finished and others some exquisitely embroidered butterflies...

 

Then we packed our suitcases and took a meandering walk through Durham back towards the station, appreciating the landmarks in autumnal daylight...

 

 We had a fun weekend, though I for one have a pretty large quilt to finish before I can show my face there again!