Inside the hive

Andrew checked on his bes on the weekend to see how things were progressing, all looks good, and some honey is being made as well as lots of baby bees.  Our sunflowers have started to open over the last few days, it's great to see bees on them.

Livinia is 6

 Liv turned 6 yesterday, and we forgot to take some birthday photos.  To our defence, she was at school, then had a couple of friends over for a "party", then we went out for dinner, then it was bed time.  And it started raining pretty much as soon as we walked home from school.  Today was a much quieter day with lovely weather.

 Poor kid, who'd have a birthday in December? 

 The garden is still growing well, probably the best time of year, before summer really heats up.

 Violet in front of our newest garden beds

 Flowering dwarf apple gum, I'm enjoying watching the bees buzz around it

 Yarrow 'Coronation Gold' is always a winner

 Avocados getting bigger- this is the biggest we've grown them so far, they normally drop off when they are the size of a pea.  Will this be our year for avocados?

 Golden delicious apples getting bigger

 Another favourite, the curry plant

 The grapes are growing very quickly

Dinner tonight- cold boiled eggs, lettuce, carrots, snowpeas, yellow cherry tomatoes.  Doesn't get much better than this.

We have bees

 Andrew has been doing a beekeeping course over the last couple of months, and yesterday some bees came to live on our roof. 

 Andrew in his beesuit. 

 This is a nucleus hive.  They will stay in that box for about a week, then will be moved into a proper hive.  They can get in and out of the box, they just need some time to orientate themselves before being moved.

We hope they are happy, and help to pollinate our plants, and give us some honey.

Into summer

 We are now harvesting yellow cherry tomatoes.  This photo was taken a week ago, and that is why the sun is shining, unlike today which is very soggy.  We've had over 25mm of rain since early yesterday morning, which is great to soak the garden and keep our tanks full in the lead up to a hot summer.

 Grapes developing nicely

 Our new beds filling up- we constructed gravel paths about 5 weeks ago.

 Little artichokes

 Boysenberries growing on our old gate that we removed from the front yard- we've started to pick these

 Golden delicious apples

 Sweet potato

 Rockmelon, watermelon, peas climbing the trellis, netted strawberries

 This year's garlic harvest waiting to be cleaned up

Evie's mint patch has taken off.  She has peppermint, apple mint, and chocolate mint.