A Good Year For Rhubarb

My rhubarb has done well this year, the warmer spell we had in late March and April really brought it on. I don't really have to tend much to my rhubarb patch, I just cut away any dead stems and remove any that get too big and stringy. Then in Autumn I just clear away all the leaves and stems that are left and cover the crowns with  dry dead leaves that have fallen from the trees, and that's about all I do to it. It comes up every year no matter how hard the winter has been, it was down to minus 15 here this winter. Ive forgotten where I got the original root from, but it must be eighteen or twenty years ago, from a single root about an inch or so across it now covers maybe two or three  feet square without its stems and leaves, and double that when its stems and leaves are fully out.

All of this leads on to Homemade Rhubarb crumble, a simple pudding that is worth a mention in any ones book. A crispy, sweet crust combined with a the sour taste of the rhubarb filling. Now that's an early early summer treat summed up in a spoon full.

Wasps nest in nest box (Where Else)

I have a wasps nest in my garden this year, for around 12 or 13 years Blue Tits have nested every year in this particular box, but not this year. I wonder if many of them didn't make it through the bad winter

we had.

      

So its wasps, I should really say its a queen wasp, who's decided to take up residence this year and start building her nest in the vacant nest box.

  I personally don't mind them being there, the box is high up on a wall in a corner, so their flight path is well above my head if I'm in that part of the garden. They seem to fly straight for the woods at the back of my house without bothering to stop around in my garden, so its a quite amicable situation.If the nest was in the ground or low down and I didn't know about it and stepped on it, or had young children around to think about, then that would be a different matter.

 

Its quite interesting to watch their comings and goings. I had a video camera on them the other day, and when I slowed the clips down I was surprised to see how clumsy they can be when coming in for a landing at the nest box hole. Its was quite amusing when I saw the two wasps collide.

There is usually at least one, of the wasps on guard at the entrance to the nest, sometimes two or three.

It can be a little unnerving  taking photos of them close up, the camera is about five feet away from him here. He watches me carefully, as I watch him, they do have quite a menacing, alien looking face as he sits there, assessing the threat level I represent. I can imagine at this point hes on amber alert!!!!!, potential danger detected within comfort zone mode. They are not cute, but they have an attitude that deserves, nay,,, demands respect.

Starting At The Start

Well, here I am, starting at the start, I woke up this morning feeling a little at a loss as what to do today. Now thats not like me, Ive usually got my days planned out in advance, anyway, after toast and coffee and another coffee I read my Emails, nothing new there on that front, I caught up on a few of the Blogs I follow and "Ping" the light came on, the green for go button was pressed and the old brain cells (some would say cell) started to mobilise,,,,,,,,, "Why not???...... create my own Blog"  (Cue the sound of little grey cogs turning),,,,,(Slowly),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Ill start to do that today". So here I am, Starting at the start.