No Koalas right at my place, wrong type of trees, but there are some about 40 km away. we buy a new queen, they come in the mail in a little queen box, with 5 worker bees to keep her alive . There is a plug of bee candy that they hav etc eat through to get out. We then find the old queen and remove it, and put the queen box into the hive. 3 days later we check that she made it out of the queen box

Bees can travel as far as 5 km to forage, but prefer closer than 2 km. So distant neighbour gardens are good too. to get lots of honey you need a nectar run, that is when there are lots of flowers high in nectar flowering all at the same time. clover is really good as well. Could you seed your lawn with clover?

We don’t get extremely cold winters, but damp cold weather stops the bees doing much foraging . We try to leave the bees with at least 1 supper of honey to overwinter with. We have had years where there wasn’t enough honey stored and we have fed the bees. Dh made a feeder platform that sits under the hive lid, we put sugar on it and the bees access it when they want. we try to requeen the hives every 2 years. This helps reduce swarming. Swarming is undesirable as you lose most of your worker bees, plus honey bees are not native to Australia.

Bees love purple and blue flowers, so things like lavender, borage, etc. they also love brassica flowers. they go absolutely crazy over poppy flowers, I have seen up to 10 bees in each poppy flower at a time. there is nothing like having bees to encourage you to plant lots of plants that flower, which helps all the native fauna as well as the bees.

I have bees we have 6 hives we have had them for around 10 years. They are a lot of fun. it took us around4 years from wanting to have bees and having all the stuff till we found a swarm and filled our hive. Once you have 1 hive it is relatively easy to make a nucleus hive from it to increase your hive numbers. we are on 5 acres. The native gumtrees around us are our main source of nectar. So we have 2 runs of honey production every year, when the silver top is flowering and when the mahogany is flowering. I have a big flower garden etc, but that is more maintenance nectar and pollen for the bees

Congratulations Wishing you all the best for your surgery

What, are we not meant to use our finger.

I don't have a microwave either. Never have.

And we don't have drugstore either. They are the pharmacy or chemist Found that out when I was in Canada and asked directions to a chemist. They all thought I was crazy and looking for a scientist

I can guess that if anyone comes to Australia and asks where a grocery store is they will be given directions to the greengrocer

I cover with old bed sheets, But it usually only gets to minus 3 C Here

Chicken Kiev with salad?

We also don't have covid in the community. So that is a huge plus

Blackberries are everywhere. All through the bush. They are an introduced pest species that clog up waterways and make bush walking unpleasant. Lots of time and money is spent on tryi g to eradicate them. My remote, area fire-fighter sons have spent a lot of time spraying blackberries in between bushfires

My ds23 bought a house when he was 20. He had saved half of the house cost. Had no trouble with the bank at all. In fact, the bank tried rally hard to lend him more than he needed. He had been living on his own and work g full time since 18. The house is really in the middle of nowhere. A very small house, more like a 2 bedroom cottage. The house then was only 110k. House prices have just about doubled since then. On the other hand my oldest ds lives in Melbourne. He looked into buyi g a house begenning of this year. It would be practically impossible. Median house price in Melbourne has just reached 1million. And that isn't fancy houses. He left home at 17 to go to university. He has a very good job, but to afford to live he has lived in share houses with mates and still does.

Wore shorts as much as possable and stayed outside as much as I can. Exposing lots of skin The exact opposite of what I would normally do as I live in Australia with the highest skin cancer in the world and I don't use sunscreen and usually cover. I am the most tanned I have ever been in my life

I was so so sad for the Queen

News here said that hospital beds in New Delhi are doubling up, 2 per bed. 😳 And people are still gathering in very tightly packed groups. 😲

thank you for what you do. hugs All my in-laws live in the greater Toronto area. my MIL99 is fully vaccinated, in a retirement home. she is shut in her room in lockdown. She finds it very lonely, especially as her phone keeps on stopping working for days on end. my SIL 65 is a city bus driver. she wants to get vaccinated, but doesn't fall into the high risk work group ( which is a bit of a mystery as she is exposed to public all day every day)

just note that Australia has very strict quarantine rules for bringing in food

we are reading the borrowers series right now

So sorry Sending positive thoughts

Hugs Twin 2 had a big seizure 2 years ago. It was very scary. We had brain scans etc. The paediatrician said that sometimes people have a brain overload and a shut down with a seizure and it is a complete one off and never happens again.

Hugs Thinking of you

I use a Window squeegee that I add a long mop handle to