At the offices of Cypher,  finalising the details of our brochure, the signs and the literature stand.
It’s always a  pleasure to visit them as they are, without exception a great bunch of people and they’ve looked after me on the print and web side of things for as long as I can remember.  They have designed and hosted this blog, and are doing all our print work for the show free of charge., and when I asked them if the would get any benefit from a little mention in our brochure I was amazed to find that they have lots of customers in London and worldwide- including Google! This is the link to their website- http://www.cypherdigital.co.uk/.  I feel quite proud to be their customer.

Here’s an irony. At a time when my bee-hive sits there folornly, waiting for its first colony of bees, most of my family seemed to have acquired them. After lunch with my mother, who is 90, at her house in Hest Bank, she remarked to me, quite casually- “Come and look at my new bees”- and there in a corner of her paddock were two active bee hives, placed there by a friendly neighbour who doesn’t have room  for them in his own garden.  And my sister, who lives in Nottingham, has a visiting swarm in her spare bedroom- the local beekeeer’s association are investigating.  If only we were so lucky.

The skeps have arrived.  Beautifully made to order by David Chubb- http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/cotswoldbeeskeps/. Our part-time gardener, Norman was completely perplexed by them  He thought at first that they might be head-gear, but when he tried one on it was too large.  Eventually Margaret persuaded him that they were a handy receptacle to use when weeding and should be worn strapped to one’s  back using a purpose made leather strap.

We felt enormous relief to see the Apiary safely installed today as we couldn’t finish the paths or start the planting until it was safely in place.  Nicola was very nervous about meeting the deadline, especially as the joiners were very laid back. But I’ve dealt with these guys almost continuously over the last ten years on dozens of projects.  I knew that they knew that this was my baby and there was no way they could let me down.  So a big thanks to Richard from the Joinery Shop, Phil Shaw, the joiner and Carl Taylor the  builder for their very hard work. Phil and his mate Darren  left Cumbria at first light, arrived on site at 9.30 and didn’t stop until the job was done at 4.30pm when they set off back to Cumbria.

Nicola posing on the Bee Mosaic for a feature in the daily telegraph. 

After a long and tortuous journey the low loader  finally made it to Hampton Court. The verdant decoration isn’t deliberate- it’s just a reflection of the number of branches which were snagged en route.  There were a few hairy moments when it seemed unlikely that they would have enough clearance to get under bridges, but they managed… by inches.

Then came the seemingly impossible task of lowering the roof onto the apiary base in strong winds.  The pictures speak for themselves.  The roof swayed alarmingly as it was being lowered and the sharp edges of the cedar shingles nearly took off the tops of the apple trees. 

The space ship has been crated because we were uncertain whether  to risk flying it to Hampton Court on it’s maiden voyage. But we are having the devil of a job arranging suitable transport.  We had arranged for it to go on a flat bed lorry, but as it’s 4 metres wide it would take up two lanes and require a police escort if placed flat.  If placed upright it would be too tall to pass under the bridges. After a lot of heartache we sourced a low loader- double the original estimate, but they can do the job tomorrow. Phew!

The finishing touches to the Apiary base are being applied by none other than other than John Elles, drummer with Heroes of She,  who, for those readers who are not from these parts, are the best band in the North West.  Catch them at the Penny Bank, Lancaster on Thursday 25th June at 9pm.  Or at http://www.heroesofshe.com/

At the Mammoth Onion. These photos are of some of the climbing vegetables which will cover our Pergola. The gourds are double the size of a week ago.  We are very fortunate in having the country’s leading vegetable growers right on our door-step.  http://www.mammothonion.co.uk/ They won the Silver-Knightian award at Chelsea this year and produced the most amazing garden for Daylsford Organic the previous year.  Their policy is to have back-up plants in every stage of development, so that they won’t be caught out by adverse weather, disease or any of the multitude of vagaries which are there to trip us up.

Phil is putting the finishing touches to the Apiary roof.  Or is he about to launch into outer space?