Friuli Venezia Giulia
April 2013

I have been silent for a while, not exactly because I have continued to write my diary and sometimes get to read it over and decide to write up bits and pieces, which may still appear here at some point.

I am now living in Friuli Venezia Giulia in a small town up a mountain side. I see a mountain every morning when I open the shutters, it seems now that what happens on the mountain may affect the mood the rest of the day. Of course if I cannot see it, it is about to rain or raining.

Next door is the cherry tree, it is now in blossom and a thousand bees buzz between the blossoms. I had the idea that I would be waiting to see which direction they go in, but have the feeling that I may need to make a sandwich and be carrying a flask of water. One bee seems to remain around the same few flowers for rather a long time, longer than my attention span.  I may attempt this tomorrow, waiting to see which direction they fly.

Now why would I be doing this?

I have recently taken a course in bee keeping and Roberto, the man, had bees last year and they all swarmed and flew away somewhere. I know they are not wearing t-shirts with Roberto's Bees printed on the back, but I am convinced these were once in his hive. This is actually why we went to the class to learn about why the bees would have flown away.

We learned many reasons. I suspect it was because they felt over crowded and just needed a bigger place to grow. This time we will start with two families in two hives and a spare hive just in case someone feels like moving in. Yes we still have a lot to learn but there some things in life you can only learn by doing and bee keeping happens to be one of them.

More later now that I have found my way back.

I would call the flowers in the photo cowslips, but I think they must have a Latin name, to be looked up and added.