Last year I went to a girl’s weekend on Quadra Island. This year there was a return of the “estro-fest.” Aptly named from last year.

It is so refreshing that we all have to leave our homes, our husbands/boyfriends, and our responsibilities, and we make a journey to a place that is neutral for all of us. Then we get to see where we have come in a year, what we have done, where we are going. I love this tradition. It is so refreshing.

This group of women are some of the best that I know. They are so committed to experiencing life with dignity, with integrity and approaching challenges with intention and thoughtfulness. I am blessed to know them.

Also, we approach this weekend with heaps of food, fantastic cooking, great wine (which I could not partake in this year) and gut-bursting stories where we roll on the ground from the hilarity.

We also bring our children. Last year, one child was 8 months old, now a year and a half. It was fantastic to see her growth. Another one was 4 and we’ve all known her mom since before her pregnancy. What a great honour to share her journey. And now me. Pregnant, and next year with a baby to look forward to.

It’s so interesting to me, the way that friends can have a moment, a spotlight, a microphone into our lives. These girls do not live close to me. We don’t keep in touch very well in between visits. Yet they are still so dear to me. I come to the weekend, with questions as to my current life situation, but also with answers to their life situations. No one monopolizes the conversation. We all get our turn to share, and then to listen as we discuss our experiences. This is so powerful to me, it is so validating to hear from other women, and it is so wonderful to be loved, no matter where you may find yourself this year. The words that we offer to each other are wrapped in love, wrapped in good intention, wrapped in the best of wishes to bring healing in our midst, to encourage courage in difficult decisions, to offer empathy.

It amazes me, the communities that we move in and out of. The places that offer intensity to really reach down and dig out parts of us that we didn’t know about. I love those moments. It gives me courage for the other moments, like arriving home, and transplanting my herbs to my mother-in-law’s garden so that they won’t be lost when we move. Where are we moving? We still don’t know though we have some ideas. All I know is that I know am refreshed and have the strength to deal with those daunting decisions. It’s amazing the courage that sushi, cheesecake and giggling for 3 days can create.

My family and friends have been very patient with me in my eccentricities. When I first brought up my interest in beekeeping, they were cautiously encouraging, not sure their required level of participation. As I’ve delved deeper and deeper into the art of apiculture, they have become more encouraging and enthusiastic, and I suspect this is because they saw “sweet things” on the horizon.

I got my first beehive 3 years ago, on July 1st. I knew I’d have to wait at least until the second year before I’d get any honey from her. But she had a rough first year. Not only because of my inexperience, but also because of the problems with her location. She was in the shade, she was bought late in the year, she didn’t have a lot of natural food. It was rather rubbish for her really. So I was just happy she survived her first Winter.

Finally on her third Summer, I opened up the top super to have a peak and found it was wall-to-wall honey! Well, the box weighs at least 55 lbs, I cannot lift it, especially with my protruding tummy. (Go Baby!) So my Honey helped me and got suited up and lifted the super for me, and found the next super down was also 10 frames of beautifully capped honey. Yeepee!

This is my first official extraction. Last year I tried to extract 6-8 frames but I made the mistake of leaving them where the bees could find them, hoping they would clear off. What? Abandon their honey? Never! Yeah, they took it all back and all I was left with were such chewed up empty frames.

There is a story about a beekeeper, he took his honey supers off his hives, took them to his basement. He spent all day extracting the honey from the frames, and went upstairs in the evening to take a break and watch a film. Meanwhile his well-meaning wife came home and went to the basement. She found it very stuffy and humid. Unknowingly, she opened a window to air out the basement. That night, the bees found all the honey that had been stolen from them and stole it back! All of the beekeeper’s hard work was for naught. He woke up in the morning to find not a drop of honey left in his basement. So the story goes…

Well folks, I’ve seen it happen and was much disappointed last year too.

Anyway, this year, I was more careful. It’s amazing how fast we learn when our sweets are stolen!

This fancy cylinder is an extractor. You can put two frames in and then you spin the basket inside and using centrifugal force, it flings the honey to the sides of the cylinder and drips out the bottom spigot.

The honey is capped with wax, and that’s how we know it’s done. Honey has a “water activity of 0.6.” This basically means that there is not enough moisture in honey to allow fermentation. So honey cannot go bad. If we take honey that is not capped from the hive, it may not be evaporated enough. Thus you could have honey that ferments in the jar. You may notice that if you have honey in a jar for a really long time, it crystalizes. This is not your honey going bad, it just needs to be microwaved. Or you can stick the jar in hot water and the honey will melt again and become liquid. Most micro-organisms cannot grow in honey if you extract it when it’s capped. The “cappings” -wax- on honey is also pure white and makes excellent candles.

Anyway, you have to uncap the honey prior to extracting it.

It’s a sticky process. It’s best to have a bucket to do this in.

Then you put it into the extractor, spin it, then you let it drain into a container with a filter. We used a cheese cloth as a filter to get out unwanted beeswax, bee legs, pollen etc.

This picture shows really clearly how the honey is sometimes different colours depending on the flowers that the bees take from. We found that we had some really light honey and quite dark honey in this extraction.

The next time is either to pasturize it (heating it up) or you can bottle it straight from here.

We have yet to pick up our jars so in the bucket it stays for now.

And now you have learned more than you ever wanted to know about the process of honey extraction. Of course on a commercial scale, it’s a little different but the principles are the same.

In other news, we’ve been planting our Winter garden here this weekend. Peas, beans, cabbage, kale, and leeks among other things. We’re getting ready to harvest our garlic. The curly scapes are straightening up, letting us know they are just about ready to be plucked from the Earth. Since planting them in October, it seems like a wait well worth it.

I just have to mention this, I L-o-v-e gardening in a dress!

And sunhats….

Go on, call me a “Fashionista.” I can take it…..

Please meet my assistant, Manfred Lawrence Archibald the Third.

Or as I call him, Habib.

Which Marc refers to as his “slave name.”

Whatever his name, he is a wonderful model for my baby-knits.

He also is willing to model in the nude.

More importantly,

like the sweater?

I hope someone little and living in my belly likes it too.

Whadya think, Belly-Resident?

Like your new sweater?

I had the great honour of standing up with my sister-in-law on her wedding day this weekend. Marc’s sister has been talkign about her wedding day basically since I met her. And I’m not sure I met her until after I was already engaged to her brother. So, really, quite a long time. But the day came to fruition. And now she is hitched! Congrats Danielle! We love you muchly!

It was a beautiful and cold day in May. And between the laughing, the lounging, the flowers, the hair-dos, the I-do’s, we had a great time seeing the beginning of two souls knitting themselves together.

Now that the family weddings are done for the summer, it’s time to get serious about the tomatoes, the bees, the peas and the blueberries.

A garden update is coming shortly.

(Yes, I called you Shortly….)

It is my birthday today and I am 28. I woke up a little bit early because the birds were chirping, the sun was streaming in and the cats were sleeping in the chives. And I thought, it is my birthday and I have to work. I’m going to make sure I enjoy my day. After all, happiness is my choice right?

So I put on a rosy pink dress, put pearls in my ears, braided my hair fancy, put on eye-shadow. Yes it’s Pender so eye-shadow is hugely dressed up. (Funny thing is that because I rarely wear eye-shadow, I’ve rubbed a lot of it off already. *sigh*)

And then I made myself a small cup of coffee with a dollop of whipped cream and I treated myself to an oat-raspberry-chocolate chip muffin!

Marc gave me the ultimate surprise though. He managed to find a very good deal on a high quality Canon Camera. I’ve been leaning towards exploring photography as a new hobby. You, dear reader, have already been subject to a couple of experimental shots, and you will be subject now to more, I promise!

-In saying this, I fully realize that this post and the previous do not have any photos, for that I apologize profusely. I have been writing these on the sly, not at my home computer, so I do not have access to my plethora of pictures.-

So picture instead in your mind, me at my computer — with a cold that I picked up recently and am trying adamantly to ignore– in my pink dress, pearl earrings, enjoying the elusive sun outside the office, choosing to cheerfully munch my raspberry muffin and typing insurance policies – and writing sly blog posts.

Please enjoy Earth Day, this day my birthday, as much as possible!