We were having dinner with our neighbors last Saturday night, when I checked my phone and saw a text message from a number I didn’t recognize. Even stranger was the picture in the text message…it was a swarm of honeybees…
Archives for April 2015
#WineWednesday ~ Spring Shipment from Sokol Blosser
Spring wine shipments are here! It’s one of my favorite times of year seeing which wines were included as part of the shipment and to venture out to the wineries to pick them up. Picking up wine shipments is always a great excuse to go visit wine country! I just love the views from Sokol Blosser, we’re members there, and it’s one of my favorite places to hangout on the weekends.
Painting the Hives and the Honeybees Arrive
I know I’ve been a bit quite on the honeybee front, especially after our visit to Ruhl Bee Supply back in March, but we’ve really been doing all sorts of work to get ready for the spring beekeeping season! I’m always hesitant to do a blog post before the finished project is ready to present, so you’ll have to forgive me with the amount of pictures and text in this post…this project has been a long time coming!
It started with a conversation between myself and The Renaissance Man about beekeeping and what we really wanted in the year ahead. We unfortunately lost one of our hives this past winter (we’re pretty sure it was a sugar ant invasion), and were trying to figure out our strategy for the coming season. I wanted to get involved this year with a few hives of my own, and so the decision was made to add two more hives and replace the hive we lost. And what does a crafty girl do when you give her bee hives? She paints them!!!
2015 Dundee Firefighters Pancake Breakfast
The best part of waking up last Saturday morning was knowing just what we’d be having for breakfast! Signs had been posted all around town for several weeks for the Annual Dundee Firefighters Pancake Breakfast, and we weren’t about to miss it. The event has been happening for over 50 years!
2015 Newberg Camellia Festival
I was so happy to finally attend The Newberg Camellia Festival! Last year we were out of town when it happened, so I made sure to get the date on the calendar early so we didn’t miss out. For those of you not familiar with the Camellia Festival, it offers an exploration of Asian-Pacific Rim cultures through art, food, performances, and horticulture.
Blue, Blue, Blueberries
I LOVE BLUEBERRIES!!!
Seriously, blueberries are one of my favorite summertime fruits. Growing up as a little kid, my parents had about five bushes in our backyard and picking blueberries was always one of my chores. Although I’ll confess, I probably ate almost as many as I picked! ha!
It was time to finally make room for blueberries in our backyard!
Getting our Herb Garden ready for Summer
Our garden last year was the first in our new home. We had all sorts of backyard projects going on, so unfortunately our garden didn’t get the attention that it probably deserved, and our herb garden didn’t even get touched! This is what the “herb garden” looked like most of last summer…see empty concrete rectangle under the corner windows?
Praying Mantis Cocoon…why not?
It’s not every day that you find a Praying Mantis Cocoon at the grocery store…or in your shopping cart. But then again, not everyone goes grocery shopping with The Renaissance Man. His keen ability to find the most interesting items is superb!
I was in the garden section scoping out a trellis, and the next think you know I looked down to find a Praying Mantis Cocoon in our shopping cart sitting normally among the strawberries, frozen spinach, eggs, and shampoo.
Happy Easter from The Dundee Hills
Who doesn’t love an Easter Egg Hunt? When I was a kid, Easter was my favorite holiday and I’m pretty sure it was because of the “hunt.” I was competitive even back then! Ha!
I had been seeing signs around town for the Annual Dundee Easter Egg Hunt, and so The Renaissance Man and I headed over to the Dundee Billick Park around 10am on Saturday to watch it all happen. Nothing beats seeing little kids exploring the wonder of something new. The event was put on by the Dundee Community Committee and they did an amazing job!
