Taking care of the bees

 This post also appears on my Facebook page:

Last year our Japanese pagoda tree flowered for the first time and was alive with bees, bumble bees, different types of wasps and other insects.  I did put out a bowl of water which mainly attracted the local wasps.  This morning, on Facebook, I saw a photo of a bowl of water and marbles put out for bees (sorry, I don’t remember where).  The idea is that the bees can drink standing on the marbles and are less likely to fall in and drown.  I seem to remember being told long ago that bees like shiny things, so in theory they will be drawn to the bowl of shiny marbles.

After doing a little research online I’ve learnt that the water should be changed regularly to prevent mosquitoes from breeding there.  Don’t add sugar or honey to the water, not good for the bees.

... and that was 2020

 

Well what a year we have had.  It started in January when my mum was taken ill at my sister’s house.  She’d been staying there for Christmas. She spent a few days in hospital and went back to my sister’s as they thought she was recovering well.  She died on 8^th January.  My sister and I both agreed that we were glad she hadn’t died at home all alone, although she has good neighbours who would have acted if she didn’t show signs of being up and about. We had to wait until February for the funeral as the coroner had a backlog – nothing to do with covid yet. 

Our flight to the UK, for the funeral, was delayed by 5 hours because of high winds but we managed to take off eventually. It was windy in the UK too and there were lots of people milling around the airport as flights were on hold or cancelled.  My nephew and his girlfriend were on the record breaking flight from the US – blown over the Atlantic by the strong winds!

Rob was told not to go into work mid-March.  We decided to treat him being home as a rehearsal for retirement.  The rehearsal went very well. We got plenty of jobs done around the house and garden and as the weather was good we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine.

In May there was a bad storm and the drain couldn’t cope so eventually the steps down to the back door flooded and came into the house.  At 1.30 am I was madly mopping up water while Rob tried to bail the water away in the garden in the pouring rain.  After I’d finished that, I tidied up and slipped on a step inside the house and cracked a rib.  That was quite painful for several weeks.

Rob eventually went back into work for the summer, but for shorter hours and then a four day week as we went into another lock down.  Lockdowns involved filling out a form every time we left the house in case we were stopped by the gendarmes. At the moment he goes into work once a week.  We’re free to go where we want, but being older now we like to know that there is a café open so that we can have a coffee and use the toilets. All cafes and restaurants are closed at the moment, except for take away.  The curfew is from 6 pm to 6 am, which is okay at the moment as the sun sets just after 6, as the days draw out we’re going to miss our evening walks by the river.

We managed to visit Dom and J-M and the girls in September for my birthday.  It was very strange, everywhere in Lille seemed so quiet.  We didn’t go shopping in the town centre like we usually do.  We visited Ikea and it was so quiet – very unusual.

At the end of 2019 there was no way that anyone would have imagined how life would change for everyone.  We’re fortunate as all of our relatives and friends have been safe and sound. I hope  that yours have been too.