Just a quick note...

Hi Dad,

Hope you are enoying Provence. I understand there was a bit of flooding down there but hopefully Bedoin is not in the mix - too high and hilly I should imagine. Missed you on Father's Day, for which I apologise as I had hoped to chat. Never mind, plenty of time when you get back.

Been a bit stressed out this term and what with the exchange rate working against us until fairly recently we have been under the financial cosh too, so it hasn't been much fun of late. Still, the Lord and his people are very good to us and we are beginning to make some headway.

The bees are doing well. The queen who was so mercilessly picked off by her workers (not me) has been replaced by supercedure, and my new queen is laying like mad to get the colony up to capacity. I'm hoping to make a new colony from this one once I can get another hive and prepare it for occupancy. In the meantime I have two supers on the hive and reckon to harvest about 40lbs-50lbs of honey sometime in the next few weeks. It really is a great fun hobby - I can't recommend it enough. If I could have my life again I might well go down the honey line. I had the chance while I was working at Minster Agriculture in Thame but never took it seriously and didn't pursue it.

The next hive I expect to be sited at Judy and Stan's in Chinnor. I should get a better grade of honey from the suburban gardens as there is more variety of forage for the bees.

Look forward to being able to pass some honey to you when you are back.

Can we do a swap of the book for some honey, Jume?