Journal Entries
Updating Ubuntu
Posted May 1, 2011
I installed the Ubuntu operating system on my laptop computer (with plenty of help from the lovely researchers over on Ask) on 8th March, so I've been using it for a couple of months. And I really like it. It takes a lot of annoyance (though I have to admit that I'm fairly easily annoyed) to provoke me into doing something that might inconvenience me and increase my level of irritation. Windows Vista achieved this "most annoying" status, and so had to go. All's been well since... until yesterday.
Ubuntu invited me to update it to version 11.4. First of all I said no - not wishing to invite possible annoyance. But then it invited me again and again... and this started to annoy me. So, of course, I gave in eventually and said yes. I was right. It was annoying! It took 9 hours! with my brother's middle of nowhere, narrow, broadband signal. I've set up the computer in my bedroom, because if I use it where my brother uses his computers, the cats keep strolling across the keyboard and curling up in it (must be nice and warm I suppose). But, now I find that the broadband signal is only detectable up this end of the house (like half a football field away from the router) if it's more-or-less in line-of-sight of the router, with all the doors open along the corridor and my bedroom door open. So if this 9 hour marathon isn't to be interrupted by cats hoofing it all over my computer keyboard and kneading it and rolling around on it trying to get comfortable, I have to find some way to keep them out/off. I put a chair on the table over the top of the computer and parked a load of bags and boxes around it. That worked.
Then, at about 1.30am, when it had finished, I tried the new version, which has a lot of changes - and looks a well worthwhile update - and the new version of Firefox wouldn't work. It made me a little grumpy. I came back prepared to do battle with it this morning, and guess what! It's working fine now and I didn't have to threaten it with a hammer, or anything
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Latest reply: May 1, 2011
Another swarm
Posted Apr 25, 2011
I was bursting with the need to post this latest swarm news here, only to find I had no internet connection. It may become another damp squib result but still... in the meantime:
I got a swarm call on Saturday (day before yesterday) and this time I didn't bother to ask the lady for a photo or ask the trustees for confirmation that these were genuine honeybees, because the behaviour she described was the sort of thing only honeybees do. The lady said they were clustering on a tree branch, about 10ft from the ground. I warned her that this would be my first swarm collection and she seemed happy to let me do the job.
So I went over to Bill's to grab a hive and bind up its entrance and fill it with frames - some containing honey - and a few other things I thought I might need. Forgot my smoker, but then wouldn't have needed it anyway, as happened. And off I went - full of excitement and trepidation. Didn't much fancy climbing a ladder but I was keen to get my first swarm hived.
It turned out they were about 40+ feet above the ground in an Austrian pine - much taller than the huge Leylandiis that used to grow in my front garden. The cluster was amazing - a really big, brown slab of bees, with a cloud of flying bees still joining it. It's what they call a "prime swarm". I tried to get a photo but it didn't come out very well. Insane as it now seems, I was game and thought I'd see how I felt going up the ladder before concluding that it was a near-suicidal endeavour. So the lady went off to ask her husband to fetch out his longest ladder, which she assured me was *very* long indeed. He came out and applied his male spatial abilities to the problem and pointed out that even his very tallest ladder would be too short by about 2 - 3 sections, plus, even if he had one that would reach that far, then I'd have to reach out into space to bag the swarm that was near the end of a branch that was a lot longer than it looked. So that was that. My neck was saved by the nice sensible gentleman.
However, I did have another card up my sleeve. We set up the hive I'd brought as a "bait hive" to attract the swarm in. The moment I got it out of the car, there were scout bees investigating. With such instant interest from the bees, I thought it would be a cert that they'd move in by tomorrow (yesterday, as was) - but they still haven't. I called the lady yesterday to give her my mobile number in case she needed to call me while I was over Bill's and she said they were still hanging from the branch. They must be a very fussy lot is all I can say to that!
So I've done all I can and now all I can do is hope
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Latest reply: Apr 25, 2011
BT fails again
Posted Apr 24, 2011
My broadband signal has gone. Five separate calls to BT's technical broadband help, most ending in a promise to call me back, which never materialises, hasn't resulted in any restoration of service. I'm at my brother's, to print out instructions on how to use my blackberry as a modem. I would dump BT in a moment if all their competitors weren't also so useless. Dammit! I may be gone some time...
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Latest reply: Apr 24, 2011
Preparing to collect a swarm
Posted Apr 20, 2011
I received two swarm calls yesterday. The first wasn't honeybees. The second may be... the pictures the lady sent me look exactly like honeybees except hairier than any I've seen before. Still, there are so many imported honeybees and mongrels that it's hard to be sure. So I'm preparing to go and bag them. The lady with the possible swarm problem thinks they're in a nicely manicured bush in her garden and their scouts might be investigating her air bricks. It probably won't be possible to get them without doing some damage to the bush. But if they go into the air bricks and make their home under the lady's floor, it'll be difficult and expensive for her to get them out. It'll be a job for builders then - and most builders wouldn't want to tackle that sort of job.
Let us tarry not! Got to get my tools lined up ready.
PS Prepared for disappointment - there are thousands of different species of bees and some look very similar to honeybees. We'll just have to see...
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Latest reply: Apr 20, 2011
Today's observations
Posted Apr 17, 2011
Critter sitting this weekend. Just walked the pup and we saw:
May blobs in one of the ponds (early since it's only mid-April);
First wasp of the year (doubledammit);
Busy busy bees;
Iridescent blue/green wing (probably the remains of a kingfisher - victim of my brother's evil cats).
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Latest reply: Apr 17, 2011
Tibley Bobley
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