There may not be any major renovations or developments happening at Clough Manor lately (that’s what I’m calling our house these days – sounds oh so grand doesn’t it?) but that certainly doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to be getting on with.
In fact, we’ve recently had some visitors which have been keeping us busy – a swarm of bees.
Last year, we completely redesigned the bathroom meaning the outside piping required a bit of a switcharoo. Until now, we had no idea that this process left a small hole in the house – no wonder it was so flippin’ cold in there during winter!
After the first proper bit of warm weather since owning our home – in 2 years! – the bees have made their first appearance in the garden and we had spotted large groups of them diving in and out of the house using this opening in the brick.
The picture above doesn’t show it wonderfully, but there was a lot of them. And yet none in the house!
As we installed a false ceiling in the bathroom, we had a real concern that there could have been a swarm in the gap between our bathroom ceiling and the loft floor – a thought which horrified me. Imagine all them buzzing bees overhead of you when you tinkle? How fun a word is tinkle? Anyway…
Bees are an endangered species and can attack when threatened so it’s not like we could have dealt with the problem, all guns blazing, with a flame-thrower – how I think Joe originally envisioned it going down.
Instead, we researched how to safely evict them, which would have cost at least £30 for an initial consultation. Not the highest price I suppose, but thankfully, they appear to have left as quickly as they arrived on their own terms! Probably rain related I imagine. Or the massive family BBQ we had in the garden last weekend.
But, with then gone, Joe took to the wall with a ladder and some expanding foam to close it on up.
I was put in charge of the very important task of supporting the ladder, but may have taken to snapping a few pictures at the same time. Ooooops. 🙂 Another task crossed off the list.
