Category Archives: Nature

Where’s Laura?

Posted on May 3, 2017 by Laura Rittenhouse

Recently someone asked me if I was just visiting as she’d seen my website link in an email and then gone from there to this “obsolete” blog where I broadcast to the world that I “live” in the Hawkesbury region … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, cat, Chickens, dog, Garden, Nature, Writing | Tagged | 23 Comments

Where did that come from?

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Laura Rittenhouse

Walking the well worn path between my front door and the door to the chicken run I saw this lying in the grass. It was the middle of the day and it hadn’t been there in the morning. From a … Continue reading →

Posted in dog, Nature | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Another One (Two Actually) Bites the Dust

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Laura Rittenhouse

A little over a month ago I posted about robbing bees. It turns out that a colony had died and so some of the cleverer bees from the other colonies took advantage of the gap (nature abhors a void) and … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Nature | Tagged | 13 Comments

Winter White

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Laura Rittenhouse

It’s early winter here. I grew up in Seattle and there you could tell the season and even the month just by looking out your window. At this time of year (December, after northern hemisphere seasonal adjustment) the trees would … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Garden, Nature | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Birdbath

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

As I continue to make my way through the garden beds on the farm, I keep uncovering all kinds of cool things. For example, a bird bath. Seriously, you couldn’t see this thing before I cut back some flowering ginger … Continue reading →

Posted in cat, Garden, Nature | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

Walking Lavender

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

Who knew? Lavender actually walks. Probably really really slowly, but walk it does. I imagine the previous occupant of this house put a little pot of lavender by the front path back in the 70s (which is when the house … Continue reading →

Posted in Garden, Nature | Tagged | 25 Comments

Our Hive has EFB

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

One of our hives has European Foulbrood (EFB). That’s a bacterial infection (Melissococcus pluton) that kills off some of the bees before they’re born and weakens a colony. It’s considered a stress-related disease and moving hives can trigger it. It’s spread … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Nature | Tagged , | 17 Comments

Our 23 hives are (mainly) fine

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

We did an inspection with Bruce (okay, Bruce did the inspection and we watched/helped) of our 23 hives on Tuesday. The main objective was to ensure they were queen right and disease free. All were queen right and had brood … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Nature | Tagged | 20 Comments

Moving the Bees

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

Before we moved into the farm, the bee hives were all over the place, generally within spitting distance of the house. (Check out the vines working their way across the porch in this photo.) They simply had to be moved … Continue reading →

Posted in bees, Nature | Tagged | 24 Comments

A Problem with Vines

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Laura Rittenhouse

I have always loved vines. To me they mean grapes (and therefore wine 🙂 ), beautiful ivy covering old brick buildings, passion fruit or some beautiful flower like wisteria. Or that’s what they used to mean. Now they mean pests, … Continue reading →

Posted in Garden, Nature | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments