The Queens Are Here

Last week was a real challenge at work and I was too exhausted to catch up on blogging so forgive me. I decided to give myself the weekend to just chill out, regroup and re-assess where I'm at, where I need to go and how I should get there. Do you ever feel like there are so many things coming at you -- people, email, phone calls, your projects, other people's projects, everything -- that you don't even know when you're suppose to stop to think? I don't often feel that way but I did last week and it weighed on me heavily. Anyway, I won't dwell on it here. What I will say is this...it felt GREAT to disconnect from the computer and work Friday as we headed off to Lake Jackson and Navasota in order to see family and to do a little beekeeping business. I had a blast!

We have family in Lake J so we went to visit overnight and also to pick up Mark's uncle, with whom he kept bees in the past. Lake J is near Houston and the drive was really nice and relaxing. It was really fun to catch up with them all but early Saturday, we had a hearty breakfast and then we headed out on a two hour drive to Navasota. There we visited Bee Weaver Apiaries in order to pick up three queens Mark ordered some time ago. It was my first time in that area and I was so pleasantly surprised by how lovely the countryside is there! It looks more lush than here and once we were in Navasota, the rolling hills with ponds and wildflowers just wiped away all the stresses I had. It was just what the doctor ordered. Thanks for taking me away honey.

The picture above is a little box with one of our new queens in it. Here we have arrived home and Mark was prepping the hive in order to place the queen in there. The bees buzzing on top of the little box are our City Bees, checking out the queen, whose scent they detected rather quickly. If you want to see other shots of our beekeeping fun, you can click on the picture and it will take you to my Flickr page. I have so much to share but I will end it here as this is long enough. I'll share more with you soon. I still have to tell you about my little tumble all in the name of photography. It was worth it but I'm still sore. :)