Here goes

I do love to see the bees festooning.
A swarm is a wax generating machine so will have your combs drawn in no time.
Weather has turned bad again here.
I got a big prime swarm last Tuesday and am hopeful of picking up some cast(s) if the sun comes out.

I had to look up "festooning". Apparently it is the chain curve, known as a catenary. Flowers were hung out in festoons at celebrations and the word is linked to the same origins as fête in French. In Spanish? So are the bees working or partying?
Interesting that in Belfast and down here swarming is starting at the same time. The only thing I've noticed corresponding this year is the hawthorn coming into flower.Much later- June for the mayflower.
I must get back to the hive and swap the bottom box for one with top bars pretty soon if the bees are going to build that quickly-I can just imagine the hassle if the comb gets down below box joint level before I do so.

A big prime swarm can draw out a full brood box of comb in a week so a warré would be no problem at all.

Festooning is a term used in beekeeping when the bees link up to make wax.

I realised I had no idea how to literally say 'festooning' in Spanish so I just used google translate but the verb given is one I have never heard spoken nor ever seen in print 'enguirnaldar' I am guessing that more commonly you would say something like 'formandose en cadena', ie linking up to make a chain. Las abejas se forman en cadena para hacer cera. the bees organise themselves in a chain to make wax. I think it is one of those situations where the concept does not really exist in a single verb in Spanish.
But Spanish has a reflexive verb meaning to eat a hot chilli pepper and suffer the consequences, 'enchilarse'
Bet french can't do that in a single verb. Ya me enchilé. I chillied myself.

Some nice pics on google images.

Originally Posted by Jon

But Spanish has a reflexive verb meaning to eat a hot chilli pepper and suffer the consequences, 'enchilarse'
Bet french can't do that in a single verb. Ya me enchilé. I chillied myself.

Actually, french can do much more in a single word,, and even some things that appear to me as physically impossible, but that's not for a public forum.

I find language *tie up* very interesting. Catenary is the curve that is formed by a chain attached to 2 points, and seems to have the same origin as cadena. Enguirnaldar recalls the french enguirlander which means to decorate with guirlandes or garlands in English. The idea being to hang a garland of flowers (like daisy chains) around someone's neck, or on a wall etc. This was often done during celebrations, parties, etc. Which ties up with the french feston, another word for guirlande, which ties up to fête (celebration) in french and perhaps fiesta in spanish. And so, bees making a chain ,are said to festoon.
Thanks for the link Jon. I'll look later when I've showered- just spent 3 hours planting squash in the full sun. Yuk.

Thing is, my Spanish is Mexican Spanish which is similar to all the Spanish spoken throughout Latinamerica. Apart from the accent, there are a few differences in grammar and tense usage and quite a range of different vocabulary. Mexico still has about 60 indigenous languages and some words from these have made it into everyday language. In addition there has been creep from American English as so many Mexicans work in the US or have family there. the clutch in Spain is el embrague but it is el clotch in Mexico. To agree with someone while they are speaking in Spain you say vale, vale but in Mexico it is ok, ok. To get back to drone ranger and his giant ant, ant is hormiga in Spain but they call them Tlalatas in my part of Mexico. I think that is is a word from Náhuatl which is where the Aztec language ended up. There are still a few million speakers.
And the language of course reflects cultural values.
Something much appreciated is described as muy padre whereas something of no value is said to no vale madres
Spanish also has a single word to describe a person or an animal with one useful eye (tuerto) and a word to describe a person with a flat nose (chato)
So much more expressive than the English.

Difficult to get your clutch bag without dropping a clanger then

Lárgate Drone Ranger, con hormiga gigante y todo!

Got my squashes in on Monday night I think it was. Courgettes, Golden Nugget, a yellow Petty Pan type (I'll bet that comes from the French, petit pain or suchlike), and butternut squash (seeds recovered from a supermarket one). In that sub-tropical paradise folk call Dundee.

You need a good summer to get a crop of butternut squash. How can you fail in Dundee.

Its a cert given the warm, steamy North Sea we get that grand view of on the allotment up on the Law (its a hill, not a policeman).

Originally Posted by gavin

Its a cert given the warm, steamy North Sea we get that grand view of on the allotment up on the Law (its a hill, not a policeman).

Where or what is Dollar Law ?
Is that the place?

The east of Scotland has many 'Laws' courtesy of the volcanic plugs that are scattered about the landscape and the ice ages that scoured away the softer rock. It simply means a small hill. Dollar Law, Berwick Law, Traprain Law, Dundee Law 'the Law', Scald Law, there are many.

Volcanic Plug is the tall one in the centre
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...treet_kids.JPG

Thank you for the expansion on the name. I heard of someone being asked in a quiz - where or what is dollar law and the answer was, a hill two miles outside Edinburgh. That was literally a lifetime ago, but the name stuck in my memory!


Drone Ranger, the artist captured a remarkable likeness of you in that portrait. Are those your children ? Bonny wee lads and lassies they are for sure.

The Bash Street kids are probably Dundee's finest exports.

Originally Posted by gavin

Courgettes, Golden Nugget, a yellow Petty Pan type (I'll bet that comes from the French, petit pain or suchlike), and butternut squash (seeds recovered from a supermarket one). .

Yes,pan is a word from the Provence dialect which means bread. In Nice they sell Pan bagnat which is a delicious salad sandwich in the special bread, the whole lot dripping olive oil all over you when you eat it.

No courgettes, never ever again after last year's glut when even Cathy's imaginative cooking abilities couldn't disguise the fact that they're just courgettes. One row of butternut, and the rest potimarron. Orange, and a variety where the skins are edible so they don't have to be peeled (a job that always comes round to me).

On the bee front, I only managed to get to my Warré this morning. As I feared, the comb is already half way down the second box, which has no top bars. I put a third box with top bars underneath and am hoping that the bees will eventually draw 4 boxes, and I'll treat the top 2 as one box. I'll take that off before winter and leave them the other 2 for wintering. And I'll get 2 boxes of honey. That's the theory. As our main flow, lime, is still to come, and after that the lavender, it could well work. If the weather holds out. Anyone with a better idea, please let me know.

I get totally sick of courgette as well. The other glut is runner bean.
Just spent two hours at the allotment in driving rain weeding and earthing up potatoes.
Might as well have been 1840, ie, the famine rather than twenty to seven.
And them I had to cycle home 3 miles.
Clothes went straight into the washing machine. Completely clabbered.