6/27/2026
Introduction
As I was growing up, I never really understood the meaning of the phrase “Spring has Sprung.” In my mind, I pictured this enormous spring that took several, if not hundreds, of people to compress. Then, when the time was ripe, the tension would be released, the winter weather would disappear, and then the grass would start growing again. Pretty crazy, right?
The real origin, or so they say, is that the phrase is in the first line of a poem.
Spring is sprung, the grass is riz.
I wonder where the birdies is.
They say the birdies on the wing, but that’s absurd.
I always thought the wing was on the bird.
Anonymous, though a favorite of the great Spike Milligan.
This poem may well have inspired Leonard Cohen’s most famous lyric
Regardless, it serves as a segue for this post, because indeed the spring was released and the energy was blown us all the way to summer without slowing down and taking a breath.
The accident
Back in December, Linda and I were in a pretty serious car crash. Both of us were beaten up pretty badly, which led us to spend twelve glorious hours at the MU Trauma Center. I didn’t mention it at the time because I thought the drama from the accident would be over and done with. It is still ongoing and takes up way too much time. I mention it now because the event has really interfered with our plans for the spring. But, there you have it.
The bees
Overall, I think the bees are doing okay. Two of the hives are very active, especially after one was given a new swarm as described below, and seem to be bringing in a lot of pollen. The third one, I’m not sure about; the rainy weather, which I like, has kept me from doing an in-depth inspection. Bees are moving in and out of the box, but the number is lower than it should be.
The swarm
We did manage to get two swarm boxes in place before the end of March. Both are located on properties where we’ve caught swarms before.
It took a couple of weeks, but the trap in Boone County had captured a swarm. We were pretty excited.
We gave the swarm about a week to get settled in before we moved them. During that time, we performed a thorough inspection of the hives. We found the queen in two of the boxes and weren’t sure about the third.
Pictures of the bees being moved into their new box.
As we finished moving the bees into an empty box, we remembered that we wanted to check on the box we had concerns about. Again, we couldn’t find the queen, so we moved the bees into that box.
Videos of moving the bees
The tour
One of Linda’s friends mentioned that she wanted to see inside a hive. We told her anytime, and here are the pictures of the event.
I think she had a good time; although, she started getting nervous after I got stung.
The lavender bed
Last year, we had about 50 lavender plants that smelled like oregano. Not exactly what you are expecting. The plants are annuals, so they were left in place as place-holders for this year. We had started about a hundred lavender plants of various varieties, to be ready for the new year.
Pictures from early spring.
It looks a little bleak. All the plants are pretty healthy.
Pictures from today.
The picture in the middle is the bench bought as a present to us.
The greenhouse and barn
Lots of work was accomplished around the greenhouse. The most notable is a terrace around it. Lots of work completed, with more to come.
The terrace.
It’s handy to use it as a place to put hardy plants to free up room in the greenhouse.
Speaking about storing plants, after a few weeks of bringing in all the plants at night, I built a cube that holds about 30 plants.
So far, it hasn’t blown over, so I’m feeling pretty good about it.
Linda wants to turn the main part of the barn into a “barntique.” She didn’t get as much done as planned, but she set up a nice display tablet.
Catnip
Last year, we planted some catnip, mainly to see what our cat thought about. Well, she didn’t care one way or the other. This year, the plants grew about six feet tall. We started looking around to see what could be done with it and found out that it has been used as a herbal tea for a very long time. We decided to try it and found out that it’s not bad.
Some catnip pictures.
This picture is from last fall.
We decided to harvest half and save the rest for the bees. The bees use it all day long.
Linda took the harvested catnip up the stairs to dry on the rack I made last year.
After drying, the crushed leaves and flowers are placed in tea bags
The sign
Last year, we didn’t have much of a sign to advertise that we were selling plants. We decided that an A-frame sign would be best. Linda got with Callaway Custom Printing and got one made. They did an excellent job.
Honey Bee Lane Little Free Library
Linda has talked for years about the little libraries that she has seen in various locations. She contacted the Little Free Library organization to see what to do. She’s charter number 219967.
There’s a good selection for just about everyone.
Yogi and tree climbing
Yogi is about 2 years old and has decided to learn how to climb trees. It’s fun to watch.
And with that, I’ll close for the evening.
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