Easy Peanut Brittle

Recently we bought some peanut brittle from Modelo but it was called Nougat - a bit confusing but thank goodness for the clear wrapper. Oh what a dissapointment, the nuts were burnt and the after taste on your tongue was really unpleasant. So how difficult can it be to make peanut brittle? Off to good ol Youtube and like I like to say, keep it simple. More simple this recipe couldn´t be. You will notice everyones comments - where is the bicarb? what about how much sugar etc and I notice there were no replies - WHY because we always want to make things more difficult than they really are. Just take an amount of sugar, and once it has got to the caramel stage add as much or as little peanuts as you like.

It is blowing a hooley outside and we are catching up on blogging and enjoying great
 peanut  brittle. We used almonds, be creative:)

Man - it is windy

Not much to blog about, But there is a reason it has been windy and raining for 2 days - have a look at
http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker

We have tied down the beehive, staked down the chicken coop that blows away closed the shutter on Judys house and we are about to get into a warm dry bed and see what tomorrow brings - sorry there are no pictures just these from the hurricane site

Tobacco, Tomatoes and bees

Well, Tanya gets back today from a trip, so I thought i would give you an update on what is happening in the garden - my tobacco plants are almost ready for harvest so I have taken off some of the leaves to hang - if you have a look in the pics there is a pack of rolling paper to give you the idea of the size of the leaves.

this is a close-up of the next picture to show the height of the plant - this is a different tobacco - either Habanero or Cuban - not sure

and to think they come from such tiny seeds

and here are the bees with a super on the Hive and some tomatoes - we are getting lots

and the tobacco leaves hung up to dry along with our onions that T plaited and our garlic

Maria Margarita playing the Hang

Last nights privilege was to absorb the beautiful sounds of the Hang from Maria Margarita.
This unique instrument was born in Switzerland in 2000 and Maria has been playing for 7 years now.

I chose this link as Maria and the Hang have travelled the world together and these are some fabulous pictures to accompany her harmonious sound.

Maria tells me she uses this instrument in a type of sound massage, so look forward to a trip over to Pico to enjoy this very relaxing meditative vibrational tones.
Thank you Maria you are truly talented.

Bee Informed

My darling bees arrived from Pico almost a week ago. I had been expecting them Tuesday last week but then heard they had not got their passport so it would be later in the week. When they arrived it was about 3 in the afternoon and very hot. I anticipated the guy who delivered them, would advise me that my location was correct and that he would help me move them from the nucleus to the new home. This was not to bee(excuse the pun)
I at least got him to suit up and open the box, as it  was wired up and had sponge in the front entrance. When he opened it many dead bees were carried out by the living ones. I felt sad that they had a hot long journey all closed up, with no air. Later that night I thought I had no bees left, and went out to see if there was any action. All I could  see was a pile of dead bees on the floor, being so absorbed by their loss I was forgetting it is night time and there might not be any around. First thing the next morning out to inspect -  there was activity. I thought great I would suit up and get them moved across. I got the smoker going but maybe not sufficiently but it was puffing. I readied my hive and then open the box, ah there were bees, I was delighted. I noticed the frames had plastic ends to them. I battled to lift out the first one but when it came up, all hell let rip, the noise was not pleasant like I had experienced at other peoples hives, so I thought lets move quickly get them in, only the frame did not fit in my hive, I was so pissed off and to top it all the face visor must have fallen against my face and I got stung. Quickly put the frame back in the old box, closed up and went straight away to take some homeopathic remedy apis and put some ice on the sting. I phoned a friend to come help but then it started raining, Friday 13 it just was not meant to bee.

Saturday she very kindly came round, we got the smoker working a lot more efficiently and went to do the job. I mentioned the frame not fitting so she started at the other end, all went well, except for the one I tried, so  I had done nothing incorrectly, only plastic not properly pushed on, with a Little bit of cutting we got it to fit.
 Eggs were present, some food but we did not see the queen. Petra did agree  they were still a bit aggressive. Her advise was to check them in 3 days time, which should have been yesterday but I thought, let them bee for a little bit, I see activity there, so let us pray all is going the way it should do inside there.

So my advise would bee, if you are a newbie, get an experienced person to assist you.
 There were many contributing factors to that day - stressed bees, being pissed that the guy dumped the bees and left and most probably emotionally feeling unsure, due to Nathan being in SA for his brothers funeral, so no right hand man.
I see more bees in the garden so happy to know they like their new home and I think there will be huge transformation in the garden after a few months of their presence.

Bee Update

Well the bee hive is almost complete - we are just awaiting some pieces which the Associação Apicultura, did not have in stock when we were there. Things like the bee suit, gloves and the metal entrance to the hive - Quite important, I think. We saw the person who organized the bees for us and apparently they are coming next week, so this gives us a little extra time. Here is a picture of the hive so far.

Here is a link to an article about the association
http://jornalincentivo.com/artigo_ver.php?id_artigo=581

Building updates in the workshop

Gee I have left you in the dark, no updates as to what is going down here on Faial.
Guess we are groaning like other countries around the world, about the weather and the lack of a good start to the summer.



The workshop is the place to be, it is all happening there. Nath has turned out some lovely stuff. He has made a corner shelf unit, a post box, an outside table and bench set, a gate to retain a gorgeous dog from going walk about and finally I get to have a bee hive not just one, two. So bees I have two new homes - and looking for tenants with friendly nature, good house keeping and prompt payment (liquid gold) please.