Viola.

I do like the little violas, particularly the "tricolour" variety; this specimen is a little too "blousy" for my taste but I was getting a bit desperate. I was supposed to be working in the garden today while Mrs TD was earning a crust, but interruptions from the estate agent trying to sell The Old Lady's house took much of my attention. There seems to be a lot of interest in the place but that interest seems to come from the less generous representatives of the Bristle inhabitants. We may well settle for a slight reduction in price to secure a quick transaction since the inhabitants of Englandshire do not seem to understand the advantages of the Scottish house purchase system. A quick sale up here means you can complete the deal in a couple of weeks while we're looking at a couple of months - assuming there are no delays.

I had a look at the bees and they do seem to be making a little progress now that some better weather is here; not only that but a small passing swarm has taken up residence in one of the empty hives that I habitually leave in the apiary. With the two weak colonies I should be able to make one strong one able to face the next winter. They will just need some TLC in the meantime.

We also came across a wasp nest in the garden, I know that they have their place in the grand scheme of things but, as I'm allergic to their venom, they had to go. They wouldn't be too much of a problem at the moment but, when the autumn draws closer, they will turn into delinquents. As chance would have it, a friend phoned this afternoon with a similar problem so I went down to deal with her colony.

Today's back blip is "Tête à Tête" from July the 8th.