It's Time to Order Bee's!

I purchased new Bee's yesterday.
Two colonies with one queen each to be exact.
I ordered them from the Walter T. Kelley Company in Kentucky.
They were very reasonable in today's market, and they will be shipping them out on April 11th.

This year I ordered Italian Bees.
When I first started beekeeping my first bee's were Italians, and they were very gentle and very good producers. They kept the hives extremely clean, and I was very pleased with them. After the third year the queen got tired and they started swarming. I caught two of the swarms, but they never did as well as the original colony.

Two seasons ago Karol and I purchased new queens. These were Russian queens.

These girls started swarming immediately. It seemed like that was all that they would do. While they were pretty docile and easy to work with, they were messy and didn't fill up one honey box at a time. They would work different boxes all at the same time leaving honey here and there within the hive. Additionally, I don't think the queen was quite as busy laying eggs as her Italian predecessor, although I could be wrong as it was a little hard to tell when they were constantly swarming.

Watercolor Classes at Worcester County Arts Council

Worcester County Arts Council is pleased to offer the following watercolor classes instructed by an award winning local artist, Barbara Doyle Schmid.

Still Life – Friday, February 13

Values and Landscapes – Friday, March 13

Flowers – Friday, April 10

Each class will meet from 9:30 – 2:30 pm. at the Worcester County Arts Council’s Arts & Education Center located at 6 Jefferson Street in downtown Berlin.

Award winning artist, Barbara Doyle Schmid, takes you on a watercolor adventure where you learn watercolor techniques which will help you on the journey to beautiful watercolor paintings.

Step-by-step demonstrations and a relaxing style promise you a fun learning experience in an encouraging and supporting atmosphere.

Come and enjoy this class and let your creativity soar!

Space is limited so please call the Arts Council to enroll: 410-641-0809

Cost of each class: $30.00 Members of WCAC receive 10% discount.

Supply list will be provided upon registration.

For more information about classes and workshops, please visit our website at www.worcestercountyartscouncil.org

Delmarva Photographers Interpret Their World

The Worcester County Arts Council is pleased to announce the February and March Visual Arts exhibit, featuring photographs by the members of the Ocean Pines Camera Club.
Examples of work by 13 local photographers, whose creative and sensitive eyes capture and speak of their personal view of the world, will be on display.
Among these artists are:
Cathy Halligan,
George Hawkins,
Marcia Hirsch,
Antonio Russo,
Robin Harrison,
Betty Green,
John Logis,
Jan Grady,
Jack Andrews,
George Eitel,
Gail Philippi,
Steve Franklin and
Walt Schumacher.
Established in 2004, the Ocean Pines Camera Club is an active group of individuals who share a common interest in photography. Although their name was selected as the “Ocean Pines Camera Club,” the group has always welcomed photography enthusiasts from the greater eastern shore area.
Their activities include field trips, workshops, and numerous other photography related activities.For more information about the Ocean Pines Camera Club please visit their website www.oceanpinescameraclub.org
The opening reception of the exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will be on Friday, February 13, 2009, from 6-8 p.m., at the Arts Council Gallery located at
6 Jefferson Street in Berlin.
The exhibit will be on display through March 31, 2009.
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, and on the occasional Saturday, 11 am to 3 pm. For more information call the Arts Council at 410-641-0809 or visit their website:
www.worcestercountyartscouncil.org

Learn to Paint on Porcelain Tiles

The Worcester County Arts Council is pleased to offer a Painting on Porcelain Tiles Classes on Tuesdays, March 24, March 31, and April 7 from 10 am – 12 noon at the WCAC’s Arts & Education Center located at 6 Jefferson Street in Berlin, MD.

Instructor, Jayne Collinge, will demonstrate the techniques required to transfer a design onto a blank porcelain tile and apply paint to add color and depth. Participants will choose to paint from the following designs: fruit, flower, beach scene or a seascape to be transfer on the piece of porcelain tile. The piece will then be fired in Jayne’s kiln and set in frame to be used either as a wall hanging or a trivet.

Step-by-step demonstrations and a relaxing style promises you a fun learning experience in an encouraging and supporting atmosphere. No previous experience necessary.

The cost for each class is $25.00 or $60.00 for all three classes. All supplies are included. Members of the WCAC Arts Council receive 10% discount upon registration.

Jayne Collinge has been teaching porcelain art since 1973 and has won many awards for her work. She has ornaments in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection and has been commissioned to custom paint pieces for many that include Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton.

Space is limited, so please call the Arts Council to register 410-641-0809.

Registration deadline is March 18, 2009.

Random Stuff

It's late Friday night early Saturday morning and I just got home from playing Bunko with the girls.
On the way home I stopped to see a friend at a local Real Estate office who is burning the Midnight Oil working on marketing strategies in this impossible market.
It was nice to see her and catch up on each others lives, I haven't seen her since before the holidays.
When I got home the 9 year old had two of his buddies over to spend the night.
They are hard at playing 'Rock Band', and doing really well.
I find it so funny that they all run around singing songs that I grew up listening to.
However, it was hard to find out all of the lyrics to many of the songs when I was growing up, now with games like this the lyrics fly across the screen, and what I have quickly realized is how suggestive so many of these are.
I had just not ever really ever given any thought to Journey's 'Anyway you Want It' until I heard the 9 year old singing it!

I was checking my email and a friend that we met in Jackson Hole sent us a link to his new website. His name is Grover Radcliffe and he lives in Jackson and is a retired fellow who spends his time out in nature taking photographs of what he sees. Which is always absolutely beautiful.
When he is not out roaming the wild blue yonder he is warming himself by the fire in the lobby of the Trapper Inn on Cache Street in Downtown Jackson. From his leather chair he offers touring advice to hikers and photographers, tells great stories of his adventures and befriends everyone who walks through the door.
Dressed in Safari garb with a big camera around his neck he totally fits the part, and if the Trapper Inn doesn't have him on staff, they should.
Yes, he enjoys the free coffee and breakfast the Inn provides to his guests every morn, but he offers the warmth and fellowship that so many Inn's lack.
Anyway here is the link to his website http://www.mywyhomingpics.com/about.html
If you have never been to Wyoming or Jackson Hole you have to put it on your 'bucket list'. It is the place where everything you have ever seen in western wilderness is. I hope you enjoy Grover as much as we did.

Well it is really too late for decent people to be up, so I'm calling it a night.

I Know I Know, It's only 25 Degrees Outside, But....

I'm already getting Spring Fever!

I found some garlic in the fridge the other day that had started to sprout, and I want to plant it.
I am already starting to take inventory of my seeds and I am looking for the most logical place to put grow lights to get my peppers, and tomatoes started not to mention my broccoli, cabbage, leeks, spinach, Brussels sprouts and onions.

I am going to have 3 plots this year.
My kitchen garden for my | Direct Links | Movies world | Software world | Download PC Games | Mediafire Links | Celebrity Picturesherbs and a few tomatoes and peppers, onions and garlic.
Then a cool garden for my spinach, cabbage, lettuces and tender things.
The Big One. This will be my big patch, for my beans, taters, melons, cukes, squash, corn and pumpkins.

I will go over and visit Himself this weekend and make an appointment with his tiller for a first run through the dirt. This activity always serves to motivate me to get even more things in the garden accomplished.

Oh, I can't wait for the dirt to get crammed under my fingernails!

Is It Just Me, or is there a lot in the Media About the End of the World?

Is it just me, or have you noticed it too?
Every time I turn on the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel or the History Channel, there is yet another show being promoted about the end of the world?

Last weekends lineup was enough to scare anyone to death. There were shows about 2012 and the end of the Aztec calendar.
There was a show about Nostradamus, and his prophesy about 2012.
Then there were the ‘Bible Code’ guys who believe that the past present and future are hidden in some sort of mathematical code within the letters of the words in the text.
Last but not least there was the show about a giant asteroid plowing into the earth, they have an exact one in mind, named ‘Wormwood’ (isn’t that a word in the Bible too?) that is set to make a pass by the Earth in ….2012!

Ooh, and I almost forgot!

The biggest most active Volcano on the planet that just happens to be called Yellowstone National Park has experienced over 500 earthquakes since December 26th 2008. It is estimated to go off every 65,000,000 years and that should be around….2012!
I am starting to wonder about all of the media around many of the things that we find important.
Are they trying to scare us to death?
It reminds of the movie ‘Wag the Dog’.
Keep the public focused on one thing while ‘We’ do another.

So what do you think?

Is this coincedence?

Is this misinformation, meant to scare us?

Or do you think it’s real?

I’m going to take the position, that there are a lot of valid points brought forth in many of these therories, but, I am very suspicious as to why there is so much attention brought to it now?

Remember, Y2K? Nothing ever happened with that, and look how many millions of dollars changed hands because of the fear instilled in the unknown.