Michelle Styles:

The trouble with late night party ducks is that unlike sensible chickens, they like to stay out late. They also quack, alerting any fox in the neighbourhood who then decides to drop into the party...unvited. We unfortunately had a visit from arather large dog fox the other day. The upshot was the very pretty white duck who had unwisely decided to make a nest in the bee garden was eaten, along with her eggs.
We are now down to 11 ducks. The little brown duck who has successfully reared ducklings in the past and is a Good Mother has started a nest close to the greenhouse. Given how often the dogs and people walk along that path, I would be surprised if the fox bothered her.

The bees have been a problem this Spring. At first they seemed to be doing well but were a small colony. Then in the cold April, they appeared to have subcumbed to a bee virus. Small colonies can have this problem. Because of the cold and damp we had not given the usual Spring tonic of apiguard. They were varroa free last autumn when inspected by the Bee Inspector. My son had treated for vrroa just in case in the autumn.
My youngest swore there were no bees left or maybe a small cluster which wasn't viable as he could not find the queen and there was no brood.
I duly ordered a Buckfast queen and her courtiers from Fragile Plant (to arrive early July). My youngest wanted it for his birthday and for a long time both my husband and I have hankered after a Buckfast strain of bees. Buckfast bees were originally bread by Brother Adam, one of the huge star of late 20th century British beekeeping. Besides the garden feels better with bees.
Because of the fox incident, I decided to clean up the bee garden as we no longer had bees. When bees are in reisdence, it is always a very quick in and out as I dislike getting stung.  The first day, I noticed one or two but my son swore they were the last remenants. Indeed a day or so later I was able to weed stright up to the hive and was a bit sad as the garden doesn't seem right.
On Friday, I decided to do a bit more weeding. Two bees flew warningly over my head, coming straight from what I presumed was an empty hive. Scouts Guard bees? I beat a hasty retreat. You can by the sound of the buzz what is happening with the bees.
My son swore that there could not be bees there and perhaps it had been some other colony robbing the hive. Because of his exams, he had not gotten around to cleaning up the hive and taking it away.
I went out on Saturday morning. Many more bees and much activity. I stood and watched for awhile, the bees appeared to be taking pollen in. My son swore I was seeing things and even when robbing bees will sometimes have pollen on their legs. Late that evening a few bees remained, guarding the entrance way.
On Sunday, more bees behaving precisely like bees behave around their hive. The bees are a bit lighter in colour than our old bees and the weather has been perfect for swarming. I suspect we have had a swarm take up residence in the empty hive. Because it is May, it will be a large swarm.
Fingers crossed that the bees don't catch the same virus and that they stay.
I also have the Buckfast queen and her courtiers to look forward to in early July.
It is just good to have bees in the garden but the bee garden will remain half weeded!

Yesterday, the front garden again filled with bees. This time instead of flying low and being easy to catch, the bees opted to swarm high into the lime tree. It was a cast -- a smaller swarm with a virgin queen at its head. Casts are usually difficult to catch.
My only hope now is that the beehive remains with a large enough colony. I doubt we willl get any more honey off that hive this summer. The annoying part is that the rosebay willow herb is just coming into flower and it is generally a time of intense honey production.
A learned beekeeper told me that no two summers were the same. I can identify with that.
I also feel writing books that no two manuscripts are the same.Each takes on its own characteristics and quirks.Sometimes the beginnings fly along. SOmetimes the endings. Soem want to be typed on the computer and some want to be written long hand. Sometimes, the characters remain shadowy for the longest periods. And other times, they emerge full blown. The only constant is the difference.
This wip is being frustrating. I keep changing my mind. BUt I know once I get my editors' thoughts back on the last one, my own thoughts on this one will crystalise...and then I will be able to write. Until then, it is slight exploration.

Julie Bunello has posted a lovely review on cataromance for . My favourite bit was Michelle Styles is one of the most exciting and original voices in historical romance and her latest novel, The Roman’s Virgin Mistress, is a superbly crafted tale which will hold her readers in thrall! It is wonderful to think that someone feels I have an exciting and original voice.
I also liked: Laced with plenty of passion, adventure and intrigue, The Roman’s Virgin Mistress is an engrossing historical romance written by a novelist who seamlessly interweaves historical detail with high drama, intense emotion and sizzling sensuality.
Julie, of course is a highly expereinced reviewer and takes her reviewing very seriously. If you have not seen the new look cataromance, be sure and do so. It is wonderful.
I was also pleased to read on Roxanne St Clair's RWA blog that It's true, it's true: the historical romance novel is alive and selling! In the words of a buyer from one of the major chains, historicals are "trending up" for the first time in a while. This is especially true of the bestselling authors of historical romance, and booksellers are closely watching the numbers of new and midlist authors in this sub genre, because increased sales from those authors is the sign that the trend is real and lasting. Terrific news for the hundreds of writers and millions of readers of the beloved historical.

Let us hope the trend is long and lasting. And readers continue to enjoy my books. The only thing I can do is to make my books as enjoyable as possible.

Yesterday was a day of frustration. We had a bee swarm. In mid July! Arrogantly I had considered we were beyond such things. Most of the swarms happen in late May/early June. By mid'July there is no real chance of getting honey off a swarm. The annoying part is that honey production also stops on the hive they swarmed from.
This time, the swarm which was about the size of a basketball -- so a proper swarm with the old queen rather than a cast -- landed in the Monterey cypress. I had no wish to lop bits of the tree off, so I attempted to use smoke and a skep. They appered to go into the skep, BUT when I checked later in the midst of a rainstorm, the bees had vanished. So did they give up and go back to to their hive? Or take off for somewhere more suitible? I don't know. All I know was that I had to lug the spare brood box back into the house. As I did not know which hive the bees had come from, I could not simply dump them back in. My thought was to put them in their own hive and then reunited with whichever colony seemed weakest AFTER I had taken the honey off.
Once the rain stops, I will have to check the honey situation and try to determine which hive is making a new queen.
SIGH.