Bees and Bung Eyes.

I'm sitting here with a bung eye.  It doesn't hurt but does feels uncomfortable.   I didn't get punched in the face.  I didn't crash into a wall.  Well, I did crash into a wall but it didn't give me the bung eye...I did do a stupid thing and something that the husband will laugh at when (if) I tell him about it. 

What did I do?  I took the lid of a hive.  This is something that I have done before.  It is something that I know how to do.  It is something that I will do again in a couple of days time.

One day, a long time ago, in a dark dark forest...Oops, wrong story.

Yesterday was hot here, quite hot, too hot to do much.  So I didn't.  But come late afternoon, early evening it started to cool down and my list of things that needed doing was getting longer so I thought it would be a good idea to make a start.  The Apiary need mowing.   There is 1 hive in here with 3 others in the process of being moved in.   The bees don't like the mower so I was careful to not get too close and the mowing was finished with enough time to get the mowers put away and the electric fence back up before it was too dark to get other jobs done.   And I needed to put the sprinklers on in this paddock too.    So I finish the mowing and even though the grass in front of the hive needed doing I didn't get too close because, you know, the bees don't like the mower...I take down the electric *gate* and start to take the mowers out, I had been using both the ride-on and the push mower, I take the ride-on out and ride it back to the house yard where I decide to mow along a fence line.  The cows come over to where I am so I don't have to worry about the fact that I didn't put the electric gate back up...I finish the fence line and go back to the apiary to get the push mower but decide to mow a bit more and get closer to the bushes that are in there.  By this time the last of the bees are flying home, they seem quiet and calm so I go and have a look at what they have, what colour the pollen on their legs is.  I smell honey and think that maybe I will need to extract again soon, I'll have a quick look.  I try and take the lid of the hive, it is stuck on and of course I don't have the hive tool with me as I wasn't planning on looking.  But a quick pull and the lid comes off, I didn't really expect it too though and the bees all swarm up into my face and cover me.  I start to panic, have to get the lid back on, there are bees everywhere...One is on my face, they are over my arms, everywhere, so I start swatting, NOT GOOD!!  I start to run, they follow, I swat, they sting I run back across the paddock thinking that I really shouldn't pull my top off until I get into the house yard...Pull it off as I get to the back door, there are still bees all around me, I swoosh them away and get inside, kill the bees that come in with me.  My face stings so I go look in the mirror to make sure that there are no more on me and think that I will have a shower and finish for the day.   OH dear, maybe not finished for the day, where are my glasses?  Now,  it was darkish inside and I can't see much without my glasses so I couldn't see if I had put them on the bench or table like I usually do.  I get the phone, squint with 1 eye shut (otherwise I see double) and make out a name that might be the daughters so ring it.  It is, she answers and I quickly tell her what happened and she needs to get here before dark.  Five minutes and she is here, I am waiting outside with a torch,it is not quite dark yet and tell here what happened, where it happened, what I think was my route of escape...The cows are back over near the unelectrified apiary with the gate down and where I don't want them to go...Daughter and grandaugheter tke the torch and slowing make their way across to the apiary where she finds my hat then finds my glasses.  I am so thankful that the cows hadn't trod on them and that they survived me knocking them off in my mad panic.    I put them on, that's clearer, put the mowers away, she turns the sprinklers on and she goes home and I come in for my much needed shower before having a much more needed coffee.   The day is over.

This morning I wake up and I have a bung eye.  Swollen underneath but not sore, just uncomfortable...