Indian River Inlet, Rehoboth, Del.

Here we are at a late summer vacation...

This is a cute little cottage operated by the state of Delaware, south of Rehoboth on the Indian River Inlet.  Truly "glamping," the cottages are beautiful but have limited amenities.  You need to bring linens, towels, sheets, pillow cases, blankets, trash bags, soap, Dawn and sponge, shampoo and your own wi fi.

We are in one of the doggie units, but one glaring item in the rental agreement didn't catch my eye until we arrived:  no pets can be left unattended in the cottages.

Wowser and bowser.

This meant that animals need to accompany you to restaurants, but there aren't many that are pet friendly near here.  The one we found was so cramped that our dogs could barely lay down.

Kota trying to find space in a Lewes Beach restaurant

-------------------------------------------------------

More Inlet Cottages Views

One Trip Advisor reviewer said that the "lawn" looked dry and brown.  I call this landscape the natural Delaware dune look.  The cottages are painted in pastels.  

Porch overlooking inlet.

Fishing boat in inlet

Living area.  Upstairs is a loft bedroom.  Two bedrooms on first floor.

----------------------------------------------

Thus being tethered to the bros, Barry listened to podcasts about bees and I am doing this blog....

----------------------------------------------------------

That's all folks.....

Vivian and Judy Allnutt at Rehoboth, Del., circa 1945.  Yes, Allnutt was my maiden name and that's why I got married.

INFORMATION ABOUT INLET COTTAGES

Bees and Other Things...

They are humming and we have honey...

It's only August and Barry has 17 honey combs...you know those wood squares of honey in bees wax that you used to get when you were a kid.  You scoop it out and chew and chew until there's only the wax left. 

These are decorator hives, designed and painted by Barry. We went for a Caribbean theme.

Picture of route from Annapolis to the little buggers.  To orient you, the blue is the Chesapeake Bay.  To get to the Watkins farm, we cross from Annapolis to the eastern shore and do a Great Loop north to the bees.  By car, it's an hour and a half.  

By crow, it's 15 minutes.

-------------------------------------------------------

Expansion...

Like all successful endeavors, Barry's Bees is opening a new location.

Heron There Farm*

It's an organic farm in Croom, Md. (near Upper Marlboro) about 45 minutes from Annapolis.  The owner contacted us when she heard we were looking for another location to put hives.  It's perfect and being without pesticides is short of a miracle for the little hummers, since they won't have their GPS brains messed with.   We'll be setting up next April.

*Why is it called "Heron There Farm"?  

Claudia, the owner, says, "The most prominent critters around here when we first came were moles and hawks - prey and predators.  Neither seemed upbeat for a farm name.  But the resourceful, ancient, graceful (at least in flight) heron, he flew by regularly on his way to the Patuxent River.  Hence, "Heron There Farm."

----------------------------------------------------------

West Virginia coal miners are getting 

retrained as beekeepers...

https://www.good.is/coal-miners-learn-beekeeping

I thought this was a joke, but it's true.  

------------------------------------------------------

That's all folks....

Now begins summer season

Come April, our winter home in Vero Beach, Fl., gets stored.  Winter home be "Balboita," our 36-foot trawler, which can't stay in the city marina because of hurricanes. It has to be put up "on the hard," which is boater talk for storing.  Also, everything has to be put inside the boat because if we don't take care of it, a hurricane will.  We're talking canvas on the bridge (that awkward thing at the tippy top), canvas over the cockpit (awkward thing at the back), chairs, fenders, cushions....

INDIANTOWN IS THIS YEARS' STORAGE TOWN...

Sitting close to Lake Okeechobee, Fl.,  in a land far away, is a place called Indiantown.  It's called Indiantown because it was a Seminole settlement.  

Indiantown has a marina and lots of inexpensive land for boat storage.  The area is, well....interesting.

It's in the middle of nowhere.  As I said, lots of cheap land to haul out boats, so the price is right: about half of the cost of closer, more premium locations.  But, of course, there is no free lunch, so you spend two days instead of two hours by boat to get there.  

We spent first night in Stuart, a classy town with a classy marina.

Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, Fl.

Next day, we do a leisurely trip across the St. Lucie River to Indiantown.  Some scenes:

House design from the medical clinic school of architecture

Classic Florida lagoon

 Beach along the way

Out-of-commission tug

Here are some boats in Indiantown that are on the Forever Storage Plan:

----------------------------------------------------------

Now, what you all have been waiting for...

They're back.  The bees, that is.  However, they weren't back when Barry arrived last week to check them out.  Things were quiet.  Too quiet.  The hives didn't survive the winter.  Barry thinks they ran out of food.  

Vicki felt like crying and everyone she told felt like crying.  But that's us city folk.  Farmers just take their licks and keep on, keeping on.  Plant them crops, the rain don't fall, the crops do die.  Just plant some more crops.  All in the day of a farmer.

Set up them hives, the mites or pesticides do come, the hives collapse.  Clean out the hives and get some more bees.  All in the day of a bee keeper.

So 12,000 new mail order bees and their queen have set up shop in one of the old, cleaned up hives, and Barry says they're buzzing.  Two more hive-fulls arrive next week.  And we're back up to three.

Happy new bees

Transported by the Beast of Burden:

That's all folks..

Where There's Vero..

 Beach Day

----------------------------------------------------------

The show goes on-ith…

Artist Guild Gallery window for our photo show in Vero, Fl., opening March 1 for the month.  Lots of people at the opening (free wine), including many expatriot-friends from Annapolis.  Not only that, but my best friend, Gail, and her husband, Stan, flew down from Annapolis to see the show.  For those of you who haven't been bored with the story, Gail and I met about 60 years ago at a party where we found out we were dating the same beatnik guy who we thought was writing poems for just us.  We dumped him.

Entrance to the show....and, no, Barry wasn't the only attendee.

Now many people (actually, not many) may ask, how did we accomplish getting 23 large, framed photos to the gallery while living on the boat?  The Process (as we say in government) was: frame them all in Annapolis, put in our friend Tom Butz' car so he drive them down and then store them in his new condo's bedroom closet for three months until we picked them up in our car and take to the gallery.  Reverse at the end of March.  (Figuring out the logistics was almost as much fun as taking the photos.)

Part of the exhibit

-----------------------------------------------------------

A new show in the making?

We envision an entire abstract photo show of liveaboard art.  

This is called "Drying Dishes."

----------------------------------------------------------

And, ta-da -- the Sistas!

My sister, Judy, lives in Bradenton, Fl., so I paid a visit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's all folks...

   

Ugly designer dog