PhD graduation

Those who know me well have known that I absolutely love graduation - and that this one, for my PhD, would be particularly special because I would finally achieve the "floppy hat" that I'd been working towards for so long.

Outside the Old Building

There's just something about graduation - you spend so much of your time during a degree stressing about your work and whether it's good enough, and so to finally have the occasion to step back and really celebrate what you've achieved is really special. The fact that this graduation would be my last (I cannot see myself doing another PhD!) and that Mum and Dad had made the big trip over from New Zealand for it also made it one that I was really looking forward to.

Proud family!

We had a really lovely day - lunch with my supervisor Richard and some uni friends in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the actual ceremony itself which was great (especially the bit where they read out your thesis title), then cocktails up the Shard and dinner at the Oxo Tower. It was all quite fancy!

The big moment!

I loved my floppy hat and was pretty pleased to have been able to find a maternity dress that would go with my purple robes - not an easy task I tell you! Another special highlight was having Jon from LSE Sustainability open up the Connaught House roof for us so that Mum and Dad could see the beehives that I'd talked so much about! I really miss my bees and so it was lovely to be able to go visit them.

Saying hello to the bees!

All in all a fantastic day - totally made all the hard graft of the PhD worthwhile!

Dr Sharman!

LSE Bees

As you all know, I've been very lucky to be involved with LSE Bees. I went from complete novice who had never even seen a beehive in person, to completely fascinated and in love with beekeeping.

Recently the society asked me to participate in an interview for their blog and it's been posted - and I'm completely blown away and touched by all the lovely things they've said. It also feels really great to know that I've encouraged other people to get involved and become apiarists in their own right!

I also talk about my favourite hive at LSE, what I've learnt from the bees and the most fun thing I've ever done as part of the society. So, if you're interested head over to LSE Bees and have a read!

You spin me right round baby right round

It was a pretty exciting week this week as we finally got to taste the honey from our Connaught House beehives for the first time! I went down to the Bee Collective in central London with some other LSE colleagues where we uncapped the frames and then spun out the honey in a centrifuge, before trying our liquid gold for the first time. It was delicious! I can't wait to try it side-by-side with the Passfield Hall honey as I wonder how different it will taste.

You can read all about it (with lots of other photos of us in those fetching hair-nets) on the other blog I currently write: LSE Bees.

And let me know if you'd like a jar! They're selling like hotcakes (I've pre-sold 70 jars already)...

Blogging the bees

As I mentioned back in March, I've joined the LSE Beekeeping Society, and am turning my hand to learning all about honey bees and their interesting ways.

As part of my involvement, I've taken over writing duties on the LSE Bees blog so am documenting our weekly visits up to the hive.  So far we've learnt about the varroa mite, how hungry bees can get while they're producing honey, and what a healthy hive looks like.  You can follow the Apis mellifera action on the blog or on Twitter - check them out!

Beekeeping

Instead of the normal sandwich and reading combo which makes up the most of my lunchtimes, last Wednesday was something a little different.  After having read about it in one of our many newsletters, I decided to join the LSE Beekeeping Society.  For the mighty investment of £1.50, I'm now a fully paid-up apiarist-in-training! 

We had our first session on the roof of Connaught House, one of the main buildings right in the middle of the busy city campus.  There are eight roof gardens dotted around the campus, although because Connaught House is right on a corner and would get a lot of wind, this garden is pretty basic and mostly stones and ground cover plants.

The session was mainly about what a hive consists of, and our instructor went through all the various parts.  The fact that the hive has the outer wooden layer (painted white here) gives it a bit of extra warmth and is apparently a quintissentially English thing.  The bees aren't coming for another two to four weeks, but when they do we'll have another session (although there are only four protective suits so we might have to take turns!) learning how to look after them.  There are also two other hives on the roof of one of the halls of residence further north, so we'll probably head up there at some point too.

It was really interesting to learn about the bees, including things like the fact that the honey bee is the only bee to survive over the winter in any great number (a couple of thousand hunker down in the hive and we'll have to feed them every fortnight over winter).  For example, only the Queen bumble bee survives in that species by hibernating underground while pregnant, and then giving birth come spring.

So watch this space for more on the bees!  The society has a blog as well as a publicly accessible Facebook page.  Check them out for some interesting videos and more photos.



Update: Check out the LSE Bees official album of photos from our first training session!