Easter Break - Part One

Saturday, Sunday and Monday: 3 days out of our habitual life. One of us chose the place: Dartmoor National Park, Devonshire. Nature, long walks and relax: that was meant to be the broad theme of our Easter break.
It was fine by me, I just needed to get out of Oxford and recharge my batteries.
A week before leaving everything was settled: the hostel was booked (a 14-beds, eco friendly hostel, somewhere in the eastern part of the park), the rented car was waiting for us, and I bought and cooked all the necessary to survive for at least the first two days.
Saturday morning the six of us hit the road and almost four hours later (traffic jam!) we arrived at our destination. The hostel was right on the main road of the village. It was an old farmer’s house, where the barn had been refurbished and transformed into a 14-beds dormitory. It was cozy and clean. Downstairs there was a colourful kitchen with heavy wooden beams crossing the low, white ceiling. The furniture was essential: two tables, a cooker, a sink, few chairs (all of them with different patterns and colours), a light blue kitchen cabinet and a brown chester drawer. The finishing touch was a clear glass with fresh daffodils right at the centre of one of the tables.
We were welcomed by the owner’s young son and his healthy, happy face. We met the owner few minutes later, her hands brown with soil and a bit out of breath (at the time of our arrival she was busy with her allotment).
It was all very informal.
I spotted bits of a beehive on the ground. She said she had to take them off, they were infected and they could have damaged the rest of the hive. She then entertained us with some pills on the life of male bees. “They spend their life flying around, getting fed by female bees and waiting to mate with the Queen bee”. And I said “They remind me of another species, where the male behaves more or less the same way..” She laughed and added: “The thing is that once the male bee is done with the Queen bee, the Queen bee rips off the male bee’s genitals!” And she enjoyed a satisfied laugh. And I thought “There is always something new to learn every day!”.