Thoughts of a Newbie (Newbee?) Beekeeper

I've had my bees for about a month now and thought I'd share a few thoughts on how it's going.

• You wouldn't know they're there.
  Basically, the hive can't be seen easily from anywhere in the garden because it's down a small hill.  
  Spot the beehive.
  At the same time the bees just get on with it and don't bother anybody in the garden (unlike the wasps who are more like attention seeking teenagers in many ways). That might be because most of the plants are on the hill as well though.
• I had no idea how desperate people are for local honey.
  I've already got orders for honey and I won't have any 'till next year at the earliest.
• Books only get you so far.
  I read loads about beekeeping before actually getting bees but the day I got them I felt totally under prepared, and probably still am. The bees seem to know what they're doing though even if I don't.
• Beekeeping is straightforward. As long as you're prepared.
  I won't list them here but I kept (who am I kidding - keep) forgetting things. Lots of things.
• I have 'nice' bees.
  It may be a weird rose tinted spectacle thing but I seem to have 'nice' bees. I've done a couple of inspections and they never seem overly fussed by it. If anything they just want to get on with their own work. So much so that I can get fairly close to my hive and they just ignore me. (I'm probably tempting fate by writing that down)
• My bees are taunting me.
  I still haven't found the queen. I'm not worried by that fact since I've found plenty of developing brood. I've definitely found larvae and I'm pretty sure eggs but still haven't found the queen. The annoying thing is that during my inspections, when I return the frame I'm pretty sure the queen is hiding on, a group of bees always perch themselves on that frame and start fanning. This could just be to let the other bees milling about know where the queen is but it definitely feels more like "She's right here. Haha."

It's still early but the weather's been good, my bees seem really active and the colony is slowly expanding. Hopefully they'll have no issues over winter and we'll get more good weather next year.
If I can find the queen at least once before then I'll be happy!