Wasps and other pests

What a dreadful morning yesterday!  At about 10.00am my worker went up to the field with his little girl.  There was no school as it was Armistice Day, a public holiday here in France.  He was putting a length of fencing across the part where the hole was allowing the birds through.  He walked round to another part of the veggie plot and disturbed some wasps.  The first I knew was when he arrived at the door saying he and his daughter had been stung.  He is apparently very allergic  and has had severe reactions in the past.  He probably should carry an Epipen, but doesn’t. 

He said they had both been stung and were going home to find something to put on the stings.  I offered to help but he said they’d be fine.   I worried until I telephoned about 90 minutes later.  He had taken Piriton, an antihistamine, and was alright. He had three stings on his neck and one in the middle of his chest. His little girl had been given something by her Mum for the fourteenstings she had on her legs, ear and back. What a dreadful morning for them. We spoke again at the end of the afternoon and no-one was affected seriously thank goodness.

On the talkallergy.com site it says this:

"If you believe you or a family member might be allergic or is developing an allergy, it is advisable to seek the advice of an allergist. Allergic reactions to bee and wasp stings can develop anywhere on the body. The could result in non-life-threatening reactions, such as hives, swelling, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and headaches. But, life-threatening reactions, such as shock, dizziness, unconsciousness, difficulty in breathing, and swelling in the throat, require immediate medical care. Symptoms can begin immediately following the sting or up to 30 minutes later and might last for hours. This reaction is often referred to as anaphylaxis.

An anaphylactic shock needs to be treated immediately, usually with the use of an adrenaline pen injected into the body. People who know they are allergic to stings should carry an adrenaline pen whenever they think they might come into contact with stinging insects. Adrenaline pens are only available on prescription from a doctor."

It has been a very prolific season here for wasps.  There are also loads of them, flies, bees and something like a very large wasp, on the bunches of grapes which I never picked from the vine because of my eating problems. 

I can't believe how big this wasplike thing is.  I was quite frightened getting so close to take the photo.  I think I’ll have to cut the grapes carefully into a bucket and let the hens have them to get the wasps away from the entrance to the utility area.   Normally, I would have been eating at least two bunches grapes a day and they wouldn't be wasting, rotting on the vine.

My nasturtians are covered in caterpillars.  They are the caterpillars of the Cabbage White butterfly and there are loads of them.  I am inundated with wildlife I don't want at the moment.

My log piles, in the part of my garden which my grandson calls the "secret garden" because it's accessed by a door, are covered for winter and are already going down fairly rapidly.  I am always extravagant with firewood but it is my only heating, so that's my excuse. 

This afternoon while shopping, I met three people I haven't seen for ages.  One of them walked over to me later in the car park while I was unloading my shopping and said she hadn't recognised me as I had lost a lot of weight hadn't I?  I explained about the mini gastric bypass and proudly added - yes, five stone.  Always good when someone remarks on being able to see a difference!  I also met a friend who invited me to drinks etc. on Christmas Eve eve.  As my Christmas guests don't arrive until Christmas Eve itself it will be lovely to start the Christmas celebrations earlier.

Three things I like:

1.   Receiving a genuine compliment.

2.   My homemade butternut squash soup.

3.   Writing the last Christmas Card - very early I know - but they're done!

Hole in the fence, bargains and Autumn colour

One evening earlier this week I asked my worker to put the poultry on the field away for the night.   Somehow, although no hole could be found in the fence, a baby Lavender Pekin had managed to get into a neighbour’s field and couldn’t be caught and brought back.   Also the majority of my ducks had escaped to the goat field.  The ducks were rounded up and put away, but thank goodness it was Andy and not me trying to do it in the twilight.  Sometimes I question the wisdom of keeping poultry.  Before I let the birds out the next morning, I found the hole and did an instant temporary repair.  All birds were present and correct in the evening when I put them away so it obviously did the trick.  Andy will attach another strip of fencing over the existing piece when he comes tomorrow.  It’s all very frustrating – I don’t know what makes these holes and have never ever seen it happening.

We had a bit of sunshine today after two really grey days and one torrentially rainy night. It was really mild and at one point I regretted lighting the woodburner. I always have the double doors to the terrace open unless it’s blowing a gale as I love the combination of feeling the warmth of the fire but having the fresh air coming in from outside. I know it’s not very “green”, but it’s the way I like it.

Apparently, I didn’t quite close the driver’s window in the Peugeot last night and when I went out in it this morning the whole of the inside of the door was soaked and the door pocket filled with water.  My “waiting in places” paperback was in the door pocket and it's currently being dried over the woodburner.  It’ll never been quite the same, but at least I will be able to finish it! 

We drove a very tortuous route to collect four chairs and a table which were being sold by someone returning to England.  The person arranging the sale turned out to be the wife of the plumber we used for the utility/gym area, these little coincidences always amuse me.  The sun was catching the turning leaves on the trees and they were exceptionally beautiful.   When we got back and parked the Land Rover I noticed the very yellow-leaved tree behind my neighbour’s tower - lovely isn't it?

 

The table top needs sanding and varnishing to make it acceptable for use, but the four chairs were a good buy and I’m pleased to have them for the middle house.  I think I’ve now had bargains for three sets of dining chairs over the years I’ve been here.   My own kitchen/dining table must originally have been a restaurant table as it has a metal disc engrave with the number “1” inserted in the top.  It’s a brilliant table of just over 6ft across and we can seat eight/nine people around it.   Again this needed sanding and varnishing and then it was like new.

The chairs round this table were bought on eBay for £12 the set of four, with a spare seat.  They were in Oxfordshire, miles from me in Brittany or my children in Cornwall.   My daughter and oldest son drove to London Airport just after I bought them and made a small diversion to collect them for me.   I love a bargain!

Purrdy has been sitting on my laptop today with her legs hidden underneath her.  I hate moving her but have to get on with things.  She''s grown so much in the last few weeks, she'll soon be a proper cat.

I wasn’t going to write about my bypass and weight loss on this blog, but am happy to report that I have now lost five stone (seventy pounds) in sixteen weeks.  I feel very different, can do things I couldn’t do before and it’s good.  My eating which has been very difficult seems, this week, to be improving, so perhaps I’m turning a corner – I do hope so! 

Three things I like:

1. Watching birds eating unpicked and deteriorating grapes from the vine on the gym wall.
2. Seeing all the autumn colours in the trees down the lanes.
3. Talking to friends on Skype – what a wonderful invention!

Fireworks, butternut squash soup and Purrdy's lampshade

It’s bonfire night in the UK today, but not here in Brittany apart from a few isolated expat events; so my animals will all be grateful for that anyway.  I can’t remember my cats I had at the time being scared at any stage in the UK, but I know lots of people who had animals who were terrified.  I love fireworks and do miss them myself.  I remember my first year here we made an effort to find a firework evening being held by an English bar, it was a damp squib.  In spite of requests, the bonfire and fireworks didn’t start until after 9.30pm, by which time many people with smaller children had left to put them to bed.  There were very few fireworks and it was a complete waste of time.  In contrast, Bastille Day is celebrated here with wonderful firework displays and I think the best one I’ve ever been to was at Quintin - this was taken on 14 July 2006.

A long and excellent pyrotechnic event, alongside the lake with the display reflected in the water – brilliant!

I've just in the middle of making another small batch of butternut squash soup.  With my current eating difficulties, I find that this is so easily eaten and an absolute joy.  I make it with olive oil, home grown butternut squash - I grew twenty-six this year - homegrown onions, bought garlic, chicken stock and salt and pepper.   I cook it in the oven until soft and then let it cool before blending it and seiving it. 

I fridge this refined mixture and when I want a bowlful I mix in very generous quantities of cream and heat it gently, adding in a small amount of pili pili which I think is a sort of cayenne - it just adds a lovely heat to the soup.

My newest cat, Purrdy, has been having problems with her sterilisation scar.  She seems to have been overwashing it and it has not healed properly but become infected.  It was over three weeks ago that she had the operation so on Thursday I drove her back to the vet and having looked at it and cleaned it she recommended an antibiotic pomade and a "lampshade" to stop her licking the wound.

Well, she just hated the lampshade, as I thought she would.  She spent about one and a half hours running backwards in the house hoping it would fall off.  Then came up on to my laptop table and was breathing so rapidly.  I stroked for a while and she seemed to settle down a bit, when I took the photo, but her breathing got more and more rapid and eventually I felt I had to remove the collar.  She is not licking as much as she was and I'm hoping she will heal fairly quickly with the antibiotic ointment.

I wonder how other people manage to dry their washing in the wet winter months.  I couldn't do without the suspended ceiling dryer I have, which guarantees that the warmth of the woodburner at the other end of the room will have dried everything by the following morning. 

When I had my B&B in Cornwall, I used three of these to get not only our own clothes and bedthings dry, but also the guest bedlinen.  I had one in the utility room where the boiler was and guests used to dry swimmers, beach towels, walking socks in there for the following morning.  The dew was so heavy in Cornwall that you could never dry anything on outside lines overnight.  The other thing I use on the landing, where all my woodburner heat ends up, is an extending shower rail high on the walls, in case I have too much for my ceiling dryer.

The weather is still so mild here that I had to post this photograph taken a few minutes ago of my delphinium trying to flower again.  The buds are beginning to show the blue of the of the flowers and in the background you can see a nasturtian flower.  The nasturtians are growing steadily up the wires I have cleared on the house wall and are still producing lots of flowers too.

There has been news today of a dreadful accident on the M5 Motorway yesterday evening, involving twenty-seven vehicles, both HGV lorries and cars with many of them burnt to the ground.  So far ten deaths have been reported and many more injured, some critically.  My heart goes out to the victims, survivors and their families and friends.

October's ending and Winter's on its way

It’s almost the end of October and 12 degrees Celsius at 09.30am and getting warmer, which seems pretty good to me.  It’s been an incredible October with the weather during the week of my friend’s stay here being so good that we spent much of our time outside enjoying it.  We have taken the pots from the terrace into the garage to overwinter, beating the first frost.  I tend not to get up before it’s light, which means just before 09.00am at the moment, so I haven’t yet seen any frost, but I am told there has been a little already.  Of course, the clocks go back this weekend, so I will be getting up at 08.00am for a while as it will be lighter earlier.  I have no blinds or curtains on my bedroom window, haven’t had for years and years, so that I can see the stars and moon, so the light really does affect my waking time. 

I have been in chaos downstairs this week with ceilings, walls, skirtings and windowsills being painted.  The carpet which my newest cat peed on in the summer has been hosed down and is dry and back inside again, I do like a pile underfoot in the cooler months.  The stairs, landing and bathroom are the next to be decorated, starting Monday, having been filled and sanded yesterday.

My three cats are happy now that the woodburners burning logs every day and like chilling out on the settee together.

I have been to see the dietician this week (which involves a paperback for the waiting room – photo below) who wanted to offer her usual mantra of eat six times a day, three of these times to be milk products, and gentle exercise and is concerned about the speed with which I am losing weight because of my poor food intake.  She, however, understood that I am still having problems with putting anything meaningful in my mouth and just asked me to try my best.  I had a whole range of blood tests yesterday morning.  The nurse arrived at 07.05am and had to knock loudly on the outside door to wake me.  In the afternoon, my doctor’s surgery partner ‘phoned me as the laboratory had ‘phoned her to say that my potassium and protein were extremely low and needed immediate attention.  I collected a prescription for potassium syrup, one soupspoonsful twice a day for two weeks and a prescription for a further blood test next Thursday morning, to check on my progress.  I love the way the dosages are prescribed here, not 5ml, 10ml or 15ml but by coffee and soup spoons. I promised to try to get some more protein into my mouth, but really wonder how I will be able to do that. 

In spite of buying hay and straw in June, we seem to have been using it extravagantly as I am having to collect ten rectangular bales of each next week.   We use straw for the poultry shed and the nest boxes and hay for the rabbit shed.  I like to put lots of hay in the rabbit shed so they can burrow into it if the temperature drops seriously.  Also the goats like to eat hay in the winter months. My worker, Andy, has got it into his head that it will be a hard winter and that we can’t afford to run out, so I am joining his bandwagon and have sourced what seems to be a scarce resource at the moment.

The heron has been back several times, but he had already emptied my pond of fish, so he has gone away hungry.  Although I don't like him taking the fish, I do love to see him here.

I found this lovely animal in one of the old newspapers I have been reading through and couldn’t resist a photo of it.  I can't remember what it came from, but I think it's just brilliant!

Three things I like:

1.   After Eight Mints - which are one of the few things I can eat easily at the moment.

2.   Resting my bare feet on the thick oriental carpet which has just been brought back into the house.

3.   The duck eggs from my new girls.