Jun. 14th, 2004

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It's not that the weekend didn't have it's highlights: Beer and chocolate tart concocted by November Girl and devoured by all of us, great conversation, duck, more duck and much wine; and then, next day, in the judicious movement of vehicle from under tree to er, some other green bit, November Girl trusted her car to GrandPrixboot, who yelled 'Vrooom!' and 'Mush!' and waggled the steering wheel around while the others pushed. Ah! The heady rush of power! (Actually, the heady rush of the main road towards my back-end, but never mind - reverse is such an exciting gear!) I really ought to learn to drive.

So yes, Friday was wonderful. And on Saturday I came back to face the relentless fertility of life at home: Clockwork in fecundity, Freakella sprogged once more. I think there are six or seven of them. My immediate worry was that her two daughters, Opi and Pretty, would harm the babies as female gerbils can kill 'rival' litters unless they are nursing their own. In fact, when Freak came up for sunflower seeds and relaxation, Pretty took over the litter, adopting her mother's stance and towering over her brothers and sisters with an expression of great importance. I think/hope the babies will be OK. They are her last litter now that I have separated the sexes.

In the conservatory, I noticed green egg-like lumps hanging from my passionflower plant. Being the empathic pagan and child of nature that I am, it took a while and much checking on the internet for me to learn that these strange lumps are known in the common parlance as 'fruit.'

In the states, they're called Maypops. Some say they have a taste reminiscent of blackberries, others think they are reminiscent to guava. You can add them to pies and make jams of them, but I don't fancy subjecting anyone to my jam-making experiments. Or you can plant them. Butterflies and caterpillars love passionflower and will chomp through plant and fruit with crazed lepidopteral savagery. I could take the whole plant and plant it outside...or just plant the fruit. The world needs more butterflies.

So far so good.

Then there was work. Which didn't happen cos my old pc kept freezing up, so now I'm behind. Of course, now I have a new pc too, so, silver lining and all that...

Then there was whitefly on my lemon tree, a really bad infestation which I hope I have knocked into oblivion with insecticide. I hate doing this, and I am resolved not to do it again. Next time the insect population threatens my plants, I will go buy a mantis. Trouble is, what do you feed them when they've eaten all your insects?

Answer: Find some other pests. Parents may be a good idea.

And therein lies my reason for being in a massive sulk.

Read more... )
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My japanese name is 浜野 Hamano (seaside field) 明日香 Asuka (fragrance of the bright day).
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