Midnight Raiders Monday 25th August

Pic St Loup

You bolt the garden gate, lock the front door, close all the shutters and go to bed and you’d think that you would be safe. But no. We were attacked last night and never heard a thing. I went out in my nightdress this morning in order to bid the beans “good morning”. (I firmly believe in talking to my plants even though they yawn and pretend to be busy doing something else). I then worked my way along the rows of courgettes and leeks until HORROR! There was a cabbage missing. When I say missing, the heart had gone out of it and all that remained was a little pile of limp leaves. I checked on its immediate neighbour and it was looking distinctly unhappy and I called for the Death Squad.

“Bring the ant powder” I yelled.
“What about the Buddhist monks?” came the response from the bathroom where my beloved was further along in his ablutions than I was.
“I don’t know how the system works but this lot have got it coming to them”.

Of course at that time in the morning, no self respecting ant has stirred. He is still fast asleep in his little hole digesting MY CABBAGE PLANTS. Don’t worry little ants, I have got all day and I’ll be waiting.

By lunchtime, they must have thought that I had given up, but I had stayed at my post on the terrace all morning, pretending to write my blog, but in fact I was waiting patiently. Result! By midday the little beasts were out and about, trying to look very busy moving acorn shells into holes that were too small. You don’t fool me for a moment. I had to turn away from one little fellow who was battling along with a chunk of something far bigger than he was. In went the powder and I had to leave quickly before I suffered an attack of conscience. We haven’t had our first water bill yet, but I’m blowed if we are going to be paying to keep an army of ants well fed. They can shift off next door where the summer residents have closed up shop and gone.

I’ve come to the realisation that for the past four days I haven’t suffered any mosquito bites. I think we are definitely past the bed bug stage but I was getting several nips that were annoyingly itchy. I know that I have lost weight since we turned the diet around and maybe my hips don’t present such a large scale buffet as they did before, but I put it down to the fact that we are eating a great deal more garlic. I seem to remember reading that mosquitoes don’t like garlic, and we have discovered that garlic, olive oil and herbs de provence brushed onto slices of aubergine which have been cooked on the barbeque is utterly delicious, and might be doing double duty as insect repellent. Here is another tip. I was feeling rather “garlicky” after supper last night and went and picked and ate a fresh fig (as you do) and instantly the garlic taste was gone. Our fig tree is laden with fruit at present and we were so happy to be able to take them to Mamy yesterday. I am sure she will issue them to all the care home staff, but she loved having something from her own garden.

Jean has been out checking on our vineyard this morning. OK Jean went out and looked at our four grape vines and they are coming along nicely. We had just finished doing that when a massive tractor and trailer loaded with crates went past the house closely followed by another. Clearly the farmers are in the starting blocks and the weather is so settled and gorgeous at present that this must be the final stretch until harvesting begins. The temperature is back up again today and is just touching 80F or 25C which ever you prefer. There is not a cloud in the sky and Montpellier is obviously experiencing one of its 300 days of sunshine a year.

The terribly unfortunate accident which resulted in my sister-in-law breaking her arm in several places, has put an end to their plans to fly from Canada to Europe next week and this means that my mother doesn’t get to see my older brother for a long time to come. In order to cheer her up, I went on line to see if I could find a reasonable flight up to London so that I could spend a week with her. How reasonable is this:

From Nimes to Luton Airport return (which is about 40 minutes from Mum) is costing me the princely sum of 5 euros each way with NO TAXES! OK I have to wait for the first week of October, bring along my own sandwiches, only take carry-on luggage and take pot luck on choosing a seat, but apart from that, Ryan Air are definitely the cheapest game in town. Mum is delighted and I will see some of the lovely autumn colours and catch up with a few pals, so it is definitely worthwhile. I’ll buy some marmite and be back in time for Mamy’s birthday party and then we can start to hunker down for the winter months. Once my thermal vests arrive, this thought holds no fear for me whatsoever, but then again, anyone can say that when they are sitting here on the terrace in a tee shirt and skirt, perspiring gently.