Tuesday 3 June 2008

Some good news and some bad

The Man with the van arrived unannounced this morning and when I opened the front door he was bowing low in humble obsequience, presenting me with a pink box, inside which was my repaired laptop.


Actually he was just arranging his accoutrements on the doorstep..a big pile of papers to give me, a sort of calculator looking thingy for me to sign and he was wrestling with the cable ties on the sides of the crate. I got him some scissors and am now in re-possession of my laptop.

I am having to re-accustom myself to the appearance of the photos..they look a bit bleached out compared to their vibrant appearance on the monitor on the main PC. It makes such a difference and I wonder how you are viewing them?
Slightly worrying aspect to the repair..when I sent it off my laptop had a password. When it came back it didn’t. I have to hope the workshop was too busy for the repair man to rummage about in my personal files.


GARDEN NEWS
There are some extremely short stemmed big leaved nasturtiums poking their way out of the soil outside .
I’m so pleased.
I am having my usual battle with the bane of my life...slugs.
I heard that if you give them oats they eat them and then swell up and die, so I put several piles of oats outside, and in the morning the oats had gone but there were no bloated dead slugs anywhere.
I did it again the next day and went out at dead of night to see what was going on.
You know those pictures you see of African water holes with elephants, gazelles, wildebeest and zebras all around? Well that’s what it looked like, with every variety size shape and colour of slug feeding their slimy faces on oats.
I don’t know a good way to kill a slug so I went to bed and left them to it.

Last night I tried the beer trap. They are supposed to drink the beer and drown happy. Once more at dead of night I went out to see that everything was going to plan..more hundreds of slugs around the beer, even bigger fatter than the night before(must have been the oats) so I got the shovel and flipped a few more of them into the beer and went to bed feeling a bit guilty about hastening the demise of so many of Gods creatures.

I needn’t have worried. This morning ONE SLUG is floating in the beer. The others are all snoring fast asleep and full of beer and oats waiting for tonights treat.

There are no pictures today as the subject matter is just too repulsive.

10 comments:

arlee said...

SNARF!!! That's SO my garden sometimes---i used to salt the little suckers---horrible i know, but the ONLY thing slugs are good for is feeding ducks. And i felt maybe the ducks would like a little flavouring.. :}

Mary Welsh Hubbard said...

hmmm, I think perhaps you have the best slug pub in town with free happy hour treats to go with the beer! :o)

hens teeth said...

Glad you have your precious back.
As for the slugs...I will send you my Dad, he uses ....no I don't think I will tell you ...too horrible.

saraeden said...

Thank you for your really lovely comment .
Your slug post made me laugh , we have tried everything here but nothing seems to work if i find something that does i will let you know !!

Sara x

Wabbit said...

Goody for you getting your laptop back! I tried typing on my big PC's keyboard and discovered that I don't even like it anymore! As you can see, I am hopelessly addicted to !!! Slugs don't live here in the desert as it is too dry for most insects. The only plus I've discovered thus far to life in H-E-Double Hockeysticks. ;-))

Maureen said...

Love your Slug story ( I think) - they are gathering in my garden just now so may not have any plants left tomorrow. Love your cuffs on the previous post altho' it quite depressed me - feeling so envious of your beautiful work.

Bugs and Fishes said...

Thanks so much for your sweet comment on my blog, it's been a pleasure to read yours whilsy drinking tea this morning! - I only manage to keep the slugs away from my garden by being on the 3rd floor and growing everything in pots, but my neighbour swears by egg shells & gravel :)

Mrs Jelly said...

Copper works on slugs. It gives them a tiny electric shock. You can buy copper strips from a good garden centre. You can build a little copper wall round your plants. It works on snails too.

Chris Daly said...

Oh you poor dear. Good luck with those slugs. We have skunks, moles and racoons that keep our population down. Unfortunately they make bigger holes than the slugs. I once read a butterfly gardening book that suggested gathering all on the slugs together and relocating them to a meadow where they wouldn't be so bothersome. I decided the author had a lot of time on her hands and I'd look for other advice.

Julia said...

Jackie...when I got to the end of your slug story I was in fits of the giggles.I know it's not funny I'm having the same problem!



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