Daisy chains

The sun has started to bring out the daisies in the fields and meadows, and after weeks and weeks of snow it has been a real pleasure to see the spring grass growing again.  The warm weather has brought everyone out into the sunshine.  The other day while marking out fencing and tree-planting positions in the top field, a group of very small children came onto the meadow, with their Grandma.  Grandma came over to see what we were doing, and to tell us how we ought to be doing it, and the children all told me who they were and all about their brothers and sisters.  After a while we picked daisies, and I showed them how to make a daisy chain - Grandma was amazed -"Oh! so you know how to do that - do they have daisies where you come from?" we all shared daisy chain stories, how you can make earrings, and bracelets, and coronets for your hair... and how everyone makes them everywhere.
CT

Living with wasps

These are the XXL wild wasps that were already living in the cabin when we moved in.  The photo is taken from the inside, after they moved out & we had removed the interior tongue-&-groove to find them (using a stethescope!).  They had their own entrance, through the outside cladding under the window edging, and apparently lived in tiers of residential units.  Previously we had tried enticing them out with baits and traps, because they were obviously uncomfortable with us moving in - they couldn't sleep at night, and dozens of them would kamikaze dive-bomb the lights and the window panes, only to be swept up and thrown out in the morning.  They finally moved out as the weather got cold in the Autumn.  The interesting part is that although it was hard living together, (we did so for several months,) we were neither stung nor attacked by them.
CT

Boar-getting

One evening last week while getting ready to settle down for a winter evening by the fire, my phone rang. An excited voice (a neighbour aka young handsome crack-shot boar-hunter) asked if we wanted a boar - freshly killed.  Naturally we abandoned the cozy fireside, pulled on wellingtons, put ropes, a shovel, tarpaulin and torches in the car and raced off to the square to pick up "our" guide.  Three huge men piled into the back seat, and off we drove to the top of the village, left the car at the side of the road, and one party set off with the gear into the bush, while I stayed behind in the car with Mr senior hunter.  All in the dead of night in the freezing cold.  For a while we could see their torches flitting in and out of the scrub, then all was quiet, as we chatted together to pass the time....
In due course the boar-getting party re-appeared, seeming to race down the slope, and we set off in the car to meet them at the edge of the next field.  Negotiating a fence took a while, but eventually we were all re-united at the roadside.  Just as we were contemplating how to heave a dead animal into the back of the car, an audience arrived - three cars and the village bus all at once to see what we were up to.

We eventually got to bed in the small hours of the night, leaving the boar hung up safe from the wild things, eviscerated, decapitated & cleaned, ready for another day..  CT