Platting, snortings, butterflies and Danny gets stuck

Needed to sort out the onions and garlics, not liking them to be left in a heap. Anyway, an urge has been niggling me, which is to have a go at platting them. Tried that a few days ago, and as you can see, I managed to get them hanging all together, but sort of en masse and not really properly platted. (I have detailed my experiment over at Jumbly Gardening)

That was a few days ago. Today, I had a another go. And Voila! Not pristine, but sort of all hanging together.

Trouble is that the whole thing is so heavy that we can't hang it in the awning because the weight will buckle the poles of the awning, and we can't really hang them from the beams of the pig/chick hut in case they fall on our heads and the beams are too high to get to easily anyway. The half barn is already housing three sacks of potatoes, which keep getting in Jonathen's way as he he continues to do the ceiling, and the only other dry space is in the gateway. But the only peg strong enough fell out of the wall after a few hours. It obviously did not see it as its duty to hold a load of onions for all to see.

So the onions are now in a heap in a box. Oh well, perhaps next year I might be able to have somewhere dry where I can hang them, and I might also have managed to get the skill of platting them to a higher level than what it is at the moment!

So out into the front garden for half an hour this afternoon. Sitting observing what flowers the bees liked, and along came this butterfly. You will probably have to click on the photo to see it more clearly, but my oh my, it was huge, with striped wings, and forked bits out the back.

Thought I would share it with you, so here it is.

By the way, the wings are the front, the body is the oval bit in the middle, and the fancy forked bits are its back end. When it flew, although it was going forward, it looked like it was going backwards!

So I was having a catchy-up chat with on the phone with a friend and the builders decided to do things to the heap of soil which was once the floors of the house. Driven by Danni, on top of the head climbed a big digger. Behind him to the edge of the heap was driven a lorry.

All looking good. Lorry being loaded by the digger, lots of earth being moved.

Shouts. Alarm. And much pointing. Digger stopped. All look.

And here is Danni's rear end as he has a look too!

I am sorry that I did not get a closer shot, but the builders are naturally shy about me and my camera, so this is a sneaky shot as I hide behind the clutter which is on the table in the awning.

I don't know what the problem was. But it caused some concern and stopped work for some time.

We are off for a curry with friends now, so will finish off tomorrow. Meanwhile, I leave this blog in your hands.

Hiya, back again to finish off. Snortings: Went to bed before Lester the other night. Drifting off into dreamland, with Bools already asleep on his bed on the floor beside ours.

And what seemed right beside the caravan only it couldn't have been because there is builder's stuff in the way, came the distinct sound of snorting. Not froggie chirrups. Nor crickets singing. Definitely not the catawauling of the feral cats. No, a definite snorting. The type that piggies do.

Again it sounded.

Cripes.

Off to sleep I went, thinking to myself things like: it will be nice to be inside four solid walls, hope Lester makes it into the caravan OK and doesn't get trampled on by whatever it is that is snorting, and why doesn't Watchdog Boolie flipping well wake up and do his job of guarding.

Mentioned it to Jonathen this morning. Oh yes, he said. Definitely wild boar. Loads around. They'll start shooting them in a few weeks time. They kill hundreds. Six of them were being chased through the village by the Chasse (huntsmen) and one of their dogs managed to separate one of the pigs off and it ended up in my garden. One of the Chasse men followed it in and yelled at me to jump on it. I did. It's teeth were only six inches long, not fully grown otherwise I wouldn't have done it. I wrestled with it and got an arm lock round its neck. The Chasse man got his knife out and managed to slit its throat through my arm-lock position.

And so life continues on its peaceful rythm here: the builders are now getting the floor stones into the house, so lots of digging and wheelbarrowing going on, the birds continue to look upon our house as theirs as well and have made chase-me games in and out of the windows and doors, or rather the gaps where there should be windows and doors, Lester is on his PC working away and I am on mine. Boolie, meanwhile, is asleep on the floor, as befits a guard dog who seems at the moment to be permanently off duty.