Sting In The Tail

A quinoa plant ripe for harvest

One of the guilty pleasures of working by myself in a secluded vegetable garden is the absolute absence of pressure to look fashionable. There's no one around to judge my outfit, although the crows do sometimes sound like they're laughing. Of course even when I am amongst other humans I don't let such social pressure worry me unduly, but I notice I do remove my white bobble-hat before heading out.

My white bobble-hat is my most useful accessory. It's not for its warmth that I like it so much although during the wintry months I relish its thermal capacity. Its threefold benefits are: it fits my head, it's easy to put on and take off, and crucially, it keeps the hair out of my eyes. It's so much easier to pop on the hat than to fiddle around putting my hair through a hairband, which also involves taking my glasses off first to ensure no strands are missed in the general sweep upwards of hair, then groping for my glasses again once the procedure is complete.

Letting the quinoa hang to dry for a few days

The one drawback with the hat is that as I labour in the garden, I eventually get too hot wearing it. This generally sends me caravan-wards to throw the hat inside and reluctantly begin the hair-tying-up process. Last Wednesday I was doing just that, but as I gripped the bobble to pull it off it bit my hand sharply. I yelped and threw it to the floor where it lay innocently as if it were just a bobble-hat, incapable of biting anyone's hand. Then I spotted a bee crawling away. It must have been hitching a ride on my bobble.

A mighty sweetcorn cob

Later that same day, out shopping in Machynlleth, I noticed lots of caterpillars devouring one of the kale plants in an Edible Mach planter outside the Co-op. In a burst of public-spiritedness I squished them all and then entered the shop to a chorus of thank-yous and light applause (that may have been my imagination). But by the time I'd finished shopping my right eye was blurry, watering, and half-covered with some weird mucus-membrane. I must have rubbed my eye with the blood of many caterpillars, triggering this rather unpleasant reaction. They had their revenge in death.

The top quarter hasn't developed corn. This is better than some I've tried

Having a nurse as a girlfriend comes in handy sometimes although I was hardly put at ease by her declaration that it was a very rare type of eye complaint. Once thoroughly washed out with water, and antihistamined up, the eye improved although it took a couple of days for crusts to stop forming in the corner.

Boil it up...

What next? Ants biting my ankles? A heron pecking at my nose? I've been on high alert but the only stings I've had since have been from nettles whilst weeding. Nevertheless I am treating my insect neighbours with a heightened respect. Don't mess with 'em.

...and eat. SO sweet when picked an hour before eating!