According to old wive's tales, eating primroses is supposed to enable you to see fairies and touching a fairy rock with a primrose posy opens the way to fairyland and fairy gifts. Now I understand why one of the primrose plants in our garden had most of its flowers eaten overnight! It weren't slugs or snails, but somebody who wanted to see the fairies. I won't, after all, have to go hunting for snails, what a relief!.... Now seriously, slugs and snails are a big problem in the garden. In countries like France and Spain, they have a natural and powerful predator : human beings. Snails are considered a culinary delicacy and are offered in many restaurants at medium-high prices. I remember when I was a child that children were encouraged to take a stroll in the fields when the rain had stopped to catch as many snails as they could. Sometimes, while driving on country roads, one would see adults and children busy at picking snails beside the road. They just happened to drive by while it was raining and saw the snails. And if it were not snails, they were picking asparagus! As a result, you don't see many snails in any garden. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen in this country, so for the sake of my plants, slug pellets it will be, as it is no good picking them up and moving them to any other patch of land. They have an incredible homing instinct so will come back 'home' no matter if it takes them a couple of weeks!


Segun antiguas tradiciones, comer primaveras (Camisonnia primiveris) daba la capacidad de ver a las hadas y tocando una piedra encantada con una primavera se abria la puerta al mundo de las hadas y a la concesion de magicos deseos. Ahora entiendo porque una de las primaveras de nuestro jardin tenia casi todas las flores mordisqueadas cuando les he echado una ojeada esta maniana! No eran caracoles o babosas, sino alguien que queria ver a las hadas. Asi que no hace falta que vaya a la busca y captura de los caracoles, que descanso!....Bromas aparte, los caracoles y las babosas causan gran danio en el jardin. En paises como Francia y Espania, estos animalitos tienen un poderoso enemigo natural : el ser humano. Los caracoles son considerados manjar exquisito y los precios acostumbran a ser elevados si quereis degustar un plato de caracoles en cualquier restaurante. Recuerdo que, en mi infancia, se animaba los ninios a salir al campo, cuando habia parado de llover, para recoger caracoles. A veces, conduciendo por las carreteras rurales, se veian adultos y ninios con el coche parado recogiendo caracoles al lado de la carretera despues de la lluvia. Y si no eran caracoles, eran esparragos! Como resultado, no se ven muchos caracoles en los jardines. Lamentablemente, aqui no comen caracoles, asi que para salvar mis plantas, tengo que recurrir a las bolitas anti-caracoles. Porque no vale recogerlos y tirarlos por ahi...los caracoles tienen un instinto brutal para volver 'a casa'. Puede costarles una semana, pero volver, lo que es volver, vuelven!


The weather today:
Haze
8°C
UV Index: 0 Minimal
Wind: From the North Northeast at 1 mph
Dew Point: 3°C
Humidity: 68%
Visibility: 5 miles
Barometer: 1,030.1 mb