Thanks @ianpspursThursday in Breckland: factually an accurate statement which is something that currently seems to belong to a bygone age. No known fbg which may not be the best choice but remains my judgement call for now. Welcome back @Jojo85. Stunning progress and wonderful news on the kidney function. @jjraak hug for waiting not being what you want to hear but what you need. @gennepher so much love for that/those wildlife. Thank you for the kaleidoscope, as @dunelm says it does seem reminiscent of a fig. @dunelm thanks for the now colourful art. Today I shall continue to blunder around managing various conditions which modern medicine seems to offer various madcap ideas for "managing." Very Harry Enfield (sorry Genn, hope you can find some text)
It was @Krystyna23040how lovely that Midnight was looking after the other cats.
Hugs for the admin @Krystyna230404.7 this morning. Dog walk done - then Aldi shop and now a coffee and a coffee before dreaded admin.
I agree @gennepher he is a special catIt was @Krystyna23040
He is a special cat.
Thank you @gennepher
Wonder if the wasps are coming in to forage for nesting materials - will peppermint keep them out especially if wet food is only out for short periods. Another smashingly coloured kaleidoscope.Fbg 6.9
Friday
Problems with wasps continue. It is a big problem.
It was impossible to feed Midnight and the stray cats wet food yesterday. So I had to remove it and just leave dry food out. I thought i might be able to feed Midnight his wet food at dusk. But as soon as I got outside I am surrounded by a hundred or more wasps, round my ankles, round the whole of me. They swarmed in on me. They want that meat.
The nest must be very close, but I cannot find evidence of one.
So I managed to push Midnight into the study, and shut the door, and fed him his wet food there. I cannot lift that cat. I dropped him the last time i tried, he was too heavy.
This early morning, I went to the study door, the cat food is kept in there. And there was Jade sitting alongside Midnight on the swing. Jade was looking directly at me. She was very hungry. How can I feed two cats at once? Midnight will go and check on Jade as she is eating, but Jade runs away and leaves her food, and I wanted to make sure Jade got some food after yesterday. So I let the two cats see me through the glass preparing two bowls of food. I opened the door and Jade ran away as usual. So I ushered Midnight indoors, put his food down in the study, put the other bowl of food outside at the point where Jade had vanished from. And closed the glass door. Midnight wouldn't eat his food but sat at the glass door looking for Jade outside. She came out of hiding, and within 15 seconds the bowl of wet cat food was gone. Once Jade had eaten and left, Midnight turned to his bowls and ate slowly and I left him to it. Then he wandered round the bungalow sniffing and investigating everything.
When I finished my cuppa, I got up and let him out. But I cannot leave any wet food outside for the ginger cat who has problems with the dry biscuits. So, I have left the study door open (for the moment) with another bowl of wet food in it. But I cannot see the ginger coming in my bungalow. He is a feral cat and doesn't trust humans. If the wasps discover that food first, then the study door will have to be closed.
So, soaking the dry biscuits with water again. That worked yesterday. The wasps investigated but were not interested.
Now is this a silly idea. Someone suggested that the wasps were only interested in meat because they have larvae to feed right now. I have a batch of wet cat food the cats don't like very much. What if I put that in a paper cup and hang it from a tree at the end of the garden away from the swing and the back of the bungalow? It is only going to be for the next couple of weeks while they feed their larvae. Wasps don't bother me, every August/September I have hundreds and hundreds of wasps at the end of the garden feeding off the honeydew of the aphids on the willow branches. I have to walk through dozens and dozens of them to get to the potting shed and garage. They land on my bare arms as I walk through them, but they fly away.
I still remember, as a child, my mother having a total panic even with just a poor single wasp coming into the house. Rolled up newspaper, and it had to be chased and killed. I never understood that even as a child. I was never frightened of them.
Anyway I have written/rambled on too much. Creative to day is a kaleidoscope in Laboscope, pointed at the rising sun.
A nice hot cuppa tea needed now...
View attachment 55323
I think that is a brilliant idea @gennepherNow is this a silly idea. Someone suggested that the wasps were only interested in meat because they have larvae to feed right now. I have a batch of wet cat food the cats don't like very much. What if I put that in a paper cup and hang it from a tree at the end of the garden away from the swing and the back of the bungalow? It is only going to be for the next couple of weeks while they feed their larvae.
Knowing little of wasps..is it likely connected to next doors upheavals of late ?Fbg 6.9
Friday
Problems with wasps continue. It is a big problem.
It was impossible to feed Midnight and the stray cats wet food yesterday. So I had to remove it and just leave dry food out. I thought i might be able to feed Midnight his wet food at dusk. But as soon as I got outside I am surrounded by a hundred or more wasps, round my ankles, round the whole of me. They swarmed in on me. They want that meat.
The nest must be very close, but I cannot find evidence of one.
So I managed to push Midnight into the study, and shut the door, and fed him his wet food there. I cannot lift that cat. I dropped him the last time i tried, he was too heavy.
This early morning, I went to the study door, the cat food is kept in there. And there was Jade sitting alongside Midnight on the swing. Jade was looking directly at me. She was very hungry. How can I feed two cats at once? Midnight will go and check on Jade as she is eating, but Jade runs away and leaves her food, and I wanted to make sure Jade got some food after yesterday. So I let the two cats see me through the glass preparing two bowls of food. I opened the door and Jade ran away as usual. So I ushered Midnight indoors, put his food down in the study, put the other bowl of food outside at the point where Jade had vanished from. And closed the glass door. Midnight wouldn't eat his food but sat at the glass door looking for Jade outside. She came out of hiding, and within 15 seconds the bowl of wet cat food was gone. Once Jade had eaten and left, Midnight turned to his bowls and ate slowly and I left him to it. Then he wandered round the bungalow sniffing and investigating everything.
When I finished my cuppa, I got up and let him out. But I cannot leave any wet food outside for the ginger cat who has problems with the dry biscuits. So, I have left the study door open (for the moment) with another bowl of wet food in it. But I cannot see the ginger coming in my bungalow. He is a feral cat and doesn't trust humans. If the wasps discover that food first, then the study door will have to be closed.
So, soaking the dry biscuits with water again. That worked yesterday. The wasps investigated but were not interested.
Now is this a silly idea. Someone suggested that the wasps were only interested in meat because they have larvae to feed right now. I have a batch of wet cat food the cats don't like very much. What if I put that in a paper cup and hang it from a tree at the end of the garden away from the swing and the back of the bungalow? It is only going to be for the next couple of weeks while they feed their larvae. Wasps don't bother me, every August/September I have hundreds and hundreds of wasps at the end of the garden feeding off the honeydew of the aphids on the willow branches. I have to walk through dozens and dozens of them to get to the potting shed and garage. They land on my bare arms as I walk through them, but they fly away.
I still remember, as a child, my mother having a total panic even with just a poor single wasp coming into the house. Rolled up newspaper, and it had to be chased and killed. I never understood that even as a child. I was never frightened of them.
Anyway I have written/rambled on too much. Creative to day is a kaleidoscope in Laboscope, pointed at the rising sun.
A nice hot cuppa tea needed now...
View attachment 55323
No not nesting materials @dunelm that starts earlier in the year here when they shave bits of wood off my potting shed or inside my garage roof. I have several Waspinators around to deter them doing that. Generally I have paper wasps. Although others do pop in the garden. It appears to me their food source or something has been disturbed, because they are a little aggressive, as though stuff is in short supply. They are not normally aggressive.Wonder if the wasps are coming in to forage for nesting materials - will peppermint keep them out especially if wet food is only out for short periods. Another smashingly coloured kaleidoscope.
An amazing tree @dunelmGood morning everyone from a pleasantly sunny start here in the dark and dangerous north. Garage sorting began yesterday. It, and the garden shed became a dumping ground for all manner of “stuff” when we moved so we are now on a mission to sort. A large pile is going to a charity shop today. They will collect as it includes a nearly new fridge freezer that was in the house when we moved in and is surplus to requirements. Just going through Alice Cooper’s back catalogue and trying to figure out if any will now hit the charts. Not just the fabulous “Elected” but songs like ‘Clones’, ‘He’s back’, ‘It’s me’, ‘Long way to go’, ‘Schools out’, ‘We gotta get out of this place’.
Art bit - I thought a few trees. Hope you all have a marvelous day, I shall now make koffy.
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I never thought about that @jjraakKnowing little of wasps..is it likely connected to next doors upheavals of late ?
Maybe not if wasps are an issue most years,
Presume it was never noticed previously, as Popeye would have fed indoors & most probably kept any "midnight's away from his stomping grounds.?
Thanks @ianpspursMorning all on an Elbow+++ dayWeather set fair here, SSSF, mucho sporto on TV and just now my various medical imperfections are happy chappies. Thanks be to God. Something in the news also seems to have cheered me greatly but I really can't think what. 7 years today since I changed lifestyle - jury's out on the overall impact. It got T2 control done but the flaws are blindingly obvious and the cost may prove to have been far too high - hmm, is there an echo? @gennepher thanks for the creative and hug for the issue with the wasps. @dunelm thanks for the art and well done on getting a charity shop to collect. @Krystyna23040 definitely no fleece needed although I am about to order salopettes to wear indoors this winter. There could be a run of these for me but hugs fir those who find the warmer weather too rich for their blood. This day in 2012 we were in St Ives, Cambs, watching the Olympic Torch carrier. The past really is a foreign country but somewhere deep down that country is still alive. We just lost 12 years while the blue team are having a meltdown and some clowns thought Corbyn and Johnson would be a funny joke.
Thank you @gennepher. I am doing a bit of ‘colouring in’ today
Does seem to point to THAT having some input then ?I never thought about that @jjraak
Tarmacadam could have disturbed a whole host of things including an underground wasp's next.
Wasps have never been an issue in July before. And never been an issue for wet cat food outdoors.
Actually, the stray cats used to eat Popeye's food. The food was indoors, but the study door always open, so they sneaked in when I wasn't watching, This was Jade (before she got taken) and Shadow, and because both cats black I never saw them. I did think at the time that Popeye had a good appetite....also there was another stray cat, a tortie who I did see sneaking in and stealing Popeyes's food, but she has disappeared now since Popeye died.
I have been feeding the current outdoor stray cats outside under the swing, for nearly a year now, and wasps have never shown any interest in the cat food at all.
Those wasps that come in for the black aphids which is only on the willow during end of August and September, come in for the sweet honeydew which the ants milk as well, are not here yet, and they cause no problems at all, because they are not interested in anything else, only their yearly booze up. They are no bother, been coming yearly for this booze up about 20 years now. If you are afraid of wasps then this would look a nightmare, but I can assure you, it is not. Wasps are not generally aggressive, unless you turn into an arm waving lunatic.
I think your first suggestion has a lot of merit. I am sure it has something to do with that....
It is possible the wasps were trying to or saving their nest. And possibly are not in desirable accommodation at the moment. And are doing their best to feed the larvae...
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