Harvesting and mites

Ste Inès
Yesterday's weather: Gorgeous

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow.

Oh, what a beautiful morning. The corn is even as high as an elephant's eye - so how about that? I could go on singing around the house and every word would be true. Thanks Mr Rogers and Mr Hammerstein!

Monday morning and we're not at work. Well, not in an office. Jon is busy hammering in the garden again adding the finishing touches to the chalet (piccie to follow as soon as it's all tidy) and I'm doing the housework to the sound of Terry Wogan on the radio. Ho, hum. What a life.

We're picking figs from the tree outside the kitchen window as soon as they are ripe to avoid a nasty sludge on the ground when they drop, there are walnuts galore (when the animals don't get them first), the courgettes are having a final burst and the cherry tomatoes are still prolific.

The only downside is being bitten. Even my mossie bands aren't making any difference, nor is the Avon Skin-so-Soft, nor the spray the pharmacist gave me the other week. The culprit is this little beastie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_mite. They really are nasty little biters. I've researched everywhere to see how to avoid them (you can't, they live in the grass), how to stop them biting (you almost can't - read on), how to stop the bites itching (anti-histamine and I'm running out of Clarytin) and how to keep them out of the house (impossible, you can only keep getting rid of them once they are there by washing everything, bedding and clothes at over 60 degrees and never ever go out again until they have died off in the cold) - not possible when you have three very fluffy cats. Apparently they don't like you if you taste of yeast, so it's either bath in lager or eat a jar of Marmite, or take a yeast tablet but that seems far too sensible for me.

So, a pint of lager and a Marmite sarnie taken three times a day looks like the way to keep them away. I'm off to have another cuppa and a Clarytin. 'Scuse my scratching, won't you?