The Dangers of Drinking

Drinking can be the death of you, particularly if you are a slug or an earwig guilty of devouring my daisies, roses or devestating my lupines. So, I set my trap using Lakeport Beer. This is not because Lakeport Beer is unpleasant tasting, but because a can of Lakeport is cheaper than anything else available in the store and it isn't so foul that I can find somewhere to dispose of the leftovers. I've only set my traps twice, but the Lupine's are starting to recover now - so I'm feeling good about it. I did find it more effective on slugs compared to earwigs. I think I only caught 1 or 2 earwigs - everything else was slugs.

The final total for precipitation yesterday was a whopping 51.2 mm, after 28.2 the day before bringing us to a grand total of 130 mm for July (the average for July over 30 years is around 74.4 mm). This follows a June that saw about 110.4 mm (average is 74.2 mm) and a May with 68.8 (average is 72.4 mm) which is a touch low, but probably not all that statisically significant. So, there are 10 days left in July... it will be interesting to see what that brings - there is still a fair bit of rain forcast. What makes this a bit interesting is that the EC 6 month forecast suggested a slightly hotter and dryer than normal summer and so far, this hasn't come true. (which is great for my lawn because I refuse to feed it potable water unless there is a dire temporary need.) So, everything is looking great. The asian lillies are fading out, but the day lillies are fading in and the echinacaea is putting on a real show, soon to be joined by lots of brown-eyed susans.

The advice to everyone from my favourite horoscopian is to "steer clear of self-criticism and excessive worrying about problems that cannot be solved." I suspect that this is good advice in general, but I'm particulary guilty of both lately, so I'm going to try to take it to heart.

Cheers