Several loads of washing have been done in This Household since yesterday evening and there is now a glut of summer cotton-mix clothes hanging about waiting for an iron.
A what?
Quite. It's not going to happen. The tee-shirts and tops and jeans and jumpers are going to 'Air Dry' straight from the washing machine, over great heights such as the bannister and from the beams. If the weather forecast people have got their isobars and pressures and things right, there will be a Barbeque Sunday tomorrow and because I believe them, I'm getting ready.
My alarm clock is set for five am. I'll need to be up and out early to beat the horseflies onto the Moor. I'd like to ride up and over Dunkery Beacon, down the other side and back along the Eastwater and Horner valleys, sploshing in the rivers and letting Hoss have a proper gallop along Luccombe Allers before anyone else is out and about. I'll let you know if it really happens. It's quite possible I might just smack the alarm off at two seconds past five, go back to sleep and wake at nine to realise I've missed the best of the day and it's too hot to ride until the evening.
The horseflies have just kicked in for the summer: Five-Nil to me so far, but it's early days yet. The ticks are becoming a problem too and everything that itches - no matter where - must be investigated in case one of them has buried its head and started to feed. I nabbed out a couple on my inner arms earlier. I ought to be grateful that's the only place they were, 'cos I do hop off for nature's call sometimes, out on my wanderings with Hoss and there's nothing the ticks like better than a nice warm fold of skin where the sun don't shine ...
Lyme Disease, carried by infected ticks and passed on to humans, is fortunately not common but it can be a real threat. Any tick should be removed completely, head and mouthparts included, the area thoroughly cleaned and any subsequent redness or swelling around the bite-site taken seriously. I've come across several bad cases in my time on the Moor, one fatal and others leaving nasty legacies such as facial paralysis. Usually, of course, if caught as soon as the infected tick is removed, a course of antibiotics is all that's needed.
The preferred meal of ticks in the larval and nymphal stages of life is mouse-blood. They
share this pleasure with the HKCs (HunterKillerCats to anyone newly involved on Blog) who keep leaving me with mouse-heads and gizzards as little gifts. Do they honestly think I intend to mount the heads as trophies round the walls? Unfortunately, since the mice have come from The Moor and its environs, ticks also hitch a ride on said HKCs and are not averse to settling in for a Cat-Blood meal instead. I have a neat set of Tick Removers handy. There was a time, at the Old Luttrell Memorial Hospital (see BlogThoughts) when I kept a set handy in Casualty, too. We used to get a lot of unsuspecting tourists in, having been walking on the Moor in shorts and short-sleeved shirts, with various collections of ticks on board. I became very adept at allaying fears, cleansing limbs and other parts, removing ticks and giving out Bravery Certificates to victims of all ages. I did it all free at the point of delivery - which is more than I can say for the vet, who cheerfully charged the tourists for removing ticks from their dogs.
The sun has come out at last and the wind has dropped. I'm off out for a walk and you may as well go back to watching highlights from Wimbledon.
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