Monday 12th August 2024 - Busiest So Far, Next Video, She's Okay and Caterpillar

The village was congested with vehicles yesterday, the busiest we have seen Overstrand this year.  Those who were lucky found somewhere to park, others were driving around looking for a place to leave their vehicle.  Parking in the village was restricted by a number of places when the District Council cordoned off part of the car park, for some reason best beknown to them!  I’m currently not impressed with the District Council, especially as once again they have failed to empty the litter bins.  Rubbish has accumulated and this afternoon, it’s blowing about.  Yesterday the contents of one bin was moving; presumably the rats were inside feasting on left-over food.  I have submitted yet another form to NNDC – but will it be will cleared today?

I met a village resident last week, while we were both waiting for the bus.  They told me they liked my vlogs and mentioned about filming more, covering my recipes.  I have taken this on board and on Saturday I filmed the preparation of my recipe for the Greek dish, Lamb Stifado.  It needs a bit of editing, after which I will post on YouTube and include the link in a forthcoming blog.

Lunar, who we term as, our part feral cat, tends to disappear for days, returning a little slimmer and hungry.  She has now failed to come in for food and a sleep for over two weeks.  We know she likes to go in the nearby field, presumably hunting, so we have had a look and called her but no Lunar.  In the end I put her dishes and her bed away but we were both concerned what had happened to her.  Had she been killed by a fox or poisoned?  We would have been quite happy to know she had found another source of food and shelter – it was the not knowing.  But this morning we saw her on the drive of a nearby neighbour.  She didn’t come when called, instead ran off into some adjacent rough ground.  She is obviously enjoying her life as a feral and maybe she will return when the weather changes.  The main thing is, we have seen her and she is okay.

I have a bit of a problem with our fuchsias this year, with some suffering from rust.  They have been dropping blooms and leaves but are gradually showing new leaves.  I was clearing the fallen debris around one plant and spotted the caterpillar in the photo below.  It’s the caterpillar of the elephant hawkmoth – they love fuchsia leaves but I’m not sure it will find many to munch on this particular plant.  I left it and hope it will survive, later as a chrysalis, eventually emerging as a beautiful moth.