 | Today’s blog is coming to you from Fruit Fly Central! This was the first year I haven’t been swarmed with fruit flies, although this reward came with a lot of diligence on my part. I may not do my dishes on a regular basis but I rinse them thoroughly before stacking them along the counters and I removed all compost to the bin every night and before I leave for work. It’s as simple as no food supply, no flies. A few years back a visiting friend boughts us one of those but bug zappers, probably after |
experiencing a dense fog of fruit flies from bananas that has been left out. When the humidity hits, things spoil faster and they come! Although I don’t like the thought of killing things that crawl or fly into my home, there has to be some sort of maintenance or you'll be overrun. So far this year I’ve been especially careful about leaving perishables out and with the heat pump the house is cooler which they don’t particularly like, so the zapper was still in the closet.
But oh Saturday night, they came in droves, so thick they obscured my vision. Everywhere I looked I could see dozens happily weaving in and out looking for a good place to reproduce themselves. They were imported into the house by Mary, stowed away in two boxes of strawberries that were slightly beginning to give up the ghost. Overly ripe and soft they were the perfect enticement and Mary told me her house was full of fruit flies so I put two and two together and came up with a million, fruit flies that is. As she hulled the berries, the little stowaways escaped the plastic wrap and invaded my kitchen. There had to be hundreds of them, no exaggeration!!! They all had to die and fast before they spread like peanut butter and then it would take days to defeat them all. The zapper is quick and does the job and sure beats the old way of hauling out the vacuum and chasing them down with the hose. The little devils can be illusive so you have to be on guard in a wait and watch game.
I entertained this weekend. Friends arrived from Ontario so I invited Yvonne and Joe, and Peter and Mary for a BBQ Saturday evening. I spent Friday cleaning and was up until 1:00 am beating back the cobwebs and vacuuming up months of debris that makes it into the house. Grass clippings that stick to the dogs legs, and other bits of this and that from outside, the table tops were almost white from dust and oh the dishes! The cupboards were pretty much bare as all the china sat on the counters, piled up and waiting for the dishpan. I have a lot of dishes, thirty Blue Willow plates to be exact, so I can go a long time before having to worry about washing and if I’m still not inclined I can extend it by using paper plates. I’m a practical girl, sort of like a bachelor, I don’t waste any more time than necessary doing the domestic. There’s gardening and hooking, not necessarily in that order that demand my time. I am not, have never been, and will never be, a slave to housework.
But I do have my pride and although I don’t mind writing about my shortcomings, I don’t necessarily want you to see them. This way you can walk away, shake your head and think I'm exaggerating. When I know people are coming over I make an explosive effort so they continue to think I’m up there with Martha, and just hide upstairs if they come by unannounced and hope they don't look in my window.
So Friday evening I cleaned and cleaned and then it got dark so I couldn’t see as well but I continued until bedtime. In the light of the following day I saw a few places I missed but overall it look pretty put together and wouldn’t tell any tales. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer a clean house, would like it to be spotless all the time but that takes so much effort which at the end of the day I run short on. Sitting and hooking is about the only speed I can handle. I work six days a week, sometimes seven when I teach. My days aren’t a normal 10:30 – 5:00 as I am there more times than not. I need my down time!
I only had time to clean the downstairs so I warned my guests if anyone ventured up the stairs I would have to kill them. Luckily we have a downstairs bathroom so there wasn’t any need to risk a cleaver in anyone’s back. Its’ amazing how the threat of company can force me to do more in a short time than I’ve done in months. I’ll bet my dear mom would turn over in her grave if she knew I didn’t practice her white tornado custom. She might even wonder if she brought the wrong kid home from the hospital as this nut doesn’t seem to have fallen from any of her branches.
So now with cleaning checked off the list, I needed to concentrate on the food. I worked all day Saturday and hoped to escape a bit early to do the grocery shopping and prep before the quests arrived at 6:30 but last minute an old school acquaintance arrived and delayed my departure. I really didn’t mind as it was nice to catch up but my head was doing mental calculations of how long it would take to boil potatoes, cool and make salad, prepare the snacks, make all the side dishes and precook the ribs in the oven and then clean up the mess of the prep. I didn’t get out of the shop until almost 4:30 with shopping yet to do, it was a race against time. I needed to have it all under control, relax and freshen up before the guests arrived, once again pulling off the effortless Martha, persona. It’s amazing what I can do in 90 minutes. Many years of short order cooking, not so much making fast food, but the speed to which it is done, prepared me for slapping a meal on the table in very little time. Once started I can do a dinner from pan to plate in minutes, a feat that my husband marvels over. In the kitchen I’m a tornado, slicing, dicing and cooking like a machine. Too bad I don’t apply myself that way for cleaning.
So the company arrived and we broke out the wine. My hubby is away right now so Peter manned the BBQ to finish cooking the ribs. He’s funny, I’ve never seen flames like that before. My guy doesn’t rush the process and has cooking a steak down to a science on a medium heat. Peter is one of those chaps who ram it to high and keeps water handy for the flames and I tell no lie, at one point shot in the air and licked the ceiling of our back deck. I checked for blistering paint! I’m surprised he left with his eyebrows in tact! The few dangling spiders up there got a nasty surprise as a blowtorch flame burned them out of web and home.
But you can’t look a gift chef in the mouth so I announced I would keep my mouth shut and go back inside. The ribs were tasty and only a little charred around the edges. The meal was fabulous and I was happy to have made the effort. Being such a stick in the mud I sometimes let things pass but it was nice having people over. I’m always happy after the fact, it’s the work up to the moment that I groan about. In a fantasy world it would be so nice to have the energy to live in a clean house.
The evening went off without a hitch until I noticed a zillion fruit flies hovering around the area where Mary had hulled the strawberries…..billion, zillion, quadrillion fruit flies. I was a nervous Nelly now, all I could think about was those flies would lay eggs and make more flies. After the meal I jumped up and started scraping the dishes and throwing out all the food to stop the breeding and then the flies became my entire focus. I hope I didn’t seem too nutty I just couldn’t sit there and watch them flying around, especially around my guest’s heads. It was gross!
They all left shortly after dessert, hope my zapping didn’t put them off, I was on a mission and completely focused on the kill. I was still killing them after well midnight and I ran a beginning class at my studio Sunday afternoon and arrived home to still hundreds! I've been zapping them steadily, even this morning! There is no food to feed on so they are torturing me as I write this, like I’m some kind of rotting delicacy.
So I suppose I should say a bit about dinner. We dined on corn on the cob, asparagus, BBQ ribs, potato salad, bean salad, broccoli salad, coleslaw, watermelon, started with salmon pate and pita chips and ended with ice-cream and strawberries. Now that my house is somewhat tidy I’ll take advantage and maybe have a few people in or just enjoy it myself; ride the clean wave while it lasts……
Our friends Yvonne (black blouse), who is also a rug hooker, and her partner Joe (to Yvonne's left) are heading for the Bahamas in their sailboat and will be gone until next year. All the best to you! Mary is at the head of the table in the white blouse, smiling Peter is at the other end and Aunt Audrey is to the right.
But oh Saturday night, they came in droves, so thick they obscured my vision. Everywhere I looked I could see dozens happily weaving in and out looking for a good place to reproduce themselves. They were imported into the house by Mary, stowed away in two boxes of strawberries that were slightly beginning to give up the ghost. Overly ripe and soft they were the perfect enticement and Mary told me her house was full of fruit flies so I put two and two together and came up with a million, fruit flies that is. As she hulled the berries, the little stowaways escaped the plastic wrap and invaded my kitchen. There had to be hundreds of them, no exaggeration!!! They all had to die and fast before they spread like peanut butter and then it would take days to defeat them all. The zapper is quick and does the job and sure beats the old way of hauling out the vacuum and chasing them down with the hose. The little devils can be illusive so you have to be on guard in a wait and watch game.
I entertained this weekend. Friends arrived from Ontario so I invited Yvonne and Joe, and Peter and Mary for a BBQ Saturday evening. I spent Friday cleaning and was up until 1:00 am beating back the cobwebs and vacuuming up months of debris that makes it into the house. Grass clippings that stick to the dogs legs, and other bits of this and that from outside, the table tops were almost white from dust and oh the dishes! The cupboards were pretty much bare as all the china sat on the counters, piled up and waiting for the dishpan. I have a lot of dishes, thirty Blue Willow plates to be exact, so I can go a long time before having to worry about washing and if I’m still not inclined I can extend it by using paper plates. I’m a practical girl, sort of like a bachelor, I don’t waste any more time than necessary doing the domestic. There’s gardening and hooking, not necessarily in that order that demand my time. I am not, have never been, and will never be, a slave to housework.
But I do have my pride and although I don’t mind writing about my shortcomings, I don’t necessarily want you to see them. This way you can walk away, shake your head and think I'm exaggerating. When I know people are coming over I make an explosive effort so they continue to think I’m up there with Martha, and just hide upstairs if they come by unannounced and hope they don't look in my window.
So Friday evening I cleaned and cleaned and then it got dark so I couldn’t see as well but I continued until bedtime. In the light of the following day I saw a few places I missed but overall it look pretty put together and wouldn’t tell any tales. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer a clean house, would like it to be spotless all the time but that takes so much effort which at the end of the day I run short on. Sitting and hooking is about the only speed I can handle. I work six days a week, sometimes seven when I teach. My days aren’t a normal 10:30 – 5:00 as I am there more times than not. I need my down time!
I only had time to clean the downstairs so I warned my guests if anyone ventured up the stairs I would have to kill them. Luckily we have a downstairs bathroom so there wasn’t any need to risk a cleaver in anyone’s back. Its’ amazing how the threat of company can force me to do more in a short time than I’ve done in months. I’ll bet my dear mom would turn over in her grave if she knew I didn’t practice her white tornado custom. She might even wonder if she brought the wrong kid home from the hospital as this nut doesn’t seem to have fallen from any of her branches.
So now with cleaning checked off the list, I needed to concentrate on the food. I worked all day Saturday and hoped to escape a bit early to do the grocery shopping and prep before the quests arrived at 6:30 but last minute an old school acquaintance arrived and delayed my departure. I really didn’t mind as it was nice to catch up but my head was doing mental calculations of how long it would take to boil potatoes, cool and make salad, prepare the snacks, make all the side dishes and precook the ribs in the oven and then clean up the mess of the prep. I didn’t get out of the shop until almost 4:30 with shopping yet to do, it was a race against time. I needed to have it all under control, relax and freshen up before the guests arrived, once again pulling off the effortless Martha, persona. It’s amazing what I can do in 90 minutes. Many years of short order cooking, not so much making fast food, but the speed to which it is done, prepared me for slapping a meal on the table in very little time. Once started I can do a dinner from pan to plate in minutes, a feat that my husband marvels over. In the kitchen I’m a tornado, slicing, dicing and cooking like a machine. Too bad I don’t apply myself that way for cleaning.
So the company arrived and we broke out the wine. My hubby is away right now so Peter manned the BBQ to finish cooking the ribs. He’s funny, I’ve never seen flames like that before. My guy doesn’t rush the process and has cooking a steak down to a science on a medium heat. Peter is one of those chaps who ram it to high and keeps water handy for the flames and I tell no lie, at one point shot in the air and licked the ceiling of our back deck. I checked for blistering paint! I’m surprised he left with his eyebrows in tact! The few dangling spiders up there got a nasty surprise as a blowtorch flame burned them out of web and home.
But you can’t look a gift chef in the mouth so I announced I would keep my mouth shut and go back inside. The ribs were tasty and only a little charred around the edges. The meal was fabulous and I was happy to have made the effort. Being such a stick in the mud I sometimes let things pass but it was nice having people over. I’m always happy after the fact, it’s the work up to the moment that I groan about. In a fantasy world it would be so nice to have the energy to live in a clean house.
The evening went off without a hitch until I noticed a zillion fruit flies hovering around the area where Mary had hulled the strawberries…..billion, zillion, quadrillion fruit flies. I was a nervous Nelly now, all I could think about was those flies would lay eggs and make more flies. After the meal I jumped up and started scraping the dishes and throwing out all the food to stop the breeding and then the flies became my entire focus. I hope I didn’t seem too nutty I just couldn’t sit there and watch them flying around, especially around my guest’s heads. It was gross!
They all left shortly after dessert, hope my zapping didn’t put them off, I was on a mission and completely focused on the kill. I was still killing them after well midnight and I ran a beginning class at my studio Sunday afternoon and arrived home to still hundreds! I've been zapping them steadily, even this morning! There is no food to feed on so they are torturing me as I write this, like I’m some kind of rotting delicacy.
So I suppose I should say a bit about dinner. We dined on corn on the cob, asparagus, BBQ ribs, potato salad, bean salad, broccoli salad, coleslaw, watermelon, started with salmon pate and pita chips and ended with ice-cream and strawberries. Now that my house is somewhat tidy I’ll take advantage and maybe have a few people in or just enjoy it myself; ride the clean wave while it lasts……
Our friends Yvonne (black blouse), who is also a rug hooker, and her partner Joe (to Yvonne's left) are heading for the Bahamas in their sailboat and will be gone until next year. All the best to you! Mary is at the head of the table in the white blouse, smiling Peter is at the other end and Aunt Audrey is to the right.
A weapon of mass destruction and hero of the evening...the bug zapper. It's called "The Executioner" and can be purchased in hardware stores and big chain stores.
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