17 Octobre 2020
As we
continue our exploration of the granularity of life as the epidemic rolls on I
thought it would be good to review the recent past in my tiny world.
On 22 Aout
with great fanfare I decided to create a garden in my backyard. I went to the local garden store, Le Clerc
and purchase a beautiful green glazed pot. I bought a bag of potting soil and 6
Brusselles Chou plants. I wrestled all this into my little Twingo. I would have bought a bigger pot but my car
is too small.
I drove home
and wrestled the pot and soil to my tiny back yard and finally planted the
Brusselles Chou. I chose them because it
was Aout and I expected to be here through the fall until election so I
expected some sprouts before I left for the US.
Everyday
begins in the same way for me. I water the raspberries, grape vines , the
flowers in the pots at the front of the house and fill my bucket to take
water to my goat herd. Now I had a new
group to take care of, the Brusselles Chou.
Four five
weeks I diligently watered them but I began to notice there seemed to be no
growth. In fact I could see that something was munching on my beautifully chou.
As a consequence they were not growing any bigger than the day I bought them .
If you don’t
understand something you see ask a local for advice. I asked my friendly
neighbor Edmond who took a quick look and pronounced, with authority, “Limace.”
He speaks
French and I speak English but we communicate.
He saw a snail on my raspberries and with hand gestures, told me that it
was related to escargot without the shell. In a burst of brilliance I thought
of my translator. “Limace is a terrestrial mollusk without a shell but has a
protective slime covering is body.” Get
the picture yet.
Some how
Seattle slugs have emigrated back to France. He suggested some local chemical
but my mind flashed back to my Montlake backyard where my mother was placing
jar lids of beer out for the slugs to imbibe. I can’t imagine my mother buying
a sixpack but there was the beer.
With that
thought in mind I went to my reefer and got a bottle of La Le’ge’re, a local
favorite of non wine-drinking French people and Slugs. I had saved a sardine can
and so I filled it with beer and placed it near my chou. The next morning 2
slugs were draped over the edge of the can and since then my chou have begun to
grow.
Seattle and
France are very close together. We both have La limace. It is a small world.
