I almost gave up on a photo of clouds this morning, but decided to wait a while and eventually the sun appeared and some shape came into the sky. Otherwise it was just a grey sheet, the remainder of the rain from the night. It is still raining in Switzerland and our rivers and lakes are full to the brim and in some places spilling over. There are a few floods in villages and cellars under water. Luckily not so much damage on the houses. In Germany it is a different story with people missing and still waiting for help sitting on the roofs of their houses. We are lucky to live on higher ground.
Of course there are always some that enjoy this miserable weather and like to make the most of it. They also seem to increase in size. This slug was really a big one making its way across the wall in the garden. Another insect awakening are the midges/mosquitos. This morning early whilst I was still hugging the bed my hands were irritated and then I heard the familiar buzz passing my ear. I automatically did a swipe at my ear and with a stifled buzz I actually managed to send the mosquite to the eternal buzzing grounds. My first instruction of the day to Mr. Swiss was to organise the mosquito traps in the bedroom. We have little bottles we fill with anti mosquito liquird and then you have to plug them into the elecricity. That does the job qute well and they usually then disappear. They can really be an annoyance when buzzing aroud. Sometimes living near a river is not such a good thing.
My smoke tree looks especially good after the rain showers where the remains of the flowers are covered with water drops.
Today will be a day of isolation. At the moment it is dry and there are even a few small patches of blue above, but I am not so sure. Tomorrow looks better and then I might chance a trip along the local road. I am expecting a grocery delivery this morning, otherwise I will be taking it easy – probably counting the slugs. Funny how the wet weather seems to draw them out of their dark places.
Have a good day everyone and may the sun shine on your side.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
In England I learned to get rid of the millions of slugs the hard and terminal way…. The biggest lot was our collection of them into a large pot and then we poured boiling hot water over them. After the water cooled down, we just emptied the thing back onto the grounds. We must have decimated the slug population by their thousands but it seemed as if they brought back all their families for every burial…
The other version was, when being in the garden, just picking them up with the secateurs and cutting them in two…. messy, nasty but efficient.
I brought back the pellets to the shop; should have stood up firm to you when you still brought them out….. I never used them in France and I won’t use them here. So thanks to your reasoning after that TV show you brought me back in the ‘healthy’ league of natural gardeners.
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In London we did not have so many slugs. Probably the pollution got them first of all. I had my first experiences with them in Switzerland where I have tried everything. It seems they make suicide if you give them a glass of beer as they drowned in it. The smell seems to attract them. I have also used salt which dissolves them, but generally I used to pick them up and throw them into the meadow. I did the pellet thing, but that is not a good solution with all that poison. Now I am back to finding them and throwing them far away. Today there was a programme on the SRG about what to do with them and their solution was find them and throw them. Anything else is a waste of time, and we do what to be kind to our slugs. On the SRG she said that you should not cut them up, it is a messy business and not so good for the poor little slugs.
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no the cutting up isn’t…. 🙂 but throwing them in neighbours garden was never a solution either! And we had a high wall of beautiful red sandstone around the property; I might have been looking for a court case had I thrown them over the wall 😉
Anyway, we have to live with a certain amount of them but we don’t have to love them.
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Good Morning!
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Good Afternoon
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It’s really weird. Out west, they haven’t had ANY rain and it going up in flames. It hasn’t stopped raining in Tasmania or, apparently, Switzerland and Germany. I haven’t gotten word from England yet, but last I heard, I think it was raining there. We never get “normal” weather anymore. We get a lot of whatever we get.
We had 10 years of drought, so I feel guilty complaining about never having a dray day since the beginning of June, but it’s like we are getting a refill for all ten years this summer. I suppose rain is better than no rain and for once, i don’t have to worry about brush fires in the woods.
And it’s also odd where these various patches of weather hit. We are a big country, so I suppose it’s not so unusual to have very different weather on both coasts, but you’re not exactly huge and Tasmania is downright tiny. At least we are going to have a full well this year. Finally! That’s positive.
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We are certainly getting some strange weather, almost like a science fiction film. Imam glad we no longer take holidays at this time of the year. It has been continuously raining day and might with short pauses in between. England is not so bad, although they have their problems with Covid. We usually have drought problems in Summer, but not this year. I noticed our slugs are twice as big this year. I think they are enjoying this weather. It seems that Switzerland got away with the worst of the weather with just a few cuts and bruises. Germany has really suffered and many people are still missing. There are also many fatalities
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