Before I get on to the nice flora related bits of this post, I need to get something off my chest. Where do self-important Facebook know-it-alls get off and why don't they get slapped down?
I was looking at the most recent advice from the British Embassy in France about travel documents, and while there were some interesting questions and clarifications, there was also a thread about how the current attestations aren't totally easy for the self-employed, and it can be useful to have a note from your client as well. Some silly cow offered her opinion, finishing off the comment with "The self-employed should not be working at the moment anyway." How wrong can you be in one simple statement? GPs and district nurses here are self-employed in general for example, as are many farmers, lawyers, and all sorts of people who can work from home. In addition, there are the quasi-emergency services such as electricians, plumbers, people who empty your septic tank, take you to hospital in their taxis - all of whom tend to be self-employed. Sadly no one from the Embassy had managed to correct that statement in the hour since it was posted, but I hope they get round to it soon!
By the way, the French Government have given clarification as to what the self-employed put on their attestations - and it is perfectly OK.
And having vented and put that rant out there, I am now nicely zen again and would like to show some of the lovely and happy things in the natural world. First off the quince is just coming out - in my opinion the most beautiful of the fruit blossom, my only worry is that it is about a month early. But so pretty!
Close inspection of the broad beans shows that they are starting to set - four to six weeks and they will be delicious!
And a technical one. A few years ago, I wrote this post about a nasty new invasive non-native species, a form of gall wasp that attacked the buds of new growth on sweet chestnuts, deforming leaves, destroying flowers and weakening the tree. It was all through our One Acre Wood and a client had it on their young chestnut trees - many did not survive, but some did. There was a quiet release of a targeted predator for the cynips chestnut gall wasp in the area, and it seems to be winning the battle. On these twigs you can see some of last year's distorted buds which hosted wasp larvae, and you can see beautiful new buds with no galls at all. There is hope!
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