T is a creature of habit and the summer has brought its usual terrors to our garden. Don’t get me wrong, creature of habit she may be but T is not stuck in a rut when it comes to efficiently dispatching the enemy. In the past she used either a knife or scissors to cut her prey in half, this year salt is her weapon of choice. Which poor creatures is she persecuting? Slugs and snails of course!
She goes into the garden each evening, carrying a torch, a margarine tub filled with salt, a knife for good measure and a smile on her face. I have to accompany her as my job is to keep walking in front of the garden light to keep it on. She complains if I wander off and the light goes out, why does she have a torch if she needs the light on? Is it essential to see the carnage?
I’d like to think she goes out under cover of darkness because she’s ashamed of slaughtering these defenceless creatures, but no, it’s because she can find more of them, particularly if it’s raining. She checks all the plant pots very carefully with the torch, lifting up leaves to make sure nothing is missed. She surprised a frog one evening, but she‘s only interested in slugs and snails, everything else is quite safe. Apart from moths, she doesn’t like them but she’d never kill a spider.
I have tried pleading with P to let me back in the house by peering at him through the French windows, but he just waves at me totally oblivious to the slaughter I am witnessing. I'm being kind and assuming he is oblivious rather than just too lazy to get up off the sofa and open the back door. P does spend a lot of time oblivious to T; he’s probably just glad of the peace and quiet for a few minutes.
Just have to hope the slugs and snails leave for pastures new, either that or the batteries run out in her torch soon. In the meantime, I’ll just have to find a good place to hide when T goes into the garden.
