An overwintering wasp, that chose the hood of a waterproof jacket in the barn, is dead, jumped up and down on by me. I was just getting some alpacas in to the barn when I felt a sharp pain on my forehead, stung by the nasty little beast. It really hurt and even after cortisone cream and a pill, it went on hurting all day. I had a headache and imagined the poison turning my moderately addled brain into soup. Luckily I had my robin for company. This bird sits in the flashing, illuminated palm tree in the barn and sings away and it flits around with me when I am cleaning up poo and feeding the animals.
Meanwhile Joshua has finished off the very last bit of house painting. We roped him up to Chas and the car as he had to get on a very slippery bit of roof to complete the job. We are getting ready for Christmas, most presents wrapped, bread sauce, apple sauce and cranberry sauce in the freezer, large quantities of booze in the porch and we went up to a local farm this morning and cut down our Christmas tree – they charge £10 a tree, any size. There is rather a long list of things to do including polishing the copper, decorating the house and icing the cake. I made a foray into the hellhole of Lakeland and acquired a piping set, who knows what the result will be, posssibly fairly grim.