urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mayfly182 mayfly182 mayfly182 2038-01-19T03:14:07Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mayfly182:14966 2038-01-19T03:14:07Z 2038-01-19T03:14:07Z Good things about doing some gardening for my mother's very elderly neighbour:<br />- A real sense of achievement. In three hours I removed about a dozen would-be trees, at least as many brambles and a huge amount of ivy and a horrible spreading Hypericum. Beat that, paper-shuffling desk jobs.<br />- Excellent exercise, see above.<br />- Being paid, at least in part, to eat blackberries (he did say he didn't want them going to waste). Yum.<br /><br />Bad things about said gardening:<br />- OW EA ARG FIRE ANTS OWWWW!!!<br /><br />Cunning little buggers they are too. They don't just bite you as soon as they get onto you, oh no. Then only a couple would get their mandibles into you before you brushed the rest off. Far too small a punishment for disturbing their preciouss nest. Instead they use pheromones to coordinate their attack so they all bite at once. The 'fire' bit comes from the formic acid they spray into the wound, and it really does feel like being burned.