Category Archives: Food

From Pest to Protector: Keeping Wasps away from your Picnic

Animals, English language posts, Food, German wasp, Insectlife, Life in Slovenia, Neanderslavia, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No screaming, fainting or peeing yourself is necessary. Wasps don’t want to fight you.

What they do want is sugar for themselves and protein for their young. They will defend themselves alright if they think they have to. But they’d much rather not tackle us. We’re just too big and strong and panicky for them.

The fact that wasps love our food while also having a healthy fear of humans means you can bribe them into protecting your feast instead of raiding it.

The thing is, wasps can do some things we humans can’t. One of them is putting the fear of God into flies, horseflies and mosquitoes. Those blood-suckers are normally drawn to humans like tiny needles to a giant magnet, but when wasps are around, they prefer to keep their distance.

Turning wasps into your personal security detail is simple: see which food items your wasps are most interested in, put a few chunks on a special plate and move it a little away from your meal (but not too far). The wasps will gratefully descend on the offering and leave you alone, all while scaring away most of the biting insects that normally can’t resist the siren call of your skin.

Just be a good host and wasps will be great guests.

Piknik z osami: od groze in strahu do sožitja in miru

Seveda sem se jih naprej bala. A ko se je strah pred osami umaknil firbčnosti, sem se umirila in jih malce bolje spoznala. S kančkom razumevanja pa je vse lažje.

Ose na splošno nimajo prav nobene želje, da bi se ravsale s človekom, saj se to zanje čisto preslabo konča. Imajo pa zelo rade našo hrano, saj potrebujejo sladkorje zase in beljakovine za svoje mladičke.

Če ti ose vpadejo na piknik, se zato splača malce pogledati, katera jedača in pijača jim najbolj tekne, nato pa je nekaj naložiš na krožniček, ki ga položiš malce stran od svoje pojedine. A ne predaleč stran!

Osja prisotnost namreč sploh ne prija komarjem, muham in obadom, tako da dokler blizu tebe osice brenčijo, se mali krvosesi raje stran držijo.

Skratka, če boš ti dober gostitelj, bodo ose dobri gostje.

Methinks: What’s your problem, it’s not like they ate YOUR cookies

English language posts, Food, Health, Methinks, Rambling & Smartassing, Stereotypes

Though I normally don’t indulge in anger I allowed myself the rare treat of getting worked up after first reading that calling someone fat has become more offensive than calling them worthless scum and then Wiki-walking myself to the Anti-fat Bias and The Thin Ideal articles. The relief I couldn’t help but feel for knowing I inhabited the safe section of the human form spectre and was therefore exempt from being harassed on the account of my weight only served to further my aggravation. I’m not much into enjoying the thanks-god-it’s-not-me sentiment as I find it all too similar to the toxic schadenfreude for my emotional comfort.

But seriously, why is it suddenly so wrong to be chubby? Not so long ago, some meat on your bones was considered a plus; a woman with ample curves was seen as appealing while a man with a nicely-rounded belly was perceived to be well-off and a guy to be reckoned with. At least where I live, there hardly seems to be any shortage of sayings to this effect. An entertainingly inebriated chap once told me he preferred a heavily-set lady to a lean one any day. (Why? Because, according to this wise fellow, the skinny one is liable to be concentrating on sucking her tummy in even under the sheets.) Continue reading Methinks: What’s your problem, it’s not like they ate YOUR cookies →

Lifestyle decisions I

English language posts, Food, Health

Doctor: You need to quit smoking, drinking and eating junk immediately.

Patient: Nah, it’s too late for me anyway.

Doctor: Don’t say that, it’s never too late!

Patient: Well I guess I’ll just wait a while longer then.

I still think this joke is funny. But… When somebody close to you falls ill, nah, when enough people around you have developed chronic diseases to shatter your comfortable denial of the fact everyone’s arse -yours included – isn’t getting any younger, it’s time for some introspection and life-changing plans. I’ve been relying on my robust genetics and love of movement to keep me healthy and presentable for decades and I guess it would be wise to add healthy nutrition to the mix. I’m a vegetarian with an inclination towards occasional forays into the pescarian (=fish-eating) domain. My dad taught me how to fish when I was little and this is probably why I still consider fish fair game but it’s not something I’m particularly proud of. I’ve been helping take care of my mum’s koi and I’m finding this whole fisher-gatherer attitude increasingly difficult to pull off. It’s complicated 🙂 Continue reading Lifestyle decisions I →

Things I didn’t know were possible until I had them happen to me

English language posts, Food, Rambling & Smartassing, True Stories

Bread cuts. I picked up half a loaf of day-old bread only to find myself shrieking like a surprised marmot upon feeling the crust deliver a ¼ inch gash between my thumb and index finger. I didn’t expect a half-eaten bun to fight back with such fervour and I’m not quite sure that’s proper behaviour for supermarket-bought food. I wonder what they’ve been putting into flour these days. Anyway, the idea of bread cutting me sounds like a Yakov Smirnoff joke.