Show me the Hand

If I have learnt anything from the past week, it is to never ignore a rash. What I thought was a simple allergic reaction to a plant turned out to be a spider bite. And a rather nasty one at that. My hand swelled up and red, mottled sores appeared all over the back of it, thankfully more itchy than painful. Denis of course, immediately pointed out the culprit on the wall which he had finished cleaning for me – a brown recluse spider. Tiny little thing but could pack a punch when disturbed. By me. I popped into the local pharmacy where my hand was inspected with expert knowledge, given a load of anti-histamines and told to go to the doctor if it didn’t clear up. It didn’t so the next day I popped in to see Dr Lefvre, a man who has been treating our family for weird ailments for two decades. I walked out 10 minutes later armed with a powerhouse of antibiotics and orders to rest up for a week. Slowly but surely the infection is now receding as is the infernal itch.

Such a rarity has caused quite a stir in the village and with my pustules regularly checked, given rise to many opinions on the seriousness of said bite. Most of them on a scale from dire to practically fatal. My neighbour (Louise the octogenarian) was very concerned having Googled the rash and sagely pronounced I had septicaemia. Not really all that comforting. On the plus side Denis and the rest of our workforce traded stories about various arachnid onslaughts all of which had happy outcomes. Apparently my English skin is a bit soft so I had a reaction to the bite, their skin is too tough and weathered for the little devils. Needless to say I shall restrict my gardening activities to planting as not to upset the ecosystem further.

As per doctor’s orders, I haven’t touched either the garden or the main house which is just as well as we had a surprise land on notre terre yesterday. My younger brother, Moth, has touched down in Rouffiac. Actually we knew it might be a possibility but until he landed at Toulouse Airport having left Nairobi the day before, we weren’t counting on it. Having Moth here is a huge relief for Mumo and I as he can crack on with demolishing the old kitchen and get the builders up and running even if he is in quarantine for a week. And I don’t feel guilty at not being able to get my hands dirty for once. I am however, eager to see what my new superpowers are going to be…..

“Dear little not-so-innocents, beware of Old Grandmother Spider: rump her endearments – She’s not quite as nice as She looks, nor you quite as tough as you think.” (W.H. Auden)