Next Tuesday is Breaking Bread for Peace, never needed more than this year. This is an annual day to bring the aroma of baking into your life and share your bread with others and it’s all the idea of wonderful Breezy Willow Kelly. I’ve written about Breezy often and this is part of one of the articles and despite very troubled recent times, loosing her home through fire and illnesses, she has proved she lets nothing daunt her spirit and her story is inspirational.
This lady from Glenties Co. Donegal, a baker and story teller, started this worldwide movement ten years ago and it took off big time, International Bake Bread Day for Peace is a challenge to all of us and there’s still time to go out, buy your ingredients and gather your family and friends for a great big bake off. As Breezy says, “What must you break apart in order to bring a family close together? Bread of course.”
Breezy had a difficult growing up, sad and painful and the only place she felt secure was in the kitchen when her mother was baking bread. “She was a master baker and the smell of freshly baked bread was the aroma of peace, the smell of freshly baking bread hugged me and I felt safe. And now I want this aroma of peace to fill the world.”
She explains it began when she woke up early one beautiful July morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. “I got up, went down the stairs, filled the kettle and because I hadn’t seen the news for days I turned on the television to catch up. I was floored by what I saw, disasters, wars, sadness and despair. Even before the kettle came to the boil my happy mood had changed and I felt fear. I was frightened about the situation both at home and round the world. We’re all concerned about what’s happening globally, makes you feel you should be doing something about it but what can you do? Seems you can do nothing. So you do nothing.”
But then, as she thought about it sitting over breakfast in the kitchen of her Donegal home, she realised perhaps there is something we could do. “Breaking bread is the universal sign of peace. I thought, you know maybe we could get a few heads together to organise something so I posted an idea on my Facebook later that morning and the response I got was overwhelming and led to the creation of an international day.”
I will do scones and share them and the house will be filled with warmth and I hope people will call and share. It’s chilling to see the news coverage in the Middle East where bread is in short supply. Pray for all those in peril next time you open a loaf and be grateful. Times here are bad but there is hope and help, both are in short supply in Isreal and Palestine.
CREEPING HORROR
It’s not a case of once bitten twice shy because it seems there’s no stopping them. They are the talk of the media these days but the word is – don’t get too excited, here in Northern Ireland we don’t suffer anymore than usual and that’s not a lot. What is this topic? Bed bugs. If you can believe what you hear, not only is Paris gearing up for flooding, its also hopping with these little critters and they are on the march across the channel travelling on live hosts like you and me, buried in our clothes and sucking our blood. They don’t sting they just munch away, I know because they’ve had a go at me in a clean well run hotel in Croatia and it’s not nice.
They Are Nothing New.
Back in time thatched cottages were home to insects of all sorts, they snuggled into the thatch warm and cosy as did mice, cats and dogs who climbed as high as possible to enjoy the rising heat. But they came to grief when it rained, falling off the straw or reeds and sliding to the ground, hence the saying it’s raining cats and dogs.
Often they would fall into the bedroom and the bed would be full of livestock so to counter this the woman of the house would have her man put posts top and bottom of the bed and then she’d hang a sheet over the top to afford some protection. And that’s how canopy beds came into existence.
Might this fashion make a come back? Perhaps in Paris or in New York where, since the Great Bed Bug Scare of 2015 nearly every hotel has been affected, be it boutique, five star or a 55 storey hotel in Lower Manhattan, they’ve all been affected at some point since the 1990s. It’s horrifying, once it has its host a bug can live between 135 and 277 days without a meal with life expectancy of around 10 months and lady bed bugs can give birth to as many as eight eggs per week, every week and that adds up. The UK saw a 65% increase in infestations in the last year due to people travelling, this rise in numbers isn’t surprising as there were fewer reported cases during the Covid lockdowns. Treating them isn’t straightforward and probably needs the help of professionals. When they were common before the Second World War DDT was a cheap and effective treatment but the sly little bugs became immune.
Seek Professional Help
I talked to Glenn Wilson of Bullseye Pest Control in Lisburn and his message is don’t panic but be vigilant. There was a heightened awareness during the 2012 Olympics in London and with Euro 2028 football championships coming to NI there will be a lot of travellers from all arts and parts of the world bringing bed bugs along for the ride. The government in France is holding crisis meetings to tackle the scourge ahead of the Olympics next summer but they admit time is running out while Glenn reports: “We’ve been monitoring ever since the 2012 London Olympics so we’re prepared.”
As a member of the British Pest Control Association Glenn has studied these little monsters and the different stages of development, how they can lie dormant for months only to awake like sleeping beauty by human body temperature or vibration and they prefer our company rather than living together with their own kind. “They crawl rather than jump and they can climb up into light sockets, to a tear in wallpaper, in furniture and lodge in clothing. When travelling back from holiday we recommend you secure your clothes in black bags and then wash them immediately you get home either in a hot wash of 70 degrees or put them in the freezer for a couple of days – they don’t like that!”
Keeping Control
You can prevent an infestation by checking not only your mattress but round the frame of the bed, hoovering all round and underneath, checking curtains, drawers, cupboards. But what are you looking for? Not easy, they are no bigger than a grain of rice and oval shaped, six legs, dark yellow, red or brown. The eggs are translucent white and appear on their own or in clusters. If they do bite what to do. NHS recommends putting something cool on the bites, not to scratch and keep the area clean. A pharmacist might be able to recommend a steroid cream or an antihistamine.
So what’s the answer. “Get in touch with a pest control company, arrange a call out and certainly as far as we’re concerned if treatment is necessary that cost will be deducted. Treatment can be chemical or non-chemical, using heat or a recommended strong insecticide which is safe when being administered in safe hands.”
More from Bullseye Pest Control Lisburn 02892688595
PS. I HAVE CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT ANGELA RIPPON – FOR THE LAST TWO WEEKS SHE HAS BEEN AWSOME.