Homecoming in August - Surprises await me!

Invasion of the carpenter bees
I was greeted by a host of dead bees by the doors and windows. Very strange. I had noticed one of two before and assumed they came in from the outdoors. The teenager that was watering for me says they had a nest in the chimney and came through. With the house shut up and no access to water, they all died. This is good they are all dead except there maybe more larvae in the house. I will be calling an exterminator.

Dead bees

Bee or  in Italian ape

I also found chimney debris on the hearth in the den fireplace. It was clean when I left. Now Johnnie had this blocked off with cardboard so we didn't lose heat up the chimney last winter (no damper). One edge of his cardboard plug was loose and that is obviously where the debris fell through. I will definitely ask the landlord to get a chimney sweep out to clean the chimneys before winter so we can safely have a fire.

Charcoal from the chimney

In addition to the dead bees I find evidence of something eating wood in the house. The baseboard trim in one place is severely eaten as well as the beautiful old bookcase in the studio. If we were in the US I would say termites although I don't see some of the typical signs of terminates. But these homes have very little wood so termites are not very common in Italy.

Wood dust in bookcase

More evidence of wood dust

Bookcase damage

Baseboard trim eaten by something

Getting someone over to look at this is a priority now. I am not anxious to meet the next generation of these bees or whatever is eating the wood in the house.

Garden update
My Italian friends faithfully watered while I was gone and managed to keep most of our garden going in spite of the terrific heat in Italy. I am playing catch up this week on dead-heading the flowers and doing extra weeding. The gardener needs to mow. We have lots of apples and pears on the trees now.

Resident cat
Our little stray that lives in the garage is still around. I have not put out food for a couple months but he/she still sleeps in the garage. That is really fine with me as it will keep down the rodent population I hope. Since we are on the edge of the city right next to the woods, mice are a constant reality. Poor thing looks so skinny -- we suspect he/she probably has worms and fleas and ticks. Wish I could get close enough to him/her to administer Advantix drops.

Electricity update
The good news is, it seems our electricity stayed on the entire time without tripping the main breaker. What little food I left in the frig seems to be fine. Yea! I celebrate all the victories, little and big!