Wasps, a heap of oomska, and a sheet of plastic...
Yesterday afternoon was really pleasant, something about the air in autumn casts me back 30-odd years to the start of the new University year, youth blooming through regardless of the season.
I wound up the hosepipe and put it on top of the arbour. Collated and rolled up the inherited bird nets, (including the fish nets: would a dunnock get through that gauge?). All bits of rope collected up and stashed. So: safe for dogs, nothing to play tug-o-war with? Hmm. There's a plastic sheet over the heap of riddled earth... And then I realised: the wasps' nest is between another plastic sheet and the dunghill. It's quite clear that the dogs would love to drag the sheet away, and thereby get into an unlooked-for show-down with the wasps.
Professor Google suggests that the wasp queen will have, winged her way to find a hibernation spot. (I found one last winter when I demolished the old shed - thought, 'that's a bloody big wasp!'). But the rest of them will hang around until the cold kills them off, and will stay longer if they have enough to eat. Next door has apple trees, and never have bothered to harvest them, so there'll be plenty of decomposing apples for the wasps. Bugger.
I levelled as best I could the shed base, and then had a go at moving the floor. But it's bloody heavy, and piles of bricks, the oomska, the perennial weeds' roots for burning, are all in the way, making it difficult to maneuver. So I need to tidy up that whole SW corner before I start building the shed: the allotment rubik's cube strikes again. And there's a rudderless wasps' nest in that mix.
At the moment I'm thinking, clear up as much as possible. And then go again very early, 6am, say, when it's still dark, and whip the plastic sheet off of the top of the oomska heap, exposing the wasps' nest. And then run away. Come back later to see how things stand. I have no idea how the nest is configured, between the sheet and the shit.
I wound up the hosepipe and put it on top of the arbour. Collated and rolled up the inherited bird nets, (including the fish nets: would a dunnock get through that gauge?). All bits of rope collected up and stashed. So: safe for dogs, nothing to play tug-o-war with? Hmm. There's a plastic sheet over the heap of riddled earth... And then I realised: the wasps' nest is between another plastic sheet and the dunghill. It's quite clear that the dogs would love to drag the sheet away, and thereby get into an unlooked-for show-down with the wasps.
Professor Google suggests that the wasp queen will have, winged her way to find a hibernation spot. (I found one last winter when I demolished the old shed - thought, 'that's a bloody big wasp!'). But the rest of them will hang around until the cold kills them off, and will stay longer if they have enough to eat. Next door has apple trees, and never have bothered to harvest them, so there'll be plenty of decomposing apples for the wasps. Bugger.
I levelled as best I could the shed base, and then had a go at moving the floor. But it's bloody heavy, and piles of bricks, the oomska, the perennial weeds' roots for burning, are all in the way, making it difficult to maneuver. So I need to tidy up that whole SW corner before I start building the shed: the allotment rubik's cube strikes again. And there's a rudderless wasps' nest in that mix.
At the moment I'm thinking, clear up as much as possible. And then go again very early, 6am, say, when it's still dark, and whip the plastic sheet off of the top of the oomska heap, exposing the wasps' nest. And then run away. Come back later to see how things stand. I have no idea how the nest is configured, between the sheet and the shit.
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