The wood is almost all in and so am I...
This...in July
is now this...in September
Charlie looking alert (because he can)
and yes, this is what a piano 'harp' looks like (our first major step
toward installing radiators was to get this out of the parlor.)
That looks like a paper wasp nest to me. They make wonderful paper. Around here they're pretty gentle, too, not very sting prone. We get a lot of these in trees and under the eaves.
ReplyDeleteThe piano looks like an artwork; I love it.
More on yellow jackets: around here they're strictly ground nesters, usually sneakily burrowing in the ground under shrubs and places where they can ambush people and pets. Not a fan, though I suppose they have their place in the natural round.
ReplyDeletei checked, and one site said yellow jackets, the other says 'wasps'. I do know that our yellowjackets nest in the ground, but only during dry years (I suppose to keep from shriveling up), as anyone who has mowed a field in July can attest to; I'll go with paper wasp, which seems to be a generic term (according to google) for any wasp that builds a papery nest.
ReplyDeleteYou gotta admit, that is one big mother of a nest...
I am apparently faintly allergic to wasps in general, and last week one calmly flew over to where I was annoying his (hidden) nest by jiggling the box it was in, and nailed me just once on the wrist, like mother saying, "STOP THAT". I could feel my ears go a bit numb, and I itched along every nerve ending for about ten minutes, and that was it. Not something I'd want to deal with regularly.
Yeah, I hated to see that harp go, it's a masterpiece of design, but fairly unnerving when you walk into a room and it hummmms at you. "hiiiii... hummmmmannnn" The sad thing is, no one wants a piano, anyonne who wants music uses synthesizers or tapes or a guitar, which would be my choice if I had a few grand to spare...
I did ask my husband not to spray that nest, it's well away from the porch, and I'd hate to think of birds feasting on those yummy wasps as they drop to the ground full of bug killer.
After all these years, I would just like to say I haven't stopped following your blog.
ReplyDeleteHugs from Simcountry's Laguna.
oh, Laguna, that pleases me more than you can imagine. (trying not to sniffle)
DeleteIn the backroom of Blogger we have a little maplet of the world, and now and then I see that someone has been lurking, from South America. Aha, she says. aha.
And after all these years, thank you.
one look at that nest, and i can hear my EpiPen calling my name. that pile of wood, however, is stunning. we have a fireplace, but it is decorative at this point, as there are strict regulations against anything as joyful as a crackling wood fire here in Montreal.
ReplyDeleteshould you hear a knock at your door and open it to find a lunatic standing there carrying a spinning wheel and a basket of wool, that would be me coming to sit for a bit in front of a lovely warm fire.
I hear that, Im faintly allergic (for now) to hornets but everything else seems okay. But yea, that's an impressive nest. Seems a shame to take it down, and probably more lethal splattered on the ground with thousands of wasps staging a March on Humans with Sticks...
DeleteOur fires are all nicely contained in stoves, lined chimneys, cleaned, ready to go. The town raises an eyebrow over it, but we aren't near anyone, and have never had a problem-that-they-know-of so we're good to go right now.
You're more than welcome to visit, spinning wheel and wool included, and the cats won't mind at all. (Woodstoves aren't nearly as charming as open fireplaces, but they do keep us warmer)
I will admit, I'm always stunned by that wood, too. All but the last bit is in, and the shed is literally and utterly full to the brim.
i had a friend back in college whose family's place in upstate NY was heated entirely by a wood stove which also served as their main cooking appliance during the colder parts of the year. her mother discovered that i liked baked goods, so she would send us treats made in that stove. that was the tastiest baklava i have had in my whole life and any that i tasted since those days only ever manages to disappoint.
Deleteyep that sounds about right, I have a cookstove in the kitchen, and every summer I have to learn how to use an electric stovetop, all over again. It beats the heck out of a slow cooker, you just shove the food to the cool side and let it do its thing. =)
DeleteWe have three stoves (no waiting, no crowding) which do a really nice job of comforting in the wintah. And a source of a ridiculous amount of exercise come summer...
We CALL that a hornets nest in Missouri, and hornets hurt. The best thing for s nest
ReplyDeletelike that is a big torch st night.
we call them that too, but I'd not want to torch it, it would take out our hundred year old maple in the yard, and probably the house with it. Not good. it's not hurting anything, and I expect the snow will bring it down this winter.
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