In the summer we had a wasps nest.  It was rather inconvenient dragging our guests in by the scruff of their necks before the wasps got at them, although the dishy postman didn’t seem to mind too much. But as Christmas approached and the need for Christmas decorations grew more urgent, Colin, my husband, was forced to venture into the wasp infested loft bedecked in a builder’s hard hat, swimming goggles, a mask and muffled up with a scarf to extract them. What he brought down from the loft instead was a perfectly formed wasps nest, minus the wasps, the size of a football. It was beautiful, exquisite, almost like a tapestry with sections strategically overlapping each other.  It was so lovely I was reluctant to get rid of it. But what exactly does one do with an old wasps nest?

I left it in the garage for over Christmas while I set about decorating my own home; perhaps not as decoratively as the wasps did theirs, but with tinsel, lights and baubles on the tree it was cosy.

But now Christmas is over.  The tinsel lights and baubles are back in their box in the loft along with, I noticed, a number of dead wasps.  And the wasps nest?  Well I’m ashamed to admit that as I had given Colin a lecture on hoarding inconsequential stuff I felt obliged to throw it in the bin.

Happy New Year!

Joan