Exit through the wasp nest.
Monday July 29
Mine and Jan’s piece on the final day of bee stings.
This summer the forests of BC were offering cheap rent to hornets and wasps because the rate planters were getting stung was outrageous. Piled logs became devious areas. Not knowing whether a nest was awaiting you on the other side caused a lot of anxiety. Shannon and I started referring to it as, “The Fear”; when one of us hadn’t been stung in a couple hours or Shannon had just hit multiple nests within the hour we would yell that we had, “The Fear.”
Sometimes we dress the same
Ninjas
On Libby’s final day I was planting with her in a giant, swampy gully which had lots of slash (fallen logs and debris) left behind by loggers. We were on a particularly steep section and I’d climbed into a small space between logs and trees to plant a baby pine when I heard the buzzing. I froze trying to decide which way to run. I couldn’t see the nest and every direction looked just as tricky an escape as the next. I was stung twice on the leg while I yelled to Libby, “Where do I run?” Libby pointed downhill so I jumped — bags full of trees — and stumbled as quick as I could down the gully whilst yelling, “This is my worst nightmare!”
Ida and Denis thinking of a PRT photo contest idea.
So excited to tear down camp.
The yellow-jacket wasp stings became an annoyance but the black-jacket hornet stings would hurt the worst and the pain seemed to last longer. Only female wasps have stingers (figures) just as only female mosquito and black flies bite. Wasps and hornets eat other insects and are a natural pest control for farming. (Check it out NationalGeographic.com). Yet their purpose still doesn’t alleviate the amount of anxiety they caused this season… then again neither do mosquito larvae filtering water make up for the amount of blood they take each season.
Eddy loving our crew’s clean up task.
Robyn
Shitter duty.
Jeffrey in the sky with diamonds.
Final day of spring plant
Let Wander your Restless Hearts by Attack in Black
Darlin’ I know it’s hard sometimes to see the beauty underneath
These layers that we wear all winter
Darling when you talk that way I know you’re just trying to get me going
But what you say, I just don’t knowDarlin’ we have all got wild, wonderful, beautiful, wandering hearts.
Let them wander, let them go
Darling you’ve been gone so long, I can hardly even remember the promises we made to eachotherDarlin’ our whole lives as strangers and lovers, some nights one, some nights the other
Darling morning’s coming quickly with sunshine or storm and I don’t need the shelter of your kind wordsI said darlin’ woo-hoo, woo-hoo, woo-hoo hoo…
touristinthewrite 