Yesterday, walking on a trail along the Eramosa River, I saw the remains of a paper wasp nest lying in pieces in the tall grass under a blazing maple sapling.
I didn't know what it was, at first, a curl of tabby grey, the size of a human head, or a little bigger. Broken apart, though, curved like a cupped hand, palm up. It looked soft-layered, like papier-mache, or scales, or feathers. I thought it might be an owl wing. It looked that silent.
Then I saw the face of the honeycomb, big as a salad plate and unmistakable. Grey and dry as ash.
James saw the comb at the same moment and leapt back like a cat, shouting. His phobia. So I didn't touch it. I wish I had. I wonder if it was soft. I might go back and try to find it again.
Seeing the soft hexagon of a slab-built clay plate just now made me think of the hive again. So I wrote this.
I found a piece of wasp nest a few weeks ago on a city street under a tree, Yes, it was light, almost as air, and stiff, like papier-mache, which I guess it literally is.
But would you call the octagonal structure honeycomb, with no honey in it? And are hives only for bees or can you apply the word to wasps nests too? ?
I also have seen a wasp's nest up close - with dead wasps in it. Neighbour had killed them and knocked the nest down. It was split open and seemed to be chambered. Hard to tell with all the dead wasps in it.
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