June 30th

Well, the last day of a cold, wet, stormy and rather boring June here in the Limousin area of France, although it is actually sunny and warm today. Perhaps July will be better.

Today I found a wasp's nest, on the underside of one of the slats of the bench in the garden. Seems an odd place for them to build, but there you are. I thought at first they were bees and got excited at the thought of some wild honeycomb. However my son pointed out that the insects in the picture were actually wasps and advised that I should get rid of them as soon as possible!

In the evening (when apparently they are calmer) I scraped the nest off the bench with wallpaper scraper and poured boiling water over it. The nest, which was of a papery construction, fell apart, and several grubs fell out. These I tipped more boiling water over, to make sure, and left them as food for the birds.

A few wasps are still hovering around the bench, looking for the nest, I guess, but they haven't tried to re-make it yet.