We’ve got some bags hanging up in the garden, full of soil.  They used to have flowers growing out of them and looked beautiful but with the arrival of our children some of the gardening chores (as with some of the household chores) went out of the window.  One of those chores was upkeep of the flower bags and now they just hang empty (but for the soil) from the fences.  However, they’re not unused as it seems that the wasps have made their homes in them.  Both the husband and I have spotted wasps carrying bits of vegetation (I really didn’t know that wasps flew around with big bits of leaves) into a couple of these bags.  Today I decided that it would make for a great blog picture – a wasp disappearing into the bag with a bit of leaf almost the same size as it.  Had I realised the enormity of what I was trying to do I may well not have bothered.

I had the lovely Angelfeet and equally lovely neighbour from across the road visiting today so we sat in the garden and chatted while 5 children rumbled around on slides and in paddling pools (lovely neighbour from across the road’s baby is only 4 weeks so didn’t do so much rumbling around!).  Occasionally I’d snatch up the camera and appear to be taking pictures of the fence.  I explained what I was trying to do and at one point had to hand over camera control to Angelfeet as I did some cuddling of lovely neighbour from across the road’s baby and then had to jiggle a small child (the boy) on my knee.  Lovely neighbour from across the road was facing where the wasps were coming from so she became designated spotter.  Everytime she saw a wasp with greenery she would shout and Angelfeet (who had invariably put the camera down so as to join in the conversation) would grab the camera and try to take a picture.  Only problem was that these wasps disappeared into the bag very quickly once they got there (and were impossible to photograph on the fly, as ’twere) and Angelfeet is, unsurprisingly, not familiar with my camera which I’m sure, you’ll appreciate, makes it tricky to catch a split-second moment.  She had 7 attempts with nary a wasp in shot!  We decided in the end that we’d have to get Gawdess to come over the seas to take the shot for us because she is the undisputed queen of bug shots (and also takes beautiful pictures of many other things, herself included).

Finally, when I was having tea outside I managed to bag this shot.  It isn’t the best shot of the day (that honour belongs to Angelfeet who took some other lovely pictures whilst playing with my camera) but lovely neighbour from across the road said she’d be right miffed if there wasn’t a picture of a wasp on my blog today.  It hasn’t even got a big bit of leaf but I’m pretty pleased that I managed to catch it at all.