25 From inside the community Nature Notes Life is full of surprises. I received a call from a friend of mine, Patricia, who some of you may know through her delightful book of short stories and poems, The Wisterious Notebook. Patricia had discovered a rather large wasp nest in her loft that the Council pest control team would be removing. She wondered if I would like to see it, if it could be successfully removed undamaged. It was removed largely unscathed and as you can see was lowered into a white refuse sack, the type we all use for our paper and plastic waste. It was, in my experience huge, about three times bigger than any I had seen before. It has been suggested it may in fact be a hornet nest. Research suggests both wasps and hornets build nests to a size to accommodate the colony involved. Both use chewed wood in layers for the casing, but the internal structure of the cells is different. It will not be cut open to look. We did try to find a display home for the nest but none has been found to-date. However, thanks to Patricia, some young school pupils have had the chance to see this clever piece of insect engineering at first hand whether wasp or hornet. We would be pleased to hear if a home for it could be found. I welcome the arrival of the new year of colour in the garden and our natural surroundings. Snowdrops, cherry plum blossom and some cyclamen bring delicate white. Crocus, daffodil and primrose bring vibrant yellow and other crocus and wood violet are deep purple. Shades of pink arrive with other cyclamen and the camelia. There is also a beautifully coloured early clematis, seen on the next page, that has adopted the behaviour of the cyclamen , i.e. having a mind of its own. Where the cyclamens’ tip-toeing slyly from the rockery to the lawn has become a bold stroll, the clematis has decided to spread its wings and not only grow up
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