Monday, August 29, 2011

Could St. Jerome Help Here?


The reason I asked about St. Jerome is that, in the very center of the photo above, is a hornets' nest. Hornets are known for their grumpy disposition and general unfriendliness when disturbed, and St. Jerome had a bit of a temper too.

This particular hornets' nest is overhanging the street beside my house.  It is in a maple tree that is in my backyard; the one that provides shade for my chicken coop.  It's NOT the one that's dying and needs to be cut down (isn't that always the way?)

If I had normal children I could say:
"See that? It's a hornets' nest. If you bother a hornet, not only will it get mad, but it's kind of like throwing a rock at a gang member; the hornet you aggravated will give the super-secret distress signal to his brothers, sisters, cousins and aunts and THEY will then be aggravated at you for daring to irritate their relative.."

And after that little speech, the normal children I do not have would carefully consider things and decide that a different spot would be better for playing in the street.

But no! (So I suppose I need a saint for wayward children too; any suggestions?)

MY children are outside, in the street, directly UNDER the hornets' nest, happily playing with paper airplanes, which they are carelessly flinging into the air with utter abandon, completely unconcerned that at any moment, given a wayward puff of air current, one of those paper airplanes could SMACK into the hornets' nest and

RELEASE THE KRAKEN.

Sixteen years ago, when living in another place, I discovered a hornets' nest on the eave of my outbuilding. I called an exterminator, and ended up having to pay for TWO sservice calls.....one to determine that it really was a hornets' nest (evidently some people confuse paper-wasp nests with hornets' nests, although personally I cannot see how that could ever happen, they look nothing alike), and then for the hornets to be exterminated and the nest destroyed.  Sixteen years ago that cost nearly $150.  I shudder to think what it would cost now.
Money I haven't a lot of.  Prayer, I'm kind of good at that, so that's what I'll go with this time.  Any other ideas?


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