Party Photo..... and Yellow Jackets !

Happy Saturday ! Again !

I was playing at my art table late yesterday evening and I had a torn piece of paper that I loved and I sat there for an unknown amount of time, "auditioning" it with other papers and shapes and the such, but after a good while, I didn't quite make it come together, so I put it aside and decided to make something that was mostly from the scraps that were laying across my table. I had somewhat sorted them to size so I could put them away, but....that hadn't happened yet.

This is what I came up with. When I started, I thought I was doing to use out of the pile of thinner paper strips, but then quickly changed to the wider ones as a base. I never intended for any to have a face, just different shaped smaller pieces across the top. Of course that made it turn into a group of people and then out of the blue, I put a little triangle over one of the top shapes and all of the sudden, it was a Party Photo ! ha..... Then everybody needed a hat and of course, a tiny bit of confetti.

I started smiling before I could even finish it and it makes me grin every time I look at it now.

Where it was born ! It's kind of neat how something so fun can come out what appears to be chaos.

Here it is with a little distance. Also another one I have not shown before. I'll show it closer up later I am sure. You'll like it when I do. I'll have to insist on it. 😂

This morning I had to make a call next door to my Aunt & Uncle's house whose land I live on. When I went out this week, I found there was a lot of Yellow Jacket activity going in and out of the azalea bush right next to my front steps. This may have been there a lot of this summer, but I simply never noticed the activity. I thought about calling an exterminator myself and just have it taken care of, but since the Yellow Jackets were flying in and out of the bush and the leaves are very thick, I wasn't sure if they would need to cut away anything and for that reason, I felt like I needed to let my folks know before I did such a thing.

Yellow Jackets are a bad kind of wasp if you are not familiar. They do not lose their stinger when they sting, so each one can sting over and over and not only THAT... they bite too ! To make matters worse, if you aggravate one or kill one, they excrete some sort of warning pheromone that will cause the others to come and attack. If they get this on you, it can tag you invisibly for a good while and not only THAT.... they have been known to chase people for a good long ways, so running won't always save you.

Yikes ! Right ??!

So I called them because sometimes they come over while I am at Mom's and see if there is anything they want to change in my yard. 😄 Hey, it's their property and I don't really care what they do, so.... anyway, I didn't want them to do that and one of them get attacked. I also was going to offer to have an exterminator handle it at my expense. The first thing from my 80something year old aunt's mouth was, "Oh we have cans and cans of spray over here" .... What?? Ugh, I really didn't want them handling it. I don't want to be attacked and I surely didn't want them too either.

Then she told me a story about just in the past few weeks, they had been at her family's old home place mowing and the such and out of the blue, she was attacked by some Yellow Jackets. They got her multiple times on her forearms and maybe her legs. She ended up having to go to the emergency walk in because her hands were beginning to swell from the shear number of stings and they also gave her an antibiotic.

Before she went to the clinic though, they had some spray with them and she drenched where she thought they were coming from and after the clinic, they got MORE spray and went back and sprayed some more! They are both definitely braver than me (or crazier???)..... because NO...no way, nope, HELL NO !... and forgetaboutit.... I would not do that myself !! She said it took about 2 weeks before she got all the way over it.

Not too long after, I see my Uncle go over to his big Man Shed and get his golf cart out with the little trailer on the back and watched as he drove around to the front of my house. I didn't watch him the whole time. I was holding my breath though. So he sits in the cart a while just watching and then takes a can and goes over to spray and then I see him going back to his cart. He doesn't seem to be swatting or the such, so I'm supposing he got away away with the first spraying unscathed. I also know one time won't do it because they nest in the ground and you can't see under the bush to target it directly.

There is my excitement for the day and I was only an observer ! We'll see what happens !

Ok... time to do some more Saturday stuff.

Hope you all have or have had a happy day.

Love you ! Mean it !

Jacey