Hot pursuit

Twice yesterday I was pursued by a hornet.
Both times were self inflicted.

The first time was in the morning walking in the woods with the boys and dogs. There is a wooden watch tower and David ran ahead to climb up into it as usual. I'm sure there is a sign that advises against it for safety reasons but that has never stopped us before. This time however, he didn't reach the top step and came running back towards us shouting that there was a wasps nest.
So , what does any self respecting home educating mother of four boys do??
Yes you've guessed it!
I went as close as I could to try and take pictures with my phone.
Isn't that what you would've done?
Oh. I see.
Well, being fairly challenged in the height department, Jonathan decided that he could climb to the second step and get a picture of the nest. So he did, although he zoomed in a little too far, and the resulting picture isn't of a quality I would put here.
The hornets, for that is what they were didn't seem to bothered by our attention, and there were only a couple flying around the top of the tower. Until we turned our back to walk away!!!!!!!
One of them came after me in hot pursuit!!!! I heard the buzzing noise come closer and then stop. It didn't carry on over my head and away, it just kept buzzing! Right at the back of my head!!!!! I shook my head a few times to try to get it to leave me alone but it just kept on buzzing!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!
Tom had Will on his shoulders some way away and he and David started walking further ahead, but Jon was behind me and could see it on my hood!!!

I was petrified, but I quickly managed to pull my fleecy jacket off over my head and dumped it on the floor. Then I felt really vulnerable because my arms and neck were exposed.
Jonathan, my hero, stood on the hood to kill it and then we picked up my jacket and got far enough away to feel safe.
Phew. I was shaking like a leaf.



Scary looking beasts aren't they?!! We could see that it had latched on to my hood with its jaws which is why I couldn't shake it off.
And this what good old Wiki has to say about them....

Hornets, like many social wasps, can mobilize the entire nest to sting in defense, which is highly dangerous to humans. The hornet alarm pheromone is used to raise alarm of nest attack and to identify prey, such as bees. It is not advisable to kill a hornet anywhere near a nest, as the distress signal can trigger the entire nest to attack. Materials that come in contact with pheromone, such as clothes, skin, dead prey, or hornets, must be removed from the vicinity of the hornets nest. Perfumes and other volatile chemicals can be falsely identified as pheromone by the hornets and trigger an attack.
As in all stinging wasps, hornets can sting multiple times; they do not die after stinging a human as is typical for a worker honey bee, as a hornet's sting is not barbed. They can also bite and sting at the same time.

How lucky were we?????!!!
The nest was a work of art though. A proper ball of grey papery like substance. Fascinating. I just wish we had some good photos to make the scary experience worthwhile!


If you look carefully to the top right of the wooden tower you can see a little dark shape. Well, that is the hornet!!! I think he was camera shy!!!

And the second time yesterday???

Towing Tom's car(aka The Hornet) to this weekend's off road event!
It was a scary experience too I can tell you. Our car is lifted slightly and also has big chunky tyres on it which I think unbalanced the trailer slightly. That coupled with the wet roads made it quite nerve racking!
At least there was no danger of getting stung though. And in this case slow and steady was definitely the key.



Although the worst of this one is that I have to tow it home tomorrow!!!