The Recorders Conference and the Ruby-tailed Wasp

It was the Recorder's Conference on Saturday.  I was so worried about not being able to go, but after a prayer, and a dose of painkillers (acting in harmony with my prayer) I did make it.  It was a good day out, as always. We connected with a lot of old friends: Mark, Nigel, Neil and others. And Michael Blencowe and Clare did their usual brilliant job of organising and compering.  Everyone involved did, plus the caterers who produced an excellent veggie buffet.

I was a little sad about the wasp survey, in which the wasps had to be drowned and then sent in to be recorded.  Hard to imagine a butterfly, or bee, or fluffy kitten(!) survey being conducted in the same way.  But... Mark put me right by pointing out that wasps are not endangered.  And we all sometimes have to kill insects.

Which is sadly true.  We had to have a bees nest in our Saudi garden destroyed.  It was not only their home, but it was a work of art.  Our garden was small, but we inherited our friends' gardeners. They needed the work, and they made our back garden their base during the days. They had other employees in camp they worked for, but they kind of came and went from our back garden, so we left it to them. But then the bees turned up. They were aggressive little stingers.  One gave me a rather painful sting as I fished it out of our pool at the front - gently and carefully. Which made us worried what a swarm of them might do if they set about our gardeners having their lunch under the wasp nest tree. So we could not risk in on their behalf.  Plus they were the breadwinners for their extended family back on the sub-continent - no welfare state to fall back on if they became ill. No sick pay either.  I felt very bad about it though.

Anyway, here is a rather beautiful ruby-tailed wasp, photographed by Captain B, if I remember rightly on one of our trips to the Wetland Trust.  It will help to show that not only are wasps useful, but they are marvelous creations.

I keep thinking of the restored earthly paradise, when everything will be in its rightful place, doing the job it should be doing, and the original loving harmony of Eden will prevail earthwide.

Bees and wasps will buzz happily about our lovely gardens, doing their job, and coming to us for help if they ever need it.  That picture of the paradise to come needs to stay in my mind, as I am finding being in my late seventies rather difficult and painful.  And, as the Bible tells us, hope is a secure anchor.