WHAT'S THE BUZZ?

Answer: "Yellowjackets!" A whole nest of them, right under the open stairsteps going down from our guest bathroom to John's studio house. For a while, we'd seen a few of them floating around occasionally, but their larvae hatched recently, and suddenly there were too many of the little buzzers flitting about.

We called in the Marines, i.e. Mark The Exterminator; he came out this week with his deadly equipment, and terminated them (or so we hope). We haven't seen any since; but his ominous parting words have left us in doubt: "You should be OK now, unless they were camping in an old gopher tunnel or something similar, going back many feet; there could still be a lot more larvae in there waiting to hatch...."

"... or so you hope, General Zapperwhapper," I thought; at $150 a pop, he would be willing to wreak more devastation on their armies, I'm sure.

In other current news, the fire that started late this past week over in the next valley is still greying our afternoon skies with smoke residue here today; we're in no danger from flames, but smoky air is a real detriment to my lungs. So we're staying inside in the latter half of the day, keeping windows closed and ceiling fans whirling. This morning was clear and lovely, before the winds shifted this way, so we sat out on the deck after breakfast and basked in shaded sunlight, sipping tea and talking about last evening.

Our Crazy Peter had to leave today for another trip across The Pond, so we had him and TNT (aka Ted n' Teresa) over for a neighborly pasta feed. TNT brought two gorgeous salads of tomatoes from their garden: a melange of chopped multi-colored cherry tomatoes and cucumber, and a truly artful Isalata Caprese. I made a superb Spaghetti alla Carbonara, and we sipped wine and laughed and talked the evening away. New York Cheesecake with strawberry sauce ended the festivities early; and we bade farewell to the wayfarer.

Now we are resting and recovering, and spending a very quiet and peaceful Sunday – as I hope are all of you busy little bees.