Good morning everyone. Here’s a turn up for the books … after Thursday’s announcement that we were taking a period away from the newsletter while travelling, here we are again. I really didn’t expect to be publishing a newsletter this week, or for the next three while we visited hard to access wildlife locations and distant small islands with no internet in the Gulf of St-Lawrence. Quite out of the blue on Friday we were told that the trip has been cancelled because one of the sailing schooner’s engines needs a major overhaul which has to be done in a dry-dock in Croatia. Stuff happens, but … there is some despondency around here today made bearable by tea.
I watched a number of different species of insects busily working the wild asters yesterday in unseasonably hot sunshine - including Honey Bees and several Diptera species. This is a Northern Paper Wasp (Polistes fuscatus). In Quebec, the species displays two different colour patterns - one with yellow abdominal spots and stripes, and the other, like this, with yellow abdominal stripes and lacking spots.Females possess a highly venomous sting which is absent in males. A sting is described as being excruciatingly painful, something which I can attest to having inadvertently disturbed an underground colony a couple of years ago. I won’t forget that encounter in a hurry, far worse than being stung by a Yellowjacket … on the other hand they are not particularly aggressive or looking of trouble unless you push a spade into the middle of their colony. In this way, we learn things.
The future is Bright …
This “Stack” has always been about one recent photograph with just a brief explanation of something interesting that I happen upon when out and about or pottering in our garden. I have decided not be any longer absolutely bound by the daily appearance of this title - it could be seven times a week or just once. Much will depend on the seasons, there being many more things to share in spring than January. Text, when present, will be minimal and primarily explanatory. I was delighted when one reader told me “I have been enjoying your daily photos. It is one of but a very few letters that I'm guaranteed to open up every day without fail. I'd be sad if it were to go away, but if you're exploring changes or other directions, I'm certainly open to such things (and curious!).” That’s what I wanted to create and I do hope others will think the same way.
Really, how can anyone not be instantly intrigued by something bearing the title, "Whilst out walking"!? I have a hypothesis that no sentient being can pass that up. (Nor should they!)
Well, , I'm in complete accord with that reader you quoted. Go any direction your fancy takes you! Chive on!