A Garden Story.

If politics and only politics is your gig, this post is not for you. Sometimes I'm afraid the post is running into information overload .

Like this week-end . This morning I took my coffee to the deck instead of the computer desk.

The bird feeding tube is still on the table. It's half full of black niger seed which the birds, for reasons best known to themselves, are not eating. I brought it from the hook by the bird bath.

Yellow finch and chickadees take samples and leave. I decided to change the supply.

Last Thursday, my youngest son Andrew noticed a wasp inside. He thought it was trapped and took the top off to let it go. He casually mentioned he didn't believe in killing wasps. They are part of things he said, just like we are. My son is the father of a teen..

I smiled secretly. Killing or hurting anything for the sake of it was always verboten.I may or may not take credit but it pleased me to hear it.

When he took the top off the tube to let the wasp go, a shape fell from the tube top on to the seeds.Two tiny white orbs were in place in compartments that formed a sphere.

I thought, well that complicates things. How do I get rid of the seeds now.

Yesterday I noticed the wasp was back. On top of the sphere. It seemed to be just lying there without much color or energy.

This morning ,things have changed again. The wasp is bright and shiny and busy. What had been a perfectly rounded shape is now irregular . It flew laboriously to the tube top several times but couldn't quite make it. Three times he fell down with the weight he was carrying before giving up and going back to work on the sphere.

This is a single small insect barely an inch long.

I watched a bit longer.

Incredibly, a built structure the size of a walnut, is being transported, piece by piece, back to its original location underneath the rounded metal tube top.

The orbs are the size of small grape seed. As the honeycomb compartments are reduced , more orbs appear.

Of course, it means I will have to buy a new bird feeder as well as a fresh supply of seed.