Cultured Views

The early weeks of June this year showed great promise in regards to the weather; I managed to work up a nice shade of tan while watching my boys play football in the local park each Saturday afternoon leading up to the school holidays with no effort at all, in fact most people asked me had I been on holiday!
We spent the past five years in the south of France where summer temps hover around 35-38C for weeks at a time and you get used to sleeping with an electric fan blasting away at you all night. I’m not saying the summers here in Ireland are as warm but going by these past couple of months I’m not complaining, it’s not too warm, it’s not humid and you can at least settle down and sleep at night without needing a force ten gale plugged in beside your bed. This summer has been superb weather-wise and we have made the most of the great outdoors but as the days and nights turn fresher and cooler there is one thing I wont miss about waving goodbye to summer here…the wasp.

Those bloody wasps! they have been the bane of picnics at our favourite divine scenic locations, they have plagued us at the new children’s playground at Carnfunnock, at Seapark, at Peaklands – as soon as you sit down at a table and pull out the food and drink they make a wasp-line for your cups and plates. They especially love it when you light the barbie. We’ve worked out that sitting near refuse bins is to be avoided as they congregate around them for the food scraps but councils these days place the bins beside the picnic tables so humans are not troubled by having to walk too far to dump their rubbish. We  took the kids to see the new playground opened at Carnfunnock a few weeks back and as there are bins dotted all around the enclosure, right alongside the seats, we were almost driven made by the wasps there. Women were waving tea towels over prams so the wasps did not settle on the babies – they were a real pest I can tell you.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a nature lover and feel that most creatures great and small have a place in the circle of life here on earth…but the wasp, I feel, is one thing that can disappear for good. At least for over the winter anyway…

Related posts:

1. Britain’s Got Talent 2010 – goodbye to the most mediocre series yet but hopefully more of Kieran Gaffney and Christopher Stone.
2. Jade’s funeral: saying goodbye to the Essex Princess ‘Jade’s Way’
3. Jade Goody and Jackiey Budden – two mothers saying goodbye
4. Kerry Katona sacks her agent – and waves goodbye to her ‘career’
5. Goodbye summer