Longstone Edge, Derbyshire: Coming across a wasps’ nest in disarray, with tell-tale paw prints everywhere, one can only imagine the drama that unfolded
T
he field we walked is a former quarry site called Deep Rake, which has been backfilled with spoil and is almost desert-like in its stoniness. This summer, the ground is even more dry and hard, yet as we crossed, we chanced on something that was as beautiful and unexpected as it was dangerous.
It was a wasps’ nest. About 10 inches underground, it had a limestone slab over the core and occupied the space of a deflated rugby ball. The outer structure comprised papery scallops overlapping like roof shingles. Every one had multicoloured bands – a pattern arising (one assumes) as the workers laid down the pulp, mouthful by mouthful, but from a multitude of timber sources. Each change of hue thus represents both hours of work and marginally different colours of wood. In a way, the nest is this entire landscape rendered through the art of paper-making, and all over its delicate detail were the artists themselves.
Some of you will perhaps be wondering – shouldn’t that nest have been enclosed in darkness, hidden to the world, accessible only through a wasp-sized entrance? Yet this was a nest in chaos and, in truth, the owners looked disoriented and uncertain, even lost.
