My new home in Virginia came with something very unexpected… a huge underground yellow jacket nest! Unfortunately the young men from a tree service that I hired discovered the wasps the hard way.

What I learned from this experience:

-Yellow jackets are attracted to motion. Waving or swatting only makes you more visible to them.

-Cartoon depictions of black swarms of bees clustering together to look like a dark cloud chasing after someone REALLY HAPPENS!!
-The ideal time to kill a wasp nest above or below ground is in the evening when all the scouts are back in the hive.

- In an emergency, fill a bucket with water and then add about a cup of liquid dishwashing detergent by just making a layer of it on top of the water. (Do not stir or mix.) If you can get to the underground nest without too much danger- in other words, do this in the evening, pour the bucket of water into the hive. Supposedly the water drowns them and the soap adds a layer to the top of the water that they can’t swim through. My tree service killed the hive by doing this and amazingly it was confirmed by the pest control service the next am.

-When being attacked by a swarm of angry, hyper-aggressive yellow jackets it is important never to be the slowest runner!

Thanks so much to the past clients, friends and family that have been so supportive! Your cards, flowers and baskets of goodies mean the world to me.

Further updates on me this week… My port was implanted on Monday and it took me a couple of days to fully recuperate from that. But, I didn’t let it stop me from going to see the Dave Matthews Band at the Ampitheatre last night with friends- even if we had to sit in the Handicap section! (Can you say lots of leg room and primo seats?) Another exciting bit of news is that Rob is coming back into town for the weekend. (Hurray!)

I’m due for another surgery on Monday. Hopefully after I heal from getting the lymph nodes out, I can start my chemo and radiation and we can get this party started! This might sound awful, but I’m sooooo ready to start feeling worse so that I can start feeling better! The past months have been so draining both mentally and physically. I want to be able to pick up my camera again and get back to living a normal life again! …Er, okay, at least a normal life for me!

I promise to keep you updated on when Leslie du Mont Photography opens back up! Words cannot express how excited I am just thinking about it.

That is it for now.

Leslie

Well, the past few days the temperatures have been in the 100’s here in Hampton Roads! Luckily, I’ve spent the past few days in our crystal clear pool, in air conditioned hospitals or unpacking boxes in the new house. Whatever you do during this heat, don’t forget to provide lots of fresh water for your pets and make sure you children get enough fluids to replenish what they lose during the day! We pick my DD up from camp tomorrow and I can’t help but wonder how all of those children have survived the crippling heat of the past few days.

This evening as I recuperated from one of my latest procedures at the hospital, I discovered that Amazon and Nova finally put the Wings of Madness episode up for sale. We’re a little biased about this story since it is one of my husband’s relatives, but the story behind the aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-du Mont is one that is so captivating and remains unknown to so many people here in the US that I had to mention it in my blog! Every American child has heard of the Wright Brothers in elementary school when they learn about aviation, right? But the name of aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-du Mont is recognized all over the world! (Check out the Smithsonian next time you’re in DC to see a replica of his planes and various flying machines.) His story of a wealthy eccentric playboy that became driven and some say obsessed with early ideas of flight is one of white-knuckled daring and pluck! I was just glad to find yet another gem to add to our growing collection of Santos-du Mont material. If you’ve heard of him before or have been inspired to read about him, let me know what you think!