Stirring up a hornet's nest.....

Question:How many house group members does it take to tackle a hornet?????

Answer:Many, plus much screaming, shaking and telephoning from one side of a door to the other.

There are occasions in life when you see people as they really are, when truth will out as people revert to type. Take our house group. We meet weekly. We have become an incredibly close knit group who laugh together, pray together and study together. We are getting to know each other really well and Tuesday evenings are one of the highlights of my week.

Last time we met we had an incident. As we came to the end of our prayer time a low droning noise was heard. We thought the Luftwaffe were on their way in. Not so. The most enormous queen hornet you have ever seen had decided to check out our sitting room with a view to building a nest.

Now, our group is made up of people who hold responsible positions at work. They are people you can turn to in any kind of crisis....except the crisis of a nest-seeking hornet. The police woman left the room so quickly she left a trail of smoke, a former nurse was rooted to the spot and the vicar's wife took immediate action. I shouted loudly for the Vicar that lives here!!!

We shut the Vicar and the head teacher in the sitting room with a plank of wood and a bicycle lamp...obviously! After an hour...yes, an hour of much activity, during which time my brand new lamp shade came a cropper and several pounds were spent phoning each other for updates because we didn't want to open the door, one of my beautiful little girls came up with a cunning plan.

"Daddy," she said, "Why don't you catch it in my pink fishing net??" The child is a genius! Not thirty seconds later said hornet was gone and peace was restored. We put the kettle on, showered the Vicar that lives here and the headteacher with kisses for their bravery but poured praise and admiration on a small girl with more sense than the rest of us put together.

It came back twice, the old hornet. It obviously really liked our chimney but we felt unable to accommodate it. On it's third visit we made it very clear that it was never to return, and it hasn't. Does anyone know how to get hornet guts of the sitting room carpet? Perhaps I need the wisdom of an 8 year old genius again!!

Much love,

Rachel.