Sting in the tail

Another beautiful day today. The sun was shining again as we walked out towards Mapperley Village, along Slack Lane and once again, it was rather chilly. Having passed Mapperley and the reservoir, we climbed Shipley Hill to have another check on the Snowdrops.

With a little sunshine on them, they were beginning to open their petals and look all the better for it.

These Snowdrops were growing in small clumps on the western edge of Shipley Hill.

I find you can never tire of Snowdrops....

Now for the reason this blog post is called 'Sting in the Tail' (time to look away Malcolm).
A couple of days ago we had a visitor arrive in our back garden. Despite it being winter, we had a large Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) on the patio.

Much to Malcolm's consternation, I managed to snap a few pictures of the wasp before it warmed up enough to fly off again. It all goes to show just how mild this winter has been. Judging by it's size, I think this was a Queen Wasp, no doubt looking for somewhere to start a new colony - something that is usually done around April! No wonder this one was looking a little disorientated.