Papermakers

Mighty keepers of the choke cherry tree.

About three weeks ago we headed for Bennett Mountain to gather some choke cherries.

We found a nice cluster of trees and shrubs, so we got our little baskets and buckets and headed for the bounty...Of course we knew we were not the only hungry beings in the area but that moment of picking berries to our hearts content temporarily blinded us to that possibility.

I didn't hear anything, but my friend walking with directed purpose toward me, pointing her finger toward the car (trying not to panic) snatched me up from following the trail of an ant carrying a giant bug to its home; I suppose it was lunch time.

Our berry picking adventure then continued a ways farther on down the road near a creek. This place was much more suited as a hang out for deer and other docile beings and humans (the gathering type).

The leaves had barely started to turn into their autumn colors and with a slight breeze they were shaking off the summer heat. It was a beautiful day. The baskets were full of plantain, golden rod, and elderberries and the time had come to head for home.

The Highway department crew had just dumped a three foot tall load of sand onto the entrance to the main road.

The thought of plowing though the pile, in spite of keeping up our docile profiles had crossed our evil minds. But again to the berry grove we headed once more where, low and behold, we found a great, big choke cherry tree.

Before leaving I decided to take a picture. To get decent photo I circled the tree and to my amazement found the biggest wasp's nest I had seen up to date... Really spectacular. As much as the wasps ability to make paper (in serious competition to Tom Bennick 's paper making skill) intrigued me I could tell that their dive bombing drill was not the wasps effort to show off their acrobatics team. I can take a hint.

No one got hurt.

We took this to mean that our gathering time was up and so headed for home.