Wood Eye?!

This is not something I grew, but it's too cool not to share. What do you think it is? It looks like a beautiful sort of wood, doesn't it? Give up? It's part of a wasp's nest! Or is that hornets? Is there an entomologist in the house?

A few weeks ago, we noticed a very large hive hanging low from the big cedar out in the field. So large and so low that we wondered how we had missed it. Probably, we determined, it had been higher up and not visible, but had grown heavier and bent the branch down into view. That sounds logical, right? I think so, too.

Then it was simply gone. Or so we thought. The brave (stupid) Big Guy investigated and found that part of the hive had fallen off the branch, once again lightening it so that it was concealed up in the tree. It left behind several "sheets" of its papery walls, and that is what you see in this photo. I have, of course, seen hives up close before, but this one is so colorful and intricate. Does the beauty of their home mitigate the danger of their stings? So far...

Not a knot. Or a wood eye.

*after a little Google research, I have determined this to be the nest of a colony of bald-faced hornets. I have also learned that all hornets are wasps (paper wasps, to be precise) but not all wasps are hornets. Got that?