The happy place

Hello this might sound fantastical but it’s all true I swear it! It happened yesterday.

The weather shamans had foretold rain this whole weekend, yet there was none. Still I felt the chugging of the lawn mower’s engine struggling slightly with the wet grass, whose clippings had the appearance of stewed spinach.

It’s early autumn here, only the winter apples are still attached to their trees, but for one exception: The reason for writing this post: A powerful bad omen:

Picture this: A freshly mowed lawn, wet grass sending a pleasant smell (supposedly) to the nostrils, bees buzzing in almost every dandelion growing at the roadside, a blue sky; even though they said it’d rain, only a few gray clouds could be seen overhead. And a warmth so gentle that you could wear shorts without freezing if you also have a sweater on.

Then this lush tree, bright green with three red apples still clinging to the canopy (because it is a small one). Blood red. Not like the apple in Snow White, but brighter blood red like artery blood.

It’s hard not to think of the final days of the Roman empire when seeing the decadence which comes next, and having the thoughts drawn also to this famous novel by Edgar Allan Poe; The Masque of the Red Death. Or simply the final supper of these inmates who will soon be executed, maybe on the electric chair.

Because

As you now move closer, eager maybe to take a bite of one of the bright red apples, you see now that they have split open. They are overripe, and should’ve fallen to the ground by now, but for some reason haven’t. In the cracks, there are holes burrowed, and wasps. Tens of wasps in each apple, gorging their final few days away in drunken stupor.

I left them to it. After all considering the time they have left I can think of nothing better for them to do.

I see them for what they are however. How could the warning be more obvious: a trinity of makeshift apple igloos. Bright red. With wasps. Wasps are screaming warning in their own right with their black and yellow stripes, and having three houses like gingerbread houses from Hans and Gretel made out of apple filled with them at this time of the year when they are particularly aggressive are warnings so blatantly obvious that only a fool would ignore them.

Take heed!