Insect Insomnia

So when you can't sleep you are supposed to write lists and dismiss worrying thoughts from your head. You are supposed to do something mundane and repetitive. You are supposed to make sure the room is free of extraneous noise... like wasps making nests in the roof space above the ceiling.

The thing is only I could hear them. At first I thought it was a moth caught in the room frantically searching for the window in the dark. But there was no moth. Then I thought it sounded a little like softly dripping water. But the rain had stopped. Then I thought the house was settling. This was a little worrying. Then I realised - insects.

Now, at last, Hodmandod Senior can hear them too (but only when he listens). I can hear them all the time: an almost continual shifting and scurrying. It is in exactly the same place as they were a few years ago. Last night I climbed into the loft to investigate. Below the scattered remnants of the old nest another grows. It is beautiful in its own way but it will have to go. Last time the wasp nest eradicator told us they settled down at night. But I have to report they do not. They are as restless in their sleep as I am in mine. Perhaps they have their own insect worries. For a couple of hours I have endured ear plugs and now I have given up and write this. I am hoping it will be an exorcism. But outside the dawn has come.