On Tue, 10 May 2011 08:48:23 +0000, kay
wrote:


Jake;920696 Wrote:


But I didn't panic. I tried a
Mannering lecture first. They didn't drop off (not even to sleep).

Shame. You really missed an opportunity there! Sounds as if you had
plenty of time to go indoors and fetch your camera...

I'm so jealous, not just slow worms but grass snakes and adders too!

I had proud no-panic moment too - on holiday in Portugal a couple of
weeks ago, mooching around looking at orchids, walked round a beehive to
start my journey back, spotted another orchid, bent down to check it -
didn't notice the *second* beehive 12 inches from the orchid. Suddenly
realised I had a bee on my nose and several others attempting to
entangle themselves in my hair. Batted off the bee on my nose (a swollen
nose tip is *so* unattractive) then said "wait - bees don't like people
thrashing about wildly", so walked calmly but briskly away, and shed all
the bees without receiving a sting.

It was part way through this that I realised the world was out of focus
..

Binoculars revealed my glasses lying about 18 inches from the hive.

Luckily my resident oligochaetologist did his Sir Galahad act. My silk
headscarf over his head and face, sleeves pulled down, socks over his
hands. Walked calmly in, picked up the glasses and came back out.
Brilliant!

You're braver than I am! Many years ago, I and several others were
clearing a woodland path when we came across a "wild" bee's nest. Well
actually one of the group whacked it with a machete or something. The
sight of so many grown lads running like mad and waving their arms in
the air must have been funny. My sacrifice was to have one find its
way up my jeans and into my boxer shorts. I'll leave you to guess
where I got stung but after that my father always used to sing a
particular version of "The boy stood on the burning deck" whenever we
met.