Backyard and Beyond

I like to amble, let the way take me. Looking, but without an agenda other than looking. And then being surprised by what I find.

There were still insects out and about when I spotted the above structure in mid-September. It’s a mud nest of, probably, a Eumenes potter wasp. Like this one, perhaps:
Fraternal Potter (Eumenes fraternus), I think, seen the same day, but not by the mud nest. Just think of all that work, gathering the bits of mud. How does she get it so circular?

And while we’re on the topic of masonry, more masonic wasp works:

At least I think these is all the work of mud-daubing wasps. Were humans inspired by such structures to start exploring clay? The first clay things were air-dried, after all. Firing came later. (I’ll give us some credit.)
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“Democracy, which depends on shared truths, is in retreat, and autocracy, which depends on shared lies, is on the march.” Sasha Baron Cohen’s speech this week at the ADL, rather accurately describing the Republican Party after a week of histrionic GOP Representatives attacking truth-tellers under oath and regurgitating Russian propaganda, while the President continues go off about crazy conspiracy fantasies — which he may actually believe.