This seems to be my week for finding wee beasties in the house.

On Sunday evening, Jane and I were watching a DVD when I spotted something on the floor walking towards us from near one of the boxes containing logs. Was it a spider? No – was it a fly? No – it turned out to be a wasp! I wonder if it had been hibernating in some of the wood, which I had replenished earlier in the weekend? Fumbling around trying to find an empty glass and a bit of paper, we temporarily lost it before tracking it down again and relocating it outside. The poor thing probably froze to death but I would be quite happy if it found a shelter around the compost bin where I released it. Wasps aren’t ideal to share a space with but they have an important ecological niche and their numbers are a fraction of what I remember from the past.

Then, today, I was emptying a dehumidifier in the kitchen and saw an odd protuberance on the top, which turned out to be an errant snail. I’m not sure where that came from or what on earth it was doing in that location. I relocated that too although, in this case, I then quickly squashed it. Snails also have a place in the natural ecology but I haven’t noticed a shortage of them in my garden.

My eyes are peeled now, wondering what our next visitor will be!