Signs of the Times

I've been reading Tippers blog over at The Blind Pig & the Acorn. I love the title & LOVE the playlist. Our cd player is broken, we only get one radio station at the house & if I don't feel like Pandora, The Blind Pig Gang is (these last 2 weeks anyways; I'm listening now!) our sound track. Anyway she was saying in one post that you can tell the severity of the coming winter by the amount of yellow jackets/ wasps/ stinging things. Mike has had to stop work more times than I've got fingers to shake from turning over a new nest. I don't know how to superimpose a pointing arrow on a picture but when I saw this gray paper nest hanging I started getting a feeling like Pa in The Long Winter.

I've got the camera zoomed in as best & far as I could. I couldn't see it through the camera at all & took lots of pictures of branches, but I was far away & it looks to be the size of a melon. You might have to click the picture & hunt for it. I showed it to Mike & just in case, we're cutting an extra tree or two.

Other signs included lots of berries on the bushes & thicker bark on the north side of the tree but I don't know how you'd check for that. Have you any of these signs or is my holler singled out?