Wasps almost make me bottle it

IN general I’m not nervous of insects and I’m usually the person designated to remove the spiders from the bath.

I try to retain a benign attitude to all forms of wildlife and I’m lucky enough not to suffer from any unpleasant allergies to stings and bites. I even kept a few hives of bees once.

But the benign attitude was tested to breaking point the other day when I paid a long overdue visit to the bottle bank. I was trying to make this a low-key affair because I was slightly embarrassed by the tonnage of glass of which I was disposing. The neighbours might not realise that it was mostly jam jars and olive oil bottles and think I had developed a serious alcohol problem.