09/11/2026
Somewhere near you right now there is a gray paper nest the size of a football hanging in a tree, and the people who lived here before us read it like a forecast.
See how high the hornet's nest, and it will tell how high the snow will rest. That is the old New England and Appalachian version. Low nest, light winter. High nest, deep snow. Some hollows told it the other way around, which is how you know it is lore and not law.
Here is the part that makes it worth the walk. The nest is done. The queen started it in May the size of a golf ball, and by now it holds a few hundred hornets and will not grow another inch. In a few weeks the frost will empty it and it will hang there all winter like a lantern nobody lit.
So this weekend, find one. Mark how high it hangs. Then remember it in January and see whether the old folks had it right. That is the whole game, and it costs nothing to play.
