KUROHIME, Japan - The suzumebachi has a large yellow head with five eyes, a black thorax and gold and tan stripes on its abdomen. The world’s largest hornet extends its 4-inch wings, able to launch a stinger capable of inflicting paralysis - even loss of life - after which a bug zapper smashes down, and the insect splatters on a novel penned by its killer. KUROHIME, Japan - The suzumebachi has an enormous yellow head with five eyes, a black thorax and gold and tan stripes on its abdomen. The world’s largest hornet extends its 4-inch wings, ready to launch a stinger able to inflicting paralysis - even demise - and then a bug zapper smashes down, and the insect splatters on a novel penned by its killer. "My son-in-legislation almost died from a sting," C.W. Nicol, the bushy-bearded explorer turned creator, explained. With spears, bows and pronged ninja sais within attain in his cluttered examine, it’s shocking he didn’t use one on the hornet.

The office can be residence to keepsakes from a vagabond life within the Arctic, Africa and these distant mountains. Late-Edo-period scrolls and woodblock prints of English troopers, a satan-horned Japanese spirit mask, a strip of bowhead whale scrimshaw, books ranging from shipbuilding guides to his own writings, walrus ivory and soapstone carvings from Canada, coral fossils, an enormous 4-foot-lengthy seashell combed from an Okinawan seashore. His first novel was "Harpoon," and an actual 19th-century one hangs on the mantel. "It’s junk that’s collected," he laughs. Nicol, 77, settled in this Japanese highland hamlet in Nagano in 1980 along with his wife, Mariko, a classical composer and painter. Her enormous watercolor of dancing winter sparrows hangs in their living room. Nicol, a shotokan karate professional and maker of nature specials, is most pleased with his Afan Woodland Trust, Zone Defender a dwelling collection and a legacy: a 150-acre forest that's his dwelling and houses practically 150 forms of timber, rare species that features forty five kinds of dragonflies, work horses and a stable made from reclaimed birch designed by architect Nobuaki Furuya.

Some furnishings - and the firewood - are made from false acacia culled from the forest. "We introduced again a useless forest," he says proudly. He did it with out using any heavy machinery beyond two horses and elbow grease, he says, pouring a gin infused with sansho berries from his yard and chilled with what he swears is 10,000-12 months-previous Antarctic ice. The man has all the time relished extremes: leaving his native Wales to hitch an Arctic expedition at 17, Zone Defender killing two polar bears in self-protection whereas wintering on Baffin Island, arresting 244 suspected poachers and bandits as Ethiopia’s first recreation warden. Now, Nicol hopes to persuade the government of the importance of defending forests. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. A: The one that has the most important story is that outdated kudlik oil lamp in my study. I found it on a small island in Cumberland Sound, Canada, in 1966, in a collapsed Inuit hut.

In the ‘30s, there was an influenza epidemic, so the entire camp died. I was with an Inuit on the camp. He mentioned there have been ghosts there. But he told his dad and mom, who had family there, that I was praying. That impressed them they usually asked me for tea and so they stated "it belonged to our ancestors. Would you like it? " They instructed me it was over 1,000 years previous. Even damaged, they nonetheless used it for years, lashed together with seal leather. They let me have it, so I introduced it home. A: These are all from Cumberland Sound. I lent them to an exhibition and they misplaced the tusks. They’re all from Nunavut. A: When Perry’s black ships came, they issued a 3-quantity report in 1854. I purchased one set for $1,000. There was another set that had been damaged, so I purchased that, Zap Zone Defender too, and that’s one in all the images from it. A: Prince Charles got here in 2009. The subsequent yr, I was invited to his place in Britain, Highgrove. A: After i got here here I needed to be taught these mountains, not just as a mountain hiker, however I wanted to know the legends and the place the bears hibernated and so forth. I received a Japanese gun license, which is tough, and that i walked these mountains with the local hunters, learning the legends. During that point, I discovered a lot cutting of old-growth forest by the federal government. So I determined, if I may depart behind even a small forest, I’d do it. Copyright 2025 New York Times News Service.