I was determined that I would get a shot of a bumble bee to prove that they too love the phacelia and fortunately a less frenetic individual co-operated.
Aren't they just the flying teddy bears of the insect world?
We also have a patch of borage courtesy of some seeds sent to me by Bilbowaggins of Bagend. The flowers are a lovely shade of blue.
They tend to be shy flowers keeping their faces out of sight so I had to coax this one to look at me. The bees love them too and this patch was also buzzing yesterday.
It was more difficult to catch photos of this activity as the bees don't tend to spend very long at each individual flower as they do the phacelia. That's my excuse for the bee below having a bit of a blurry face.
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Some good close up photos. The bees are always great to see in the garden. Teddy bears of the insect world is a great way to describe them!
ReplyDeleteThey probably wouldn't appreciate a cuddle though Kelli
DeleteThanks for the bumblebee shots - i love them but we don't get them here at all.
ReplyDeleteHave they never been around in your parts or have they just died out Liz?
DeleteI love to see the bumble bees. Last week when I was working in my front garden I could here some desperate buzzing and had to open one of the 'snapdragon' flowers to let out a rather large individual...silly thing. It seemed very happy to be rescued and I wonder how it managed to get in there in the first place!!
ReplyDeleteGreat shots by the way...I really have to play with my camera a lot more!!
Are you sure it wanted to come out Tanya? It may have found somewhere to have a nap or be really enjoying tucking into some sweet nectar
DeleteNope...it was definitely telling me a right old tale in there!!
DeleteI too love bees. All of them facinate me. Some are so quick I can't get a photo. My bumblebess are pretty lathargic and it isn't too hard to catch them on the camera. I really enjoyed your photos. Especially the first one.
ReplyDeleteWith our bumblebees it depends which flowers they are buzzing about on
DeleteBBB&B
That bumblebee looks so cuddly. Borage is a great plant for bringing the bees in, and now you've got it, you won't be without, it self seeds really easily. I've just been catching up on the posts I've missed whilst I've been on holiday and notice that you mentioned Swillington. Is it definitely closing down then? What a blow, I don't know where I'll get my essentials from now.
ReplyDeleteI asked last week when I was there and Swillington is definitely closing down completely Jo. It is a blow as it's been there since forever and there isn't anywhere else quite like it. I'm not sure why they aren't selling it as a going concern unless they still want to live there and turn it into a garden.
DeleteSo many bees in my garden this morning & I was unable to photograph one!
ReplyDeleteJust see it as a challenge awpol.
DeleteI'm not much good at recognising bees. I tend to call any bee that looks a bit fluffy a Bumble Bee, even though I know they are not. Real Bumble Bees are much larger than other types, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, I can see more than just a superficial resemblance between the BBs and the Borage flowers!
Bumble bees are more rounded and chunkier Mark. They don't have the slender abdomen that honey bees have. There are lots of varieties of bumblebees though in a range of colours. You can also ger quite small bumble bees.
DeleteThat's very good shot of bumble bees! I seldom see them here!
ReplyDeleteDo you have any at all in your parts malr or are they just rarely seen?
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