Buzzing

A bumblebee homes in on a Nectaroscordum flower. Bumblebees love the umbels of pendent flowers of this plant, and every year we have more in flower. I've been waiting for the flowers to open to have a chance of taking a photo of a bee flying in to a flower.

It's remarkably difficult to photograph a bumblebee in flight and it still be sharp. Wifie preferred this one as it conveyed something of the buzzing motion of the bee. I'm not sure if it's motion - it was moving very quickly - or whether it's just out of focus. Anyway, I shall keep trying over the next couple of weeks that the Nectaroscordums flower.

This was taken this afternoon after I returned from a meeting in Crewe. I was still distinctly off form with my cold today, but I had to go as the people I was meeting were travelling from Bournemouth and Cardiff. As a result of my painful, hacking cough, there's a carriageload of people on the train who are probably now incubating a cold. When I got home I didn't have much energy for wandering further afield in search of a photo, so I settled for the garden and bumblebees.

Thanks for your good wishes last night. I shall have a hot toddy before I go to bed.

ps What I hadn't noticed about this flower when I first posted the blip is the drop of nectar that is just reflecting a tiny mote of light. This is what the bees come for of course, and hence the name too.