In beetween flowers

It was a bright sunny morning this morning, so I couldn't resist a few bumblebee shots when the light was good. This one was working its way up the columns of foxglove flowers, feeding on nectar and gathering pollen on her hairs. Her undercarriage is tucked away, and her long tongue is at the ready for nectar, and her pollen sacs are already filling up.

This one looks like a Bombus terrestris. The bigger bees are particularly fond of the foxgloves, and clearly they do their job for the flower spectacularly well, as each capsule will contain hundreds of tiny seeds, each one the product of a single pollen grain sending a pollen tube down the flower's style for the male gamete to fertilise the egg cell.

The most exciting thing that happened today was a roe deer in the garden. We know she has been in a few times at least, and I found some droppings and some nibbled Hostas over the weekend. But today, she walked past my mother-in-law as she sat on the patio in the afternoon sun, and headed off down the lane. Then when I came home, she was there again, standing on the lawn listening intently to us moving around the house. I did take some photos, but they were through thick glass, and her handsome face is also marred by a visible growth on her jaw. She's a bold animal as our garden is enclosed by a high wall and there is only one way in and out along the gravel drive.