The bees like the sunshine

A lovely start to the beginning of July and it was a warm start to the day so I sat outside and drank my tea before anyone else was up.
The bees have found the plants that I bought especially for them . This little one was busy on the scabious. I think it is a male early bumblebee. They have small tongues so favour daisy like flowers , lavender and white clover. The male has no pollen baskets  as his only aim is to mate. He will not return to the nest and will sometimes sleep under the flower that it has just fed on and feed again from the same flower when it wakes up in the morning.
The post office are publishing some new stamps in August each stamp displaying one of six bees.
We took a packed lunch to Kilmuir hoping to walk to the sea. The path was over grown but passable up to the gate that goes down to the water so we sat on some rocks, watched by some ewes and lambs, and had our lunch. The sun had disappeared behind the cloud but it did mean it had cooled down and we managed to get back to the car before it rained. 
We drove to Cromarty as I needed some bits from the new shop,
Gallery48. A great shop full of wonderful things and a new art gallery opening at the beginning of August. If you are in the area it's worth a visit and the pottery next door is very good too.
On the way home we saw a huge lightning strike and heard thunder. Hailstones when we got back home but we managed to have a BBQ :)