Tree bumblebee

After a grey and gloomy start, it turned out to be a fine spring day, and felt really quite warm in the shelter of our garden. Although it was Pete's birthday, we'd decided to have the main celebrations tomorrow, when all the family are around. 

I spent quite a bit of time in the garden, renovating the garden round Gemma's grave. There were quite a few species of bee around, though most of the solitary bees were too quick to capture. This queen tree bumblebee was warming herself on a handy piece of wood, and had no objections to me thrusting a camera lens in her face.