Lavender Bee

The lavender in the garden has been a real success this year and has been in flower for at least 2 months.

I was out doing a bit of work at the church this afternoon and when I returned Mrs B was in the garden cutting some of the lavender to dry for potpourri. I noticed there were lots of little bees on the lavender and not the usual bright yellow bumble bees (maybe SheenaghMcLarren will be able to identify it when she returns from her holiday in Argyll!). Anyway decided it was time for a blip and spent the next 20 minutes trying to get a decent shot of one. The only problem was they never stayed on the one flower head for more than a few seconds. As soon as I got the camera on one one and got it in focus it was gone. Ended up with umpteen shots and eventually settled on this one as I liked its hairy back and wings against the lovely lavender.

The upside of taking these shots in the garden was the almost intoxicating smell of the lavender. However, the downside was the masses of midges that wanted in on my blip action!