Summery

R and I broke our journey homewards this morning at Tredegar House, just outside Newport, a charming building with a lovely garden and a decent tea room, which is obviously a popular resource among both local residents and people taking a lunch time break from their offices. We strolled around the lake, to stretch and ease our legs (still weary from yesterdays exertions), and in the hope that I would be able to bring you a Welsh dragon today; but though there were both Chasers and Emperors out and about, they were busily hunting over the lilies in the middle of the pool, and none came close enough for a decent photo.

I did manage quite nice shots of some damselflies, and of a type of hoverfly I'd never seen before, but this is my favourite of all the photos I took on our walk. I snapped it because I really liked the tiny bee - which I think is a Lasioglossum, though I wouldn't take that assertion into court - laden as it is with pink pollen that accessorises its black and white costume rather stylishly. As to the flower, I'll have to confess my ignorance, and hope that someone will help me out; I'd like to say that it's hogweed, but I'm not sure that it is, so I'll just say that it's a rather pretty umbellifer, and leave it at that.

Many thanks for the love you bestowed on yesterday's puffins - I'm very pleased that you liked them.