Tree bee

Today the invertebrate explosion I've been waiting for finally happened, and suddenly the garden was busy with bees and hoverflies. It wasn't a great day for macro photography though, with a brisk wind blowing, and scudding clouds crossing the sun and changing the light every few minutes.

This Bombus hypnorum queen was an especially tricky subject because she was very restless and easily disturbed. At one point she left the blossom and came over to check me out, which made me just a little nervous because this species has a reputation for aggression, but on the assumption that they only turn nasty if you seem to be threatening them I stood quite still, and after she'd flown all the way around me once she returned to the crab apple.

Late this afternoon the first of our two ponds was delivered. To my surprise R seems to have been looking forward to this almost as much as me - he said this morning that he thought constructing the ponds would make our current existence feel a little less like Groundhog Day - and he's hoping to get to work on this one tomorrow.

This evening the Prime Minister was taken into intensive care. If you read my ramblings with any regularity you'll know that there is literally nothing about the man that I approve of, but Covid-19 is an appalling disease that I wouldn't wish on anyone, and certainly not on the person whose job is to steer the country through this crisis. I've been shocked by some of the vitriol I've seen towards him on social media, and have dissociated myself from several people whose hatred of 'Boris' seems to make them incapable of feeling empathy towards a very sick man, or towards his family, who must be frantic with worry right now. I hope that he makes a full recovery.