Rain interrupted play

Tiny Tuesday: Rain interrupted play

A fairly uninspiringly grey mainly wet day seemed to suggest that it might be difficult to find a suitable subject for today's Tiny Tuesday challenge.  However, when I actually got out and started looking there were several possibles.  As the main I've gone for the ginger coloured carder bee that looks as though it needs to borrow a hairbrush.  I'm guessing from the hairy face that it might be a male and probably a common carder bee.

A rather soggy, and probably terminal bumble bee waved an antenna at me from its bed on a leaf, but made no attempt to evade the lens.  I considered trying for a stacked image and was just going back to get the tripod when I came across this male speckled bush cricket that I've added as an extra.  

Unlike the bee he was clearly healthy and quite mobile (bush crickets don't seem to be the worlds quickest movers unless they choose to jump).  But every time I tried to get a lower angle, so as to be able to take him from the side, he carefully moved around to prevent me from doing so, by interposing other parts of the plant that it was on between us.  In the end I gave in and took this shot, which at least clearly shows that he has those little beady eyes firmly on me.  By virtue of their shape and long antennae crickets are almost impossible to photograph so as to have all of the insect in focus, but I think a side view gives you the most detail, rather than this top down perspective.

Last night was my sixth late night in a row, what with holidays and band reunions and I was really feeling the sleep deprivation by the time I got home last night.  Despite a bit of a lie in this morning I've been sub-par all day - I clearly have some catching up to do before I get back to what passes for normal ... for me.  I may therefore be a bit slow at catching up on my blip "homework" as I see a very early night coming on.