Bee on Blue Cornflower

Today I opened a bag of multi-purpose compost to do some transplanting. When I glanced into the bag my gaze was met by the eyes of a great ugly toad. I let out a scream and then thought the poor creature might have been trapped in there for days or even since the compost was bagged. It seemed pretty passive. I decanted it gently into a shoebox using a trowel, and walked up to the pond at the top of the road. There I deposited it at the edge and took a picture of it. With a little encouragement it slithered into the murky water and disappeared. Good deed for the day! However, I don't really like amphibians and reptiles - they give me the creeps.

I think this photo of a bee gathering nectar on a blue cornflower is a much brighter proposition. These perennials seem to thrive in any soil. They do get a bit straggly after flowering, but I just rip them out and they throw up new shoots and flower again. So great ground cover and lovely in close-up. Here you can see the bee is knocking the pollen off the stamens - doing the job bees do so perfectly.

I applied Photoshop's artistic poster edges filter to define the wonderful veins and markings on the flower and the bee's diaphanous wings.