Keen

It rained heavily overnight, and the first half of the day was murky and cold. When the sun appeared - unexpectedly - mid way through the afternoon, I grabbed the camera and squelched off down the garden in search of something more interesting than the wet flower I'd been planning for this post. I didn't find very much (maybe the inverts were as surprised as I was by the change in conditions, and having already settled down with tea and biscuits to watch Bargain Hunt, couldn't quite be bothered to get up and go out), but thankfully the Hairy-footed Flower girls were as keen as ever, and several of them offered me photo opportunities as they whizzed around the garden. 

I don't think I'll ever hold female Anthophora plumipes in as much affection as I do the males, whose appearance in the garden is a significant marker of the arrival of spring, and whose antics, as they zoom around trying to out-patrol each other in the search for emergent females, always make me smile. Those females, by contrast, are all about speed and efficiency, and their attitude to a lurking photographer tends towards the irritable; plus, they're simply not as pretty as the boys. But. For me, a flower with bonus Plumpie will always trump a bee-less flower.