A bee beside the river by Capel's Mill viaduct

I offered to drive Helena to her work this morning and took the opportunity of being out reasonably early to go for a blip walk down to the river Frome and the adjacent canal at Capel's Mill. The weather was overcast with occasional sunshine breaking through the cloud cover, but there was a brisk gusty breeze down at the bottom of the valley under the canopy of the trees lining the river banks.

I always hope to see the resident kingfishers, but yet again there was no sign of them, nor any of the white-throated dippers I often see on or in the white water areas of the river. I decided to head upstream from the mill to where the newly created section of the river runs beside the river with large boulders having been dropped to create a new bank. Last year when I went there the work had only just been done and I managed to sit unseen by the river and caught the unusual sight of a stoat swimming across the river. But this year the weeds have taken over so that access was quite dificult and I couldn't see the edge of the river very easily.

Instead I concentrated on the Himalayan Balsam which has invaded profusely. It is very blousey and has an abundance of pink flowers and I don't usually like to see it. But today I noticed a lot of bees and small insects taking advantage of the flowers' ample pollen supplies and decided to photograph some of them. I took pictures of the more usual plants associated with the riverside as well as some very pretty plants I didn't recognise, and surprisingly many teasels. They are probably naturalised thereabouts because of the location beside an old mill where the dried teasel flower heads would have been vital components of the wool processing industry.

I wanted to show the bee emerging from the depths of the flower, covered on pollen. Press the 'L' key to see it more clearly in a larger view.

The stoat crossing the river, last autumn

View of the newly built canal, the scene of this blip.