wildlife gardening (kind of)

Yesterday I found a bee jammed in the middle of one of my blue geranium flowers. I thought it was dead (in fact I'd grabbed my camera in the hope of recording slow consumption by crab spider) but actually it had been robbing the nectary and had got its proboscis stuck. Seriously, bee?

I freed it with a twig, but um I think it might have been stuck for a bit too long. I'm really not sure what bee it was. It was very small.



Rather more excitement the day before. Yeah, that blur is a HUMMINGBIRD HAWK MOTH. I watched it go through the Red Valerian floret by floret. I'm not going to weed the drive now. The Red Valerian stays.

We didn't see any tadpoles in our tiny water planters this year. Still plenty of snails.The oxygenating plants have died and the Horsetail Reeds have outgrown their space. But then there was this guy, chilling in the afternoon sun.