Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Summertime, and the living is bees-y

So, June, and I have some frightful fluey bug that is making me feel awful. It's such a shame because the weather is fantastic, I've just had a week's holiday and work has finally moved offices to gorgeous Kensington. I'm thrilled about all this in theory, but in practice I feel like sh-sh-sh-uffling off to bed.
There are lots of bugs in the garden too, but of the benign variety. Two of the cordylines are in flower - one for the first time ever - and the bees love them. You can just see a buff-tailed bumblebee (the black blob) in the top righthand of the picture below. We get a lot of bumblebees in the garden, and different varieties too, but I am useless at identifying them. I love them though, the bigger the better. They look like flying teddy bears. 

The bees quite like the libertia too, which is in full flower from the middle of May. I'm sure I've seen more bees this year, and more butterflies too. 

The one thing I haven't seen more of is damselflies. We usually get a lot on the pond in April and May, but this year I've only seen two. Sadly, I've also had a drowning - a newly fledged starling that I found floating in the water yesterday. I read somewhere that this is not uncommon - apparently young starlings are fatally attracted to ponds for some reason. It's sad because I've enjoyed watching the starling family and their antics - the adults line the young ones up along a branch where a bird feeder hangs and go backwards and forwards shoving food in their mouths. 

All this wildlife activity is making me feel tired. Time to sit down and take yet another Beechams.