I hope you like this image I made this morning of a honey bee on fennel. I only have two fennel plants in my garden but they punch well above their weight when it comes to attracting insects.
Summer and the honey bee
18
Monthly Archives: July 2012
Suspended
A beautiful little spider sits in the middle of its web.
The ladies’ turn
The ladies arrive
Yesterday we enjoyed the men’s Olympic road race as it came through our village, Oatlands, near Weybridge in Surrey. Today it was the ladies’ turn.
A rainy day for cycling
What a difference from yesterday’s sunny weather. Intermittent heavy rain and thunder greeted the women. But even the capricious English weather couldn’t spoil the fun for the hardy onlookers and the Police motorcyclists.
Netherlands lead
As it came through Oatlands, the pack was still together. Although the Dutch rider was out in front, it was still anyone’s race.
It’s still anyone’s race
As my other half is Canadian, we cheered two countries on. I hope the Canadian riders saw our huge maple leaf flag!
Determination
The race has just finished. Congratulations to Vos who won gold for the Netherlands but also to our own Lizzie Armitstead for bringing home a silver! Well done to all the hardy cyclists in a very wet race.
Next Olympic fun for us: the time trials on Wednesday!
Olympic road race!
The pack arrives
The Olympics got off to an exciting start for us today as the road race came through our village, Oatlands, Weybridge, Surrey.
Outriders
The motorcycle riders who preceded the cyclists were very jolly, waving to the crowd and sounding their sirens or horns. Â One even zig zagged down the road, much to the crowd’s delight.
The leaders
It was very exciting when the cyclists finally appeared.
A steely stare from the USA!
One of the USA riders seems to be staring at me but he is in fact looking at another rider moving up to his left, out of frame.
Australia was leading the front group
Twelve riders were out in front as the race came through Oatlands.
Determination
But at this early stage there was still everything to race for.
Silver medalist in action
The Columbian rider caught here near the very back is Rigoberto Uran who come through to collect the Silver medal.
Support bikes, reflections and shadows.
After the riders came all the support vehicles and a multitude of spare bikes and wheels. Â Notice how the shadows bottom left seem to be forming some Olympic rings?
Olympic spirit
Afterwards the crowds dispersed in very good cheer.
Friendly steward
The stewards were really friendly and good humoured – doing a great job.
Tomorrow it’s the ladies’ turn and we’ll be there cheering them on.
By evening’s light
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
William Wordsworth, ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’ (1807)
All of these images were taken in my garden yesterday evening.
In small proportions
In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measures, life may perfect be.
Ben Jonson, The Underwood (1640)
Robber fly
This fine fellow is machimus atricapillus, the Robber Fly. He perches waiting for a hapless and punier insect to fly by and then darts out – game over. He is not fussy in his choice of perch, even making use of handy humans, but he does not bite people. Here, he is enjoying a spot of evening sun in my garden.
Golden
Evening light by the River Thames.
Gasteruption jaculator
This bizarre creature is gasteruption jaculator. Whoever named it should be banned forthwith from all future namings. I am grateful to afrenchgarden for the I.D. I was wrongly was calling it a sand digger wasp. I have never seen one in my garden before this year. Yesterday I noticed one feeding on fennel pollen but was unable to get a decent shot before it flew away. So, today, I returned to the fennel plant at the same time of day and, low and behold, there it was. And I was delighted to be able to capture it in flight!
It is an elegant creature with its long spike looking not unlike a cigarette holder from the 1920s (or is that just me?). I am assuming this is the female. Her consort, a much smaller beast without cigarette holder, is below. (It’s a lousy shot, I know, but illustrative.)
For an earlier post on other wasps found in my garden, see here.
The weekend summer arrived
This weekend, summer finally arrived in our little corner of the British Isles. And with it came the butterflies. This Comma (polygonia c-album) just loved the verbena bonariensis in my garden.
I played around with the image in Photoshop. Well, why not?
It was a tatty fellow, even for a Comma, with a notch out of its rear right wing, but that didn’t seem too much of a handicap.
The honey bees were enjoying the verbena too. Nice to see some more about today. They have not enjoyed our very wet and cold weather.
How did you enjoy the weekend? I hope yours was as good as mine. 🙂
Focused Moments 