A lot of weather comes to visit our little island. And we do tend to whinge about it from time to time. But when sun and rain coincide, diamonds are scattered over the garden. A good time to put a transparent bag over the camera and step outside.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) wrote: “Nature is an infinite sphere of which the centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere”. We encounter nature daily; we can hardly avoid it, even if it is only in the form of a humble fly who crawls through our open window or the scent of distant park flowers on the breeze.
Taking time to notice nature enriches my day beyond measure. The more I look, the more I see. Have you ever taken the time to watch a honey bee? I mean for several minutes or more. Watch how the light glistens in its wings as it hovers before its chosen blossom, forelegs outstretched for a gentle landing.
Notice how the evening light catches the soft hairs on its back, and its eager tongue, already prepared as if it cannot wait to savour the sweet nectar.
Or how about the bustling bumble bee? It announces its approach with an bombastic buzz before blundering onto its pollen-heavy landing pad.
It has become a cliche to speak of mindfulness, or living in the moment. I don’t know if our lives are busier now than they were a generation ago, or a century ago but, for me, a full life must still contain moments when all its demands are put to one side. Photography has opened my eyes to daily treasures. And the digital age has added the joy of sharing them.
Sometimes, however, it is also good to put the camera down and simply look, listen, smell, taste, touch. That’s all; I am going outside now.
“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.” Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849)
This bizarre creature is called Gasteruption Jaculator. I kid you not! I posted some shots of this strange wasp last month, wrongly identifying it at the time as a type of sand digger wasp. I am grateful to afrenchgarden for the correct i.d.
They do look strange in flight. Well, I admit it, they look strange all the time! Strange, but harmless, to us. Not so, however, for solitary bees, on whom these wasps are parasitic. That long spike is an ovipositor, with which the female deposits eggs on the larvae of solitary bees. You can guess the rest.
For my earlier post on these weird critters, see here.
Well, I managed two whole days without posting anything buggy but I couldn’t resist sharing this shot with you today. Bumble bees love the Bishop of Llandaff dahlias in my garden. And I love photographing them.
Yesterday I posted a shot taken in August 2009. In August 2008, we were somewhere rather different. Our trip to Hawaii has to be one of the most memorable holidays we have enjoyed so far. And one of the stand-out highlights was the helicopter flight over the beautiful Garden Isle, Kauai. This view is of the Na Pali coast, which recently featured as the setting for a surprisingly good thriller, A Perfect Getaway. We didn’t meet any crazed serial killers on our trip, thankfully. The helicopter ride was thrills enough! If I am ever lucky enough to go back, I want to do the doors-off flight. Now that’s one thing I never thought I would say.
I promised no bugs today. At about this time three years ago we were enjoying a beautiful week in Seahouses on the coast of Northumberland, possibly the most beautiful, evocative, and atmospheric county I have yet visited in the UK. The island out to sea in this picture is Inner Farne.
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I was pleased to bag a shot of a tiny Holly Blue butterfly in my garden this morning, having chased a Brimstone around without success. The butterflies and bees love verbena bonariensis – such a reliable self-seeder here and conveniently at head height for photographers with dodgy backs!
A non-buggy post tomorrow, I promise!
palomena prasina (spring adult)
This fine fellow is a common green shield bug. Shield bugs belong to the order hemiptera, whose members have a rostrum, or sucking beak, which they stick into plants. The common green is the most plentiful in my part of the world.
final instar, kindly demonstrating rostrum
There are five nymph stages. I think the little ones are really quite cute.
second instar – cute or what?
third instar
There are several other varieties of shield bug that frequent our neighbourhood. I think this next one may be a hawthorn shield bug (acanthosoma haemorrhoidale).
Hawthorn shield bug? Maybe
But as green shield bugs change colour in the autumn, when this was taken, this one may just be another palomena prasina, teasing me.
So that’s the natural history done, now on to the art, which is what interests me most. The following is another version of the second instar shot.
An instar’s world
I like this one better than the portrait crop I showed earlier. I like showing the instar as a small point within its (rather attractive in my opinion) grassy world. But a suggestion I often hear is that I crop closer with my bug shots. What do you think? All opinions very welcome.
The bee is more honoured than other animals, not because she labours but because she labours for others.
Saint John Chrysostom
These lovely flowers belong to the best thing in my garden, a thirty foot eucryphia tree. It is columnar, with a semi-weeping habit, and evergreen. So already it earns its place as a good garden tree. But, as if that weren’t enough, every July/August, it bursts forth in a froth of large white blooms, with pretty pink anthers, and a sweet scent.
And, best of all, the honey bees love it. In fact, the children call it ‘bee tower’. The garden thrums with the sound of happy bees.
Eucryphia pollen is very fine indeed, little more than dust. The bees look as if they have been sugar frosted as they go about their business.
At times, they are almost frenetic, as if frantic to collect and preserve this bounty while it lasts.
I can claim no gardening credit for this tree – it was here when we moved in ten years ago. I am told they are difficult to establish and fussy in their needs but this one seems to be happy with benign neglect. Long may it last.
Do you have a favourite insect-friendly garden plant/tree?
Focused Moments 