Category: David

Bumble bees (and one honey bee) clambering over a series of thistle flowers, gathering as much nectar as possible.

The hairy body of one of the bees has been well sprinkled with pollen.

Glossy reds and yellows of ripening vibernum (guelder rose) berries on a sunny morning.

Goldfinch in full display mode recently, perched right on the top of a tree and singing at full volume.

Meadowsweet flowers: from a distance a frothy mass, and a magnet for bees and hoverflies.

In centuries gone by, meadowsweet was mixed in with the rushes used as floor covering, and as a flavouring for beer prior to the use of hops.

Bluebottle, or another species of blowfly, feeding on the flowers of an umbellifer, and so intent on the task that it let me get near enough for close-ups.

Some of the Chinese pagoda primroses in the Sensory Garden at Northycote Farm,the seeds now starting to ripen. One of the same plants earlier, when it was flowering, here.