Tuesday 22 May 2012

And the sun came out

arty salsify

After 72 hours of nearly constant rain and heavy overcast which prevented any warmth from reaching the soil the wind changed and spring arrived. The weather forecasters assure me that it's going to last in the region of 10 days or more although somewhat unusually that it won't be as warm here as it is several hundred miles north in Newport Pagnell.

No matter, there is blue sky and solar heat, it's a relief.

hover on strawberry

Still a bit breezy for butterflies, if any have survived these last two apocalyptic months of dreadful cold and wet, but small flying insects like this hoverfly on a strawberry flower are out and about for a good feed.

orange bottom bumble bee

This orange-red bottomed bumble bee is, I think, a queen Bombus Lapidarius. There were a couple of them about foraging greedily on the clover.

spring sprung

And there you have it. If my resown seeds come up, if the weather holds and if  I don't go mad with the isolation this year, the season has begun. Roll on summer.

1 comment:

Paul said...

Such a pretty bee - with such vivid colouring.