Bumble Bee an Image of Summer

It's great to hear bees and bumble bees buzzing around the shrubs in the garden.  This morning my variegated privet was covered in bumble bees gathering up the pollen from the tube-like white flowers.  All this insect activity is part of the joy of being outdoors in the summer.

Over at Truly Madly Kids, Image of the Week has gone on its summer holidays to be replaced by Image of the Summer, so you will be seeing a few images over the coming weeks representing what summer means to me.

Thistles - Image of the Week #IOTW

This is my Image of the Week #IOTW the one I like best.  Thistles are terrible invasive weeds but the bees and butterflies love them and I always try to capture a few in flower before cutting them down in the hope that a few fewer seeds will mean they don't take over our hedgerows and fields and leave room for some of the other lovely wild flowers and plants.

The theme for #IOTW  at Truly Madly Kids this week was 'Flash' I tried to take some different flash shots, but wasn't really happy any, here are a few of them.  Obviously needing to do more work on this.

Bird nest in hedge, hay rake, lavender, blacksmiths drill

Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly

Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly, Lavender Green, when I am King Dilly Dilly, you shall be Queen.
This is my Image of the Week #22 #IOTW for Truly Madly Kids with the theme of Bokeh - the effect where the image is sharp and the background is blurred often with points of light.

I only have one pot of lavender, but it was looking particularly fine in the sunshine at the weekend when I captured this shot with the sun shining on the leaves of the beech hedge in the background.