It was another cold and blustery day, and I was tired and sore after my pruning efforts yesterday, so I gave myself a pass from doing any more work in the garden and spent most of the day at my desk. I did take a lunch time walk around the homestead in search of insects, but given the temperature I wasn’t really surprised not to find any.
Back in the house I had what I thought was going to be a theoretical conversation with R about staking my Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’, which for mysterious reasons has suddenly decided to collapse over to one side. However R was in “Do it now” mode, and before I knew what was happening I found myself back outside again, assisting with the process of hauling the bush upright and tying it to a thick stake. I couldn’t find a fabric tree tie, so I used an old pair of tights (green, appropriately) – a solution I’ve used before because it’s kinder to the soft wood of a fragile shrub than a plastic tie.
It was while I was standing and admiring our handiwork that I heard the low drone of a large bumblebee, and saw this Bombus terrestris queen fly in to feed from the hellebore planted next to the Daphne. It’s looking pretty scruffy now, and I’d almost describe it as having gone over, but she appeared to find enough nectar for her needs because she spent a couple of minutes working over the plant, before flying slowly off down the garden.
