anthidium manicatum – Jill Orme Photography

12 Jul 2022

King Bee

by JDO | posted in: Bees, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

The black horehound along the lane must be going over, because the wool carder bees that were favouring it last week have now spread into our garden, and are using both the forms of stachys I’ve established here. So in … Continued

6 Jul 2022

Picky

by JDO | posted in: Bees, Invertebrates, Worcestershire | 0

Oh. There you are. No, honestly, I’m delighted to see you. It’s just that…. I have this garden full of plants you asked for, and you’ve…. been nowhere near them…? After deciding, sadly, that for some reason the wool carder … Continued

25 Jul 2021

Speed Feeding Champion

by JDO | posted in: Arachnids, Bees, Bugs, Flowers and plants, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

The third day of the Alternative Olympic Games came to a thrilling climax this afternoon, with the finals of the 1m Speed Feed (Bees, solitary) competition. As had been predicted by most pundits, this came down to a head-to-head between … Continued

10 Jul 2021

Sex and violence

by JDO | posted in: Bees, Flowers and plants, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

I was watching a Wool Carder noodling through the hedge woundwort, thinking that it was smaller than I remembered, and half-forming the thought that it might be a female, when a second one swooped in and pounced. I think it … Continued

9 Jul 2021

Armoured

by JDO | posted in: Bees, Flowers and plants, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

To Trench Wood this afternoon, in search of something interesting, but apart from the first Common Darter of the season (which took strong exception to being stalked), I only found the usual suspects. While hunting fruitlessly for Emerald Damselflies I … Continued

22 Jul 2020

Mr Grumpy

by JDO | posted in: Bees, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

I was doing some gardening this afternoon in the yard where we park the cars – mainly cutting back some overenthusiastic grape vines along the old farm wall that I refer to as our bee hotel – when I became … Continued

26 Jun 2020

Carding

by JDO | posted in: Bees, Flowers and plants, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

The heat and humidity of the past two days have more or less done me in, bringing on a rheumatic flare, so rather than the trip out I’d been planning, I spent most of the day sitting in a deckchair … Continued

22 Jun 2020

Bold

by JDO | posted in: Bees, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

Like yesterday, today ran away from me – but at least today I know what I did with it all. I spent the morning at my desk, dealing with various kinds of administration: on line shopping, including a supermarket shop, … Continued

15 Jun 2020

Woops….

by JDO | posted in: Bees, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

If you want to attract wool carder bees to your garden, I said, plant stachys. So I took my own advice and planted some stachys, and tended it lovingly, and watched it thrive. And knowing that their flight time is … Continued

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