Invader

As I type thunder is rolling round the sky, heavy drops are starting to fall and the humidity is high, its been a very warm summer's day.

Is this insect one of the reasons why there are few bees in my garden I wonder? I think its a wasp, one of two who seem to be attracted to the mulch in my new garden. I will edit this when I find out for sure what it is.

I've been making beds and cleaning, preparing for Christmas and I had a visit from mum who had been walking in the heat of the day and needed a glass of water and a wee sit for a while. It was lovely to sit outside in the garden chatting and then it was back to more house jobs for me.

Christmas is getting close, are you ready - I'm most certainly not!

Happy Sunday everyone :)

Edit: Thanks to Paladian I now know this is an European wool carder bee Anthidium manicatum,   belonging to the family of leaf-cutter bees or mason bees.They get their name 'carder' from their behaviour of scraping hair from leaves.They carry this hair bundled beneath their bodies to be used as a nest lining.They live in disturbed habitats, and nest in cavities in rotting wood, and walls - hopefully not my mulch! Males are highly aggressive against other males of this species, as well as other visitors to the flowers in its territory. They will also defend Anthidium manicatum females, although they do harass them by holding them immobile and repeatedly attempting to mate. Both males and females hover near flowers similar to flies. They visit garden flowers and weeds preferring blue flowers that have long throats.