and so it continues.....

---The advance of spring that is!
Arriving home later from work today the sun was shining and it really felt very springlike.
As I was collecting my bags from my car I noticed this beauty flitting round my garden and I literally dropped everything to get this one picture of it.
This beauty is the Hairy -footed flower bee Anthophora plumipes, a real herald of spring, and a real beauty. The male (and this is a male) has long hair on it's middle leg from which it gets it's common name. They are very frenetic and busy bees who especially love feeding on Pulmonaria.