All my Christmasses.....

...have come at once.

First of all, thank you so much to everyone, for all your stars, hearts and comments on my 100th blip yesterday. I was thrilled to read such kind, thoughtful and inspiring messages. It absolutely made my day.

You know, when you've had such a perfect day, the next day can almost feel like an anti-climax. You do wonder how it can ever get better.

This afternoon we went to an open garden about an hour's fast drive away, on the other side of the Mt. Lofty Ranges to where we live. Right in the back of beyond actually - down miles of highway, and then a couple of rutted lanes before we reached our destination. And, after all that driving, I was a bit disappointed. The vistas were very nice, but the roses are late coming out this year, and although there were certainly plenty of buds, there wasn't much flower activity.

And then I began to be still - and I realised we were completely surrounded by the most wonderful bird song, so many different species - I couldn't identify them by song, and they were impossible to see. Although I did see a few fairy wrens - but then another group of people would walk by, and the wrens flew away.
I could hear frogs, and saw dragons, and I began to see what a wonderful place it was.

We were looking at a garden bed with a cistus rose in the centre and surrounded by lavender, and the Rower said, "what's that funny green thing". That funny green thing just happened to be a fairly uncommon native Australian bee - the blue banded bee, (Amegilla cingulata).

He had the camera with the macro on it, so I literally grabbed it off him, but sadly was too late and the bee disappeared.

So after waiting a few minutes just in case it came back, we went to have our cup of coffee and cake. I thought I would leave the Rower and just take one more look at that lavender to see if my little critter came back. I walked round and round this bed a few times, and just one more for luck before I left. And the bee came back!! And I got this shot!! A blue-banded bee in flight - with his tongue sticking out. And all my Christmasses have come at once. I am so stoked, you couldn't believe it.

There is a second image in my Folio which shows his little clown face. It's under the bugs file, and click to the left to save going through the whole lot.

So, the day after a fantastic day isn't necessarily an anti-climax, it can be just as exciting. (But none of this would ever have happened without Blip)!