Bee's Knees

The garden is humming and buzzing today. I was following bees round the garden with my camera. They're usually far too fast for me and I've ended up with about 50 photographs of flowers and a blurry bit in the corner where a bee is taking off. But here is one bee on an astrantia flower with its knees sticking out and its bottom in the air.

I thought it was pleasantly cool this morning when I opened the back door. Now it's gorgeously warm - just the right temperature for me. None of this 30 degree nonsense.

I'm off out this afternoon. Should have been meeting a former colleague in Glasgow for a catch up but work (for him) got in the way. So I've volunteered for driving duty. Also sorting out a few travel plans for next week and next month and baking for later in the week.

And now I see them in close up a lot of the astrantias will need to be cut back. They always reward me with a second and sometimes even a third flush of flowers after a good prune.

EDIT: I sent my photograph to BugLife Scotland for help with identification. It's not a bee but a female pied hoverfly: Volucella pellucens. They lay their eggs in the nests of social wasps apparently. So that's the bee's knees inaccurate