This is NOT a blue banded bee...

...I went out not long ago, around sunset, to get the washing in and there before me was a beautiful blue banded bee (the prettiest bee you are ever likely to see, but only in Australia!). It has a really loud buzz and was flitting around so fast, that even though I had my camera slung over my shoulder (as blippers do when they get the washing in - "just in case") I had no chance at all of getting a photo of it - it didn't stop for a millisecond. I have seen one in my garden only two or three times before in the last 12 years. I will be keeping an especial eye out for it now!

Hot day (and getting hotter) which we spent watching The Hobbit, in super duper high frame rate, extreme screen 3D! Very good and an excellent advert for New Zealand (though I need no added incentives to go there; I know it's very nice). Followed by a refreshing dip in next door's pool.

This is yet another bee shot and yet another agapanthus shot... sorry, there wasn't much out there this morning. Would have loved to show you a blue banded bee instead.

But have a look BIG anyway if you want.