Eupeodes on euphorbia

Another day, another hoverfly. I hoped to bring you the first Rhingia campestris of the season, which I stalked for a good half hour this morning with both cameras, but she was feeding with great concentration deep inside the pulmonaria, and all my efforts resulted in nothing better than record shots. Luckily this Eupeodes was more cooperative in choosing to feed on spurge, against which I think she looks very smart. She's probably Eupeodes luniger, but you really need a face-on shot to confirm the species identification within this genus, and she wasn't that cooperative.

In other bug news, my garden bee list for the year has now reached 27 species, after I found both male and female Osmia caerulescens in the wild garden. These are very small bees, and fast, but they're attractive and unusual, and if I manage to get good photos I will post them either here or on my Facebook page. And my prediction that if we built it, they would come appears to be proving correct, with both alderflies and caddisflies now turning up in the garden. Whether any of them have laid eggs in either of the ponds, only time will tell, but it's encouraging to be seeing insects that I've only previously photographed at places such as Brandon Marsh.

Lockdown Family Film Club this week was The Wife on Netflix. The central performance by Glenn Close was mesmerising, but I'm not sure the story deserved it: it was so predictable that at one stage I found myself wondering if I'd read the book on which the film was based. And having started with a formulaic plot, the film makers then signposted every possible twist well in advance, just to make sure you were able to win all your private bets with yourself about what would happen next. So all in all, rather disappointing - though not absolutely terrible, if you've nothing better to do one evening. One question has been exercising me since watching it though, and that is: has Jonathan Pryce ever played a thoroughly decent, sympathetic character? Because if he has, I think I must have missed it.