Project 365 day 144: Bee and Berberis

When I got up, the beans were lifting the lid of the tray. I left it on - there are still another ten I am hoping might germinate - but propped it a little higher. By lunchtime the tallest plants were holding it even higher, so I took some more photos. They have a slightly alien or prehistoric look, the unfurling leaves still half imprisoned in the dry outer shell of the bean. 

However, the beans are not my favourite photo from the day. Although some heavy showers made me rush out to bring in almost-dry laundry, we had a good number of dry hours and even a bit of sun. The berberis is looking lovely, with bright, tiny yellow and red flowers against the deep burgundy leaves, and I managed a couple of quite nice shots of it; then the enormous bee appeared. I have a lot of trouble photographing bees, I'm too slow to frame and focus on anything fast moving, so I was pleased to manage a more or less in focus shot of this big, furry specimen whose broad, yellow stripe matched my flowers so well. My second, less focused photo of it suggests it is probably a white tailed bumble bee.