Bluebell bee

While the Boy Wonder was taking a pram nap this afternoon, pushed around the park by his doting grandfather, I went on a small bug hunt, and found some small bugs. In this case the small bug is a sweat bee: it's a female of one of the Lasioglossum species, though determining its exact identification would require far more detailed images than this one. When I first saw her she was so still, with just a hint of her face showing at the base of one of the bluebell flowers, that I think she was probably asleep. After half a minute or so she woke up, and promptly fell out of the flower onto the foliage below, which I affected not to notice so as not to embarrass her. By the time I took this photo she'd got herself back onto the bluebells, though she was still a little dozy and clumsy.

On balance R and I had another very good day with the BW, though we did get into a few head-to head confrontations, which none of us enjoyed. It's impossible to blame the little chap for being a bit antsy though - quite apart from the fact that he was full of cold again, his house was in uproar this morning as the electricians were checking wiring, and installing smoke alarms and light fittings, with a great deal of noise, fuss, and attitude, and the extreme irritation they were causing to B's grown-ups was bound to have rubbed off on him.

One of the many things I adore about this little boy is the fact that he loves words, and uses them with increasing precision - especially when he can turn them to comedy effect. This afternoon, while he was on the swings at the playground, the sky suddenly darkened dramatically, and I said, "Oh no! It looks as though it might be going to rain!" "Oh no!" he agreed. "Look a' that black cloud! Iss goin' to rain, an' we will have to russh home !" - the last two words pronounced with excessive emphasis as if he were a 1940s stage actor (Edith Evans keeps coming to my mind), and the statement followed by a cackle of delighted laughter. Of course we laughed too, and at intervals for the next few minutes he would suddenly produce "Russh home!", and send himself off into fits of laughter again. If anyone in the family was wondering about all the hilarity in the photos I took of him on the swings today, and the joke he was clearly sharing with R at the time - this was it.