DON'T PANIC! (Just flee.)

I have been seven shades of green with envy over macro shots of bumble bees so this morning I spent an hour trying to catch a big back bumbler with glossy blue wings cruising the jasmine. No luck. They are as difficult to photograph as black dogs and they move a whole lot faster.

This is what I got instead. A calabrone. They are big and dangerous. Even if I'd had a macro lens I would not have got close enough to photograph it. The green is a window shutter next to jasmine climbing the house wall. These wasps pack a lot of venom. Last year, a neighbour, Giovanni, was stung by several of them while on his tractor. He had to be rushed to the hospital. His face puffed up, his throat swelled closed. It took ten days before he stopped looking like the creature from the blue lagoon.

Oh, well, here is the failed pic: Black Bumble Bee

Speaking of Giovanni, here is Il giglio di San Giovanni, San Giovanni's lily. They are beginning to bloom everywhere now. I will do another picture in a few days. LILY

And...this is my cat, Tigger, having a yawn after a hard day's sleep on the tiles. TIGGER