Allotment, Bugs and Bumbles - A Photo Update

Some large raised beds that my Dad and Brother-In-Law have been working hard at. Can't take much credit myself for this but will help with filling them and obviously eating the produce!

Another set of raised beds.

Thornless blackberry plant.

Peas, not ready for picking yet.

A nice picture of a ladybird captured using the macro setting on my phone.

Bumble bee on thyme flowers.

Now that it's white bum can be seen it can be identified as bombus hypnorum.

A bumble on a fox glove.

Another picture of the bumble.

Honey Bee on Himalayan Balsam

While walking down some woodland the other day I found a huge area of Himalayan Balsam that was alive with Honey Bees. 

I was visiting a friend and we decided to get out and see if there were any blackberries ready. Although there was a fair amount of blackberries ready we didn't collect any as another few days and they will be a lot bigger and easier to pick. We did pass a huge area of Balsam flowers and I was able to capture this photo on my phone. I did get another photo however the flower is in focus but the Bee moved and is just a blur so I haven't included it. There were literally hundreds of Bees busy collecting pollen and nectar from the flowers. The pollen in Balsam flowers is very light, almost white, and it's easy to tell when the Bees have been visiting them as they look like they have been dusted with icing sugar (to me anyway).