TINY TUESDAY - SYRPHUS RIBESII

Mr. HCB went off early with his walking buddy, Barry, this morning, so I decided, as we had a new mattress delivered yesterday, that today would be a good day to clean the bedroom.  As many of you know, I’m not a slave to housework - in fact, when the sun is shining, I would rather be out in the garden - well, wouldn’t you?

Having Dysoned and dusted the bedroom - I didn’t do too much more - well one shouldn’t overdo these things - I went out to have a wander around in the garden, taking lots of shots as I went.  The strawberries, which are obviously late ones, are particularly sweet - and yes, I ate one straight off the plant - and if I swallowed a bug at the same time, so be it - I'm still alive so far.

I walked on around the holding beds and the blackberries, which are mostly red at the moment, but we will have a wonderful crop if we get lots of rain and sunshine in equal measure.  Many of the plants we put in the holding beds when we were re-doing the herbaceous border last year seem to like their new position, so we have just left them there.  The two roses we moved from the front when we had our drive done have come on very well and the hollyhocks are very tall again this year.

Wandering along the front of the herbaceous border, I noticed lots of bees and hoverflies around the helianthus - they obviously produce good nectar but you can see that something has obviously been having a go at chewing on this.   Having looked in Mr. HCB’s British Wildlife book, we believe this one is a Syrphus Ribesii - a very posh name for a common hoverfly -  stayed long enough for me to take a shot so this is my offering for Tiny Tuesday.  Apparently, hoverflies feed on aphids, which is good and are also important pollinators, so I was pleased to see so many in our garden today.

One of our neighbours was sadly taken to hospital in an ambulance a little while ago - they nearly had a cat too - as our next door neighbours’ cat, who is very inquisitive, wandered up to the ambulance doors, which were wide open, but I knew that the medics were still in the house.  I happened to be making a sandwich for Mr. HCB in our kitchen, which is at the front of the house, so ran out and shooed it off - actually, perhaps I should have let it go, then we wouldn’t have the bother of shooing it out of our garden! 

“The hum of bees 
     is the voice of the garden.”
Elizabeth Lawrence


P.S.  A further update for my 100 Abstracts Challenge, which I did to raise awareness and money for the Mamie Martin Fund, and which provides a good secondary education for impoverished girls in North Malawi - this now stands at £1,150!  Thank you again to all those who have donated to this fund - your generosity will make such a difference.  M xx 

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MaureenIles