Refuge

We have two potted fountain bamboos next to the free-standing pond on our patio. I didn't put them there specifically for the Large Red Damselflies, but their colouring means that they provide excellent cover for immature specimens, and they're often the first port of call for teneral Large Reds when they make their maiden flight. This was the older of two males that eclosed early this morning, and the first to leave the pond. Both emerged without mishap while the patio was still in shade, but by mid-morning this one was colouring up well in the bright sunshine. The second one stayed on his emergence support for another hour or so before leaving.

Down in the wild garden at around the time this Large Red Damselfly was finishing pumping out his wings, I saw what I think was a male Beautiful Demoiselle, hunting around the cider apple tree. If my identification was right we now have a potential breeding pair, which is a very nice thought, but I can't be sure because as soon as he noticed me he went right up into the top of the tree, where I couldn't even see, let alone photograph him. I had better luck with the pair of Azure Damselflies that turned up at the wildlife pond at lunch time and spent half an hour ovipositing in tandem, though the male was unhappy about my presence and inclined to move his partner away if I got too close, so I grabbed a few record shots and then left them in peace. Neither R nor I can remember seeing this much damselfly action around our ponds since the summer of 2021, and we're very pleased that they seem to be coming good again after last year's poor season.

Away from the damsels, my most interesting garden captures of the day were of a white tailed bumblebee foraging among my oriental poppy flowers. The same bee has been working these poppies for three days now, but my previous attempts to get photos of her foraging frenzy were foiled by poor light in this corner of the garden. This morning I had good light and was able to shoot at 1/1000 second, but even so her wings were just a blur. I've posted four frames to Facebook, if you'd care to see them.

This afternoon saw me working as frenetically as the bee. About four months ago I ordered a hybrid Toyota Yaris Cross, as a replacement for the MX-5, but Toyota can't currently build these cars as fast as they can sell them, so it was a while before my order got to the top of the queue. In due course the car was built, and shipped, and arrived in Stratford, and you'd have thought that I would have been turning cartwheels with excitement. But instead I've been tied up in stressy knots by the absolutely ridiculous palaver involved in getting a private plate off the MX-5 so that it could be part-exchanged for the Yaris. I've used this plate on half a dozen cars over the past thirty years, and every time it's had to be moved the dealer selling me my new vehicle has arranged the transfer, which has happened seamlessly. But not any more. Now the owner has to do one thing, and somebody else has to do another thing, and the dealer can give advice but has no control over either part of the process, and maximum irritation and inconvenience ends up being caused to everybody.

After a week of waiting with gritted teeth for someone somewhere to update a database, by this afternoon I'd resigned myself to the deal not being finalised before Friday at the earliest, and at 3pm I was sitting at my desk editing photos when the sales manager phoned and said, "It's happened. Can you get down here by 4?" Which is when I had to make like the bee, changing my insurance over to the new car and scuttling round gathering up documents and keys, before zooming off to Stratford. In the midst of this little frenzy my insurance company sent me an email announcing that they'd updated my email address back to one I closed down about a year ago, which promptly deprived me of access to my on line insurance account, so I had to rely on the screen grab I'd taken of the updated policy a few seconds before they shut me out. "Just go!" said R. "You can phone and yell at them later!"

What an absolute performance. But I've got my new car, and I love it (even though it's rather bossy). And I've sorted out the insurance company, so that's fine. And now I've got back the bandwidth that's been eaten up by this situation over the past couple of weeks, I hope I might manage to get back to a normal level of domestic activity, as well as being a bit easier for the rest of the world (R, that is, mainly) to deal with. And - breathe.....