59/365: "The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it." ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau [Explore]

Every day I go out to appreciate the beautiful crocus that are in full bloom in our front yard, and naturally I cannot help but take pictures. Yesterday afternoon I saw something on one of the flowers as I approached and whispered to myself, "Oh! Could that be a bee?! I moved over very slowly and sure enough, there was a bumble bee on one of the flowers! But wait!! There were TWO! I couldn't believe it!! And the story gets better!!

I was a little sad because I would have liked to make the bees my pick of the day but I'd already chosen the hawk from earlier. No matter, they would make lovely alternate shots, right? Well, last night when I let the dogs out, I had a suspicion so I checked the flowers. I wondered about them yesterday afternoon because they'd been moving very sluggishly in the rapidly cooling temperature. As it turned out, they were too cold to fly away and decided to sleep inside the flowers overnight!! Absolutely amazing! And best of all, I popped outside this drizzly morning, hoping it was still too cold for them to fly, and what do you know...the cutie pies were crawling around in and out of the flowers and I got my pick of the day!!! YAYYY!!!!! I feel so incredibly lucky and fortunate to get these pictures!! (By the way, I'll have a couple of others to share of them in a week or two--I thought it would be better to spread them out.)

Jacques-Yves Cousteau, commonly known in English as Jacques Cousteau; 11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997) was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française. Wikipedia: Jacques Cousteau

Explored on Flickr on February 28, 2013. Highest position: #106.