Imogen's photos

Australian native Nomia bees, settling down to sleep for the night on a flower stem of Gaura plant. These bees are all males, they congregate like this at the end of the day, to sleep in a group. They like thin blades of grass or similar strands and cluster like this on the end of the blade of grass, probably for protection against predators. The females live in solitary nests or in groups of nests, while the males sleep in the open. The picture was taken in my garden where I observe them settling down each evening at sundown. If they like a roosting site they will come back each afternoon for several weeks.

A Honeybee on Perennial Basil plant - the pollen stored in this bee's leg sac (or pocket) is bright red in colour, which is unusual as pollen is usually white or shades of yellow. Another view can be seen in the picture within the inset.

The accepted opinion is Bees have a preference for blue flowers over other colours. I noticed this summer that the bees visited the white flowers of perennial Basil more than any others, even though the blue Salvia is right next to the Basil plant. As with anything in nature, the answer is usually more complex than we think.

Honey Bee visiting the first Bluebell to flower in Spring. The low angle of the sun in Spring allows for strong shadows. I thought the shadow of the flower looked quite interesting here.

Amegilla bombiformis, or Blue Banded Bee - one of the many native bees in Australia. Here the bee is gathering nectar on a Perennial Basil plant, which flowers for most of the year except winter and is a source of food for Honey Bees and Native Bees also. The Basil plant grows quite large (1.2metres) in a warm climate like Australia and I find it best to prune the plant in mid-summer to a more compact shape which also encourages more flowering on a bushier plant. Previously I used to cut the Basil plant down in middle of Autumn but since I notice it is the last plant with flowers in my garden for the Bees to gather food, I now wait till beginning of Winter before pruning the plant. In our climate the bees are still active until first cold temperatures !

Tall Bearded Iris Tuscan Villa: one of the early to flower iris and the bonus is the flowers have a strong scent. I've grown many iris varieties over the years and now actively seek out iris with perfumed flowers. Iris perfume is captivating.

At first glance this Honey Bee seems to have another set of eyes just behind the eyes on the head. Which is why I use the term shapeshifter (def: a living creature that can change it's physical form or appearance quickly). However the shiny segment that looks like an eye is probably the tibia of it's antennae cleaning leg. I cannot be certain even after careful examination close up......

Honey Bee on Cranesbill Rozanne - At the start of the day for the bee it's leg sacs are empty of pollen as seen here. The Bee will work methodically and patiently through the flowers to collect as much pollen and nectar to carry home to the hive. Going into 2019 we can all use these qualities of perseverance and patience in our daily endeavours.

Sulfur Crested White Cockatoo (Cacatua Galerita) Australia - a beautiful bird of large size, 45cm head to tail with a wingspan of one metre. Seen in pairs or more usually in flocks as it roams for food over a large area. The strong beak makes short work of any foliage or tree branch - the broken branch and stripped bark just below the tail says it all.

Rosehips on a wild rose seen growing by the roadside. I liked the grey and purple shades of the leaves and the rosehips.

Medieval capitals and pillars. Musee de Cluny, Paris. One of my favourite museums in the world.

Succulent plant growing on old sandstone wall. One day while gardening and repotting some plants I put a tiny piece of this succulent plant in a crevice of our garden wall so I could find it easily to put into a pot later that day. I forgot about it and a few months later it had grown into what you see here, all in a crack between the sandstone blocks with no soil whatsoever.

Carpenter Bee, on Ceratostigma or Leadwort flower. One of the largest bee species commonly seen in gardens.

Early 20th Century mobile bee hives, Weimar Bee Museum, Germany. Beekeepers have a long history of supplying bees to farmers or agriculturists to pollinate crops. These colourful bee hive boxes are conveyed on this wagon and rented out for a period of a few weeks. The brightly coloured hives can easily be seen and located in a field so the beekeeper can retrieve them easily when the bees have done their pollinating job. In the present time, bees are showing signs of stress due to being overworked. Symptoms of stress on the bees include dieback of colonies, diseases, and susceptibility to Varoa mite parasite. Pesticides used on agricultural crops is also to blame for bee dieback. An alarming decline in honey bee (Apis Mellifera) populations worldwide will mean problems with crop production for human consumption. Interestingly the USA has no native honey bees so bees are imported mainly from Europe to pollinate American crops.

Weimar Bee Museum, Germany. Ancient European centrifuge used to extract honey from bee honeycombs. This centrifuge was cranked by hand once the combs were stacked in the round barrel-type container, and the honey collected underneath in a drum. The trapdoor to access the container with honey can be seen in the lower right-hand corner of the photograph. Bee keeping was and is an important industry. Honey was the main source of sweetener from ancient times to the 17th Century when cane sugar became available in Europe. Beeswax was an expensive and sought after commodity in Europe as it made the finest candles burning with a bright clear flame.

European Bee keeping baskets of various forms, used from earliest times, through the Middle Ages and into the 19th Century. Most are woven in the shape of ordinary household baskets from straw or raffia and a few have clay laid into the straw structure - the clay would act as insulation to keep the hive cooler or warmer in extreme weathers. The simplest type has a lid on top for easy access to the honey combs inside.

Almost an alien world, the honeycomb leaves of a beehive await occupation and industry.

Beautiful Folk Art scenes painted on these antique German beehive boxes. Most of the themes are amusing like the Bear stealing honey (see inset picture in the note in right hand corner).