A Bee's Eye View ...

... of our garden.

We have had so much rain here recently!  This was the view from our living-room windows on Sunday!

 Yesterday started out foggy,

 but by mid morning the sun had broken through.

I went out into the garden to cut the lawn and realised that the garden was abuzz with bees.

 Tree Bumblebee on Tellima Grandiflora 

I decided to take a few photos, at a lower angle from my usual shots - a bee's eye view of the garden.

 The Aquilegias are starting to flower.

 Tulip - Queen of the Night.

This female Orange-tip Butterfly was enjoying the sunshine too.

 My Lilac next to the greenhouse is looking beautiful.

 Another Tree Bumblebee, this time on Geranium Phaeum, Mourning Widow.

 The Alliums are in bud throughout the back garden.

 I'm not sure whether this is an Early or a Buff-tailed Bumblebee.

 Most likely an Early Bumblebee.

 The tulips are just managing to hang on, but will soon be over.

And hanging on the tulips ... a Green Shield Bug aka a Stink Bug.

 One of my favourite garden flowers - Saxifraga London Pride.

 This Viburnum is looking beautiful on one side of the garden,

 but my Viburnum Opulus on the other side of the garden has been attacked by the larvae of the Viburnum Beetle.  The leaves were lacy and the flowers brown - not at all pretty! :(  As I garden organically and there were quite possibly thousands of the larvae on the bush, I felt I had only one option ... I totally denuded the plant of all its leaves in the hope that new ones would grow at this time of year.  I then proceeded to spray the stems, which were crawling with the little blighters, with white oil.  All of the foliage was tied up in a bag and placed in the bin.  I had to do this a previous year on my Viburnum Tinus and it seemed to work, so fingers crossed.

 Ella joined me in the garden, until I got the lawn mower out!

 Today it is raining again, but I am hoping for a good summer.  Saturday we took Fay and Jay back to their respective universities and on the way stopped at Ikea for lunch.  We had a quick look around and I bought these pretty glass candle holders

 and candles for summer nights on the patio.  

 I'm ever the optimist! :)