Lavender is where it's at these days.
I have a number of favourite lavender bushes around town that have become among my favourite places to spot wildlife in the last couple of weeks, more specifically bees and bumblebees.
There are three bushes in the Newark Library park that today were attracting numerous species of bumble, and a common blue butterfly dropped in. I really don't care if people think I'm insane when they see me jumping around the plants with my mobile phone camera taking pictures.
The other bush I like is up on Beacon Hill estate, and is owned by a very nice chap who came out today to talk to me about it both today and yesterday as I tried, almost convincingly, to identify a few of the species for him while doing my mobilly phone St Vitus Dance again. He's very proud of letting his lavender grow for the bees, although he reckons there aren't as many as last year.
I struggle to see how there could be more, because at the moment his bush is a busy mass of honey bees, and bumblebees as well as a few cuckoo bumblebees, working away like crazy.
I took plenty of photographs, but sadly, I can't show you them! 1) My new Moto G is not great for close up nature shots - the res isn't great, but a worse problem is the terrible autofocus. 2) My new Moto G won't upload pictures to blogger.
Answers to those issues would be appreciated!
In the meantime, I'm trying to persuade my folks to get lavender for their garden, but my mum is resitant, saying it doesn't do well there. I really hope she is wrong. There seems to be two kinds - the traditional bath oil smelling one, and also a silvery, sharper, more herbal smelling one.
Both seem to be like catnip for bees, and for all I know, they are like catnip for cats too.
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