Sketching Again - Have a Look

 God bless The Works. It has brought me a large amount of art supplies for very little money, because me spending more than a fiver on pastels and paints is a complete waste of money. 

I like my pastels and black paper the best, as they seem to give the most vivid results. I choose local subjects, working in life or from my own photos.

I know I'm no artist, but I find it really helps my brain to concentrate on art for a few minutes. It helps my Tourettes for those periods, maybe helps with motor co-ordination. . Also, it's something to add to my creative archive. 

And I just like filling books with stuff. I can never have too many notebooks. I might time capsule them somehow. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.04.26

More Library Critters

 Yesterday we had sunshine, but it wasn't super warm. Indeed, as soon as the sun went behind a cloud, it was three layers time again. 

But this lower ambient temperature has a big advantage for us nature photographers, especially those of us who have a mobile phone rather than a £600 DSLR. It slows the fast moving solitary bees down enough so we can get enough close to them to have a hope of getting a half decent shot. 

Such as it was when I went on patrol in the wildflowers in the wildflower gardens. And on the wildflowers, the bees were having a bit of a rest. 

There were nomad cuckoo bees, small and normally so fast on the wing you can barely follow them. A red mason bee, taking its time on a buttercup. Various mining bees were chilling out, and even a hairy footed flower bee was taking a break in the red dead nettles. 

They all had a mobile phone poked at them. 

The results came out ok, I suppose. I hope you like them anyway. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.04.26 

What did I Find Today?

 A day that started grey, brightened up and was then drowned  in hail and cloudburst rain gained me three new species for the year on campus. 

The action was mainly centred around the cherry laurel that has now come into pungent bloom. As soon as the day had warmed up enough to wake them up, these shrubs were surrounded by fast flying little mining bees of some description, hardly ever settling to feed. 

When I did get a photo, it baffled iNaturalist, but later research by myself led me to believe they were chocolate mining bees. They are quite understated compared to some of the other mining bees, but still an attractive find. 

Only one of the next species, but rather easier to photograph was the ever dapper ashy mining bee, Steed from The Avengers in apian form. I don't see many of these, so to get one early in the season was a bonus. 

Finally, on a rosemary bush that the law says you have to crush the leaves and smell, was the first (not so) early bumblebee of the season. 

A rather nice trifecta, I'm sure you'll agree. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 15.04.26 

Butterflies and Beasties

 We had a decent Monday here, that resulted in me taking a long old walk through the park - with a tea stop of course - and around to the cemetery, before rounding off my exploration in the library gardens nature reserve. 

I took a lot of photographs on this walk, but for now, I will concentrate on the shots that I got in the library gardens of an orange tip butterfly, a holly blue, and finally a sun fly in its Juventus style football jersey.

Of course, these butterflies were not being very co-operative and I couldn't get close to them, so apologies for the shots being a bit soft. 

Now that we are getting better weather, it feels incredibly important to me to be outside as much as possible again. Getting the walking done, doing training runs for my half marathon in August, playing cricket sciatica allowing, and also maybe even doing some painting with the pocket set I bought. 

All while listening to Radio 4 and trying to learn new things. Ah Radio 4, the sign of middle age! 

Well, I am, I guess. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 14.04.26 

A New Species of Ladybird for me

 So today I took a quick wellbeing and Tourettes walk to the library gardens to see if anything much was around on what was a rather cooler day to what we've been having recently. 

At the moment, green alklet is the dominant wildflower in bloom at the moment, and the hairy footed flower bees absolutely love it. Males and females were zooming around like tiny aerial motorbikes, buzzing away and far too fast to photograph. 

But it wasn't a bee that caught my eye. 

Hunkered down on a bloom was a new ladybird species for me, a cream spotted ladybird. A little smaller than the 7 spots that were present in large numbers, this is a shiny brown lady bird with white spots that don't look particularly creamy. 

I was very pleased to see it. 

Also new to me was what I think might be a bicoloured mining bee on dandelion. Initially I thought it was just a honey bee, but looking closely I could bee that the banding on the abdomen was different. It was heavily dusted in yellow dandelion pollen. 

Not far away, a vestal cuckoo bumblebee was enjoying the mahonias that are still in bloom. 

Such a small space, but so much to see! 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.04.26 

Lots of Emergences the Last Few Days!

 Thought I'd give you a mini photo dump of the last few days! 

As we enter April, more and more species are starting to appear. Today brought me a common furrow bee in the old oak wood, while earlier in the week we've had early mining bees, male common mourning bees and a red mason bee up and about. Also perhaps a white banded sweat bee. 

Add to this the increasingly unhinged hairy footed flower bees, now getting too fast to photograph as the weather warms, and the delightful dark edged fee fly, there's plenty to see at my favourite time of the year.

Hope you are finding new critters out and about too. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 04.04.26 

Yet More Spring Finds!

 Today's walks were on a duller day, but still a productive one. 

The first tawny mining bees were out today, seemingly country wide judging by my social feeds, and I came across one at the edge of someone's front garden, seemingly not operating at full throttle yet, but its colours were glorious. 

Then I found a female hairy footed flower bee foraging off red dead nettle growing out the pavement. This one seemed rather mad at me. 

My final find, at Rumbles Cafe on the park, was a beetle with a beautiful metallic sheen. Possibly a rainbow growclock beetle, this was another new find for me. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature