Yesterday, I spent around half an hour watching the bees and the butterflies out in the back garden. We’ve had over a week of hot, sunny weather here in Wales which was perfect for the garden.
The dahlias are thriving this year and the bees are loving them. One thing my Grandad and I shared was our love for dahlias, so I’m sure he would have loved to have seen all the ones flowering in the back garden this year (including a couple taken from his garden last year). There are still plenty of buds waiting to flower too. Followers on Instagram might have seen the selection of dahlia photos I posted last week.
We usually get a variety of different bees, but, as you can see from the photos, this summer we mostly seem to have white-tailed bumblebees.
I find it’s always a bit of a task to capture photos of the white butterflies as they always seem to flutter around rather than stopping anywhere for long. Mind you, I haven’t seen many butterflies around this year.
Have the bees and butterflies been frequenting your garden this year?
I beautiful set of photos and some lovely colours – all very pretty though I particularly like the third shot 🙂
Hi Nikki,
A lovely colourful gallery, your garden must be a mass of colour. There seems to have been a definite shortage of bees around this year, we usually have loads in the garden, perhaps it has been a little too hot for them!
We too, had a scorching last week, although that did break big time on Saturday night, when the storm of all storms hit us. The main street drains were overflowing and we were concerned that we were going to be flooded, but luckily it stopped after a couple of hours and the water subsided overnight. Spoke to my Tesco’s driver this morning, who lives about six miles away and they had no rain at all? 🙂
A couple of weekends ago, we met up with the family and went to an NT property in Oxfordshire, Buscot Park. Their walled gardens were full of butterflies and bees, however I was busy baby-sitting my great niece and great nephew, so Dave took all the pictures. It’s a lovely place if you are ever down this way 🙂
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/buscot-park
Did you know that Detroit is becoming a HUGE bee sactuary?
So much housing and buildings were removed, leaving large tracts of open fields, and some folks are making gardens of these fields.
Several bee-keeping companies put up honeybee hives, and they are harvesting honey like crazy!
Personally, I am planting native-to-Michigan/Midwest USA plants, to encourage the native pollinators to do their thing.
Without pollinators; bees, bats, etc., we won’t have food!
That’s very interesting! Bees are very important to the planet.
I see a few bees, but only notice them when I follow the noise to a favourite plant. The carob in flower is deafening!
You have done so well, Nikki. I went out into my garden in that very hot weather with the same intent as you, but the speed at which the butterflies were flitting made it impossible for me to get even one photo! Your patience has really paid off, and is an inspiration
Lovely photos! I didn’t realize bees are so fond of dahlias but then I’ve got very few dahlia blooms right now. Luckily, I’ve not shortage of bees, though. Here, their favorite plants are the Grevilleas, Cupheas and lavenders.
What fabulous photographs!
So much beauty in the flowers. The bees are enjoying the the fne summer bounty. Last week was far too hot for me. I’m best at now more than around 22-23 deg C and nights of less than 10 deg.
Stunning captures, as always. I always find butterflies harder to photograph than bees, so well done with that! I was amazed by your recent Dahlia photos on Instagram. I had no idea they came in so many varieties. It makes me want to try and grow them!
Dahlias come in so many varieties. Every time I spot a new one I find them hard to resist!
Such gorgeous photos!! I live watching the bees in the garden, something so peaceful about them.
Such beautiful photos.
Maybe we got all your butterflies? There were loads here earlier in the year. I think it might be a little too hot for them right now. I’m rubbish at capturing them in photos though, so I’ll just admire all your Welsh beauty. Have a great summer, Nikki!
Beautiful photos, Nikki, and your dahlias are stunning! Our garden is humming with bees and butterflies too, it’s just wonderful to see.
It’s been the same here, lots of bees but not so many butterflies. Lovely photos.
We had a week of lovely weather too last week, although it wasn’t nearly as hot here as it was in the UK!
Your photos are fantastic! I just love watching the garden wildlife, and bees, bumblebees, hoverflies and butterflies are plentiful in ours.
I love Dahlias too, but they usually do not fare very well in our garden, unfortunately.
Ooh, and you’re on Instagram! Will check it out! xxx
Gorgeous photos!! I love the dahlias. I have some in my garden and I would gladly buy a few more, maybe next year if some of the flowers die in winter.
Lovely to see the butterflies. I noticed a few in the garden, but didn’t get the opportunity to take a picture o them. The bees are so busy with the allium that I can take a picture when I want, there is always one or two having a meal. 🙂
Nikki, these are fabulous! I can only imagine how beautiful your garden is when you add in all the fragrances and sounds!
Dahlias are one of my favourite flowers. Beautiful close-up photos. I have yet to take a photo of a white butterfly, even though I see them daily in our garden. They do seem to flutter around a lot. Your butterfly photos are gorgeous!
-Soma
Truly beautiful photos. As I always say when I see wonderful photos online, “That wasn’t taken from no stinkin’ cell phone camera!” 😉 Try as I may, I’ve never been able to take good closeups of flowers. Well done!
Wow! Your photos are stunning, you have captured some great shots of the bees and butterflies. It’s wonderful seeing the garden come to life, isn’t it?
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
Thank you! Yes, it definitely is so wonderful to see a garden come to life.
Lovely photos 🙂
Wow, these photos are so pretty! I’ve seen quite a lot of bees this year which is so lovely (and a less so lovely equal number of wasps too). The close ups are incredible x
Even more than bees and butterflies we are getting an awful lot of big moths whose sole purpose seems to be to come into our house to find somewhere to die.
As always, lovely photographs, well captured, thanks Nikki
I hate it when moths make their way inside, attracted to the light, and then flutter around in the bedroom when I’m trying to sleep!
These are beautiful photos, and I love all the photos of the bumblebees on the flowers. There have been quite a few bees here, but also wasps (not so lovely)