Hoverflies

Hoverflies feeding on my tradescantia pollen in the garden, they are kind enough to let you photograph them while they are feeding providing you don`t get the camera lens too close. I welcome them in the garden and allotment plot as the larvae of some are partial to aphids.

Adult common hoverfly

Male Sphaerophoria scripta hoverfly wingspan and body length about 1cm
lifesize is about 1.5x the ladybird cursor

Nikon D40 AP 18-55vr @55mm x4 close up filter ISO400 1/320  f9 

 Marmalade hoverfly (1cm)  I love the iridescence of the wings
Lifesize as above
Iso 400 1/400 f25

Helianthus `Lemon Queen` perennial sunflower

Only five feet tall and ideal for back of the border we bought it from a church plant sale in June for 20p the first flowers are just blooming and it should be lovely in a few more weeks.
I will divide the clump in the spring and hopefully place a one or two plants over on the plot.

Should be a mass of blooms soon

Canon Ixus sd1300

Limnanthes douglasii

I am going to sow the seeds for lots of these lovely poached egg flowers on the plot next season along with a mix of sunflowers, dahlias, gladioli, pot marigolds, and nasturtium of various colours. I am adding to that list after reading a post on Stokesia laevis in a lovely blog that I follow.
With my plot undergoing a total weed-killer application (see a previous post) this autumn I will be in need of some much needed colour next spring/summer and it will be great to see the bees and hopefully more butterflies returning.

Nikon D40 50mm 1.8 manual focus 4x close up filter ISO-800 1/60 sec f22 aperture priority

Dragonfly

Around this time of year we often find them visiting the garden, they seem to be attracted to the warmth radiating from the metal plate of the sundial when the sun is out.
We are lucky that we have the very large acreage of Langney Levels a marshy area on the doorstep a site of special scientific interest much visited by the local school children where I am sure the dragonflies and damselflies originate from.

I set the camera to aperture priority and selected f25 to try and get as much as possible in focus

Peter Rabbit with thanks to Miss Potter

We used to have lots of these on the allotment site until Mr and Mrs Fox and family moved in, they are still in residence (the foxes that is) but we still took the precaution of netting each plot burying the metal mesh deep down into the soil to prevent rabbit burrowing. It is a solution but it does makes weeding difficult close up to the wire net.

This lone (so far) youngster was on the Holywell promenade slopes close by the plot quite brazenly munching away in a flower bed.

Photo Canon Ixus SD1300 IS