In between squally, heavy rain, the Dorises have been working their little socks off. You can tell what they like in the way of pollen and nectar because there will be dozens of bees all over a plant when its in flower, while other nearby plants are untouched by them.

This is the flower of a huge phormium (New Zealand Flax) in our garden and it’s one of the bees that has been gathering its bounty when the rain has stopped and they’ve had a chance to get out and about.

The photo isn’t 100% sharp but it’s close enough for a nice shot of a bee at work. You can see her nectar gathering tube poking down into the bloom and see her pollen sack on her legs where she’s storing it up before taking it back to the hive. Bees can carry food back to the hive that weighs more than their own body weight. They’re amazing little things.

A little biological note (even though if you know anything about bee behaviour you’ll know it’s a superfluous one) – you can tell it’s a worker bee because when you look at her tail section, it’s divided into five parts. Drones have three and queens have seven – so there you are, a bit of bee anatomical advice!

She’s working hard. I’m working hard. I’ve cut all of our lawns today, which with my old mower I would not have even attempted because it’d be too hard to do. The new mower is proving (so far) to be a useful mix of light utility and strength. My only complaint so far is its flex is too short – especially as it’s described as being suitable for medium to large gardens.

The lawns have not been attempted for more than a month because the weather has been too grotty, not to mention the fact that it’s simply not possible to do more work than I’ve been doing. I could not have fitted in another whole day’s worth of work anywhere along the way.

Basically this means that the grass has been knee-height in some places so extremely difficult to cut. You couldn’t say it looks great now, because it doesn’t but you can say it’s short and reasonably tidy!