Stuart Rae

First day of Spring

Apricot blossom

Today, the 1st of September, is the first day of Spring here in Canberra and the garden is full of activity. The new growth is bursting from the plants and I saw the first butterfly of the season, a cabbage white. The skinks are sun-basking on the rocks and the crested pigeons are collecting nesting material.

But the best show is the blossom in the orchard. The apricots are always first to open and there is a terrific amount of flower heads, so lots of fruit in late summer if all goes well, and the rosellas don't eat too many buds. The plums are a few days behind, but the apples are still in tight bud.

A honey bee approaches the blossom

As it was the first day of Spring I thought I should capture the flavour, so grabbed a few shots of the blossom, then focused on the honey bees as they busied themselves around the blooms. Or rather, I tried to focus on them. They fly so quickly and being so small, there isn't much insect to focus on. But here are a few shots which I took at 40000 - 64000 ISO, 1/4000-1/8000 sec.

Bees are such wonderful fliers

If it takes such high speeds to freeze their movement (except their wing beats), I wonder what speed their own perception operates at, they must live fast furious lives.

And they make apricots for me..., the family, the neighbours, friends; the trees bare so much fruit every year we need to share.

Pollen sacs filled , maybe one little bit more...