what's that black thing in the flower?

It does look like the derriere of a Bee! Lovely flowers too Fran .....

Lovely photo Fran.....

Thanks Shirley. I thouught it was at first, bu no yellow stripe that I can see on it. (i actually thought htat the bee was on the flower to the right, mistook the leaf curl for stripes!

Thanks Lincs. Took about a dozen pics, and only got two fuzzed bees, and they took me ages to find - had to open pic aty full size, then scan it back and forth and up and down, inch by inch, in case there was a bee there somewhere! that's how I notcied this.

I've never seen Flowering Quince, I've no idea where the frtuit grows, or when - my seocnd thoght was that it might be taht, but only one?

Its gorgeous Fran, there is a red one in a garden down my road and its absolutely smothered in blooms this year, the bees like to wait until you fetch the camera and then they buzz off, no need to worry how many shots it takes these days with digital cameras, just enjoy clicking away....

Good photo Fran ...
of the flowers AND of the buzzy friend !

Wonderful lot of flowers on the quince Fran. I really is a psychological lift to see a colourful display in spring after a long tedious winter. I see my corner Camelia is leaning forward from the back fence under the weight of flowers. It needs pulling back again after I have looked to see what has happened behind it. I let Alan go yesterday before I noticed it. I think there is a bee bum peeking out of a flower.....lovely photo.

Lovely Quince flowers Fran, a real tonic after a long tedious but exciting winter for you. I thought it was a rose at first! Yes there is possibly a bee's derriere poking out of a flower. It is a bit thorny though. My mum used to grow one at the end of her garden.She made quince jelly of it in a good season.

thanks, Lincs. the rather annoying bit about digital cameras (or mine, anyeay) is that it holds the pic on the screen at the back for a second or so before it sets to take the next ptic, so if I just m issed something on the first try, by the time I can take a second, whatever I was trying to snap has gone.

I've only ever seen/heard one bee, or one at a time, don't know whether this is this bee's personal hunting gorund! it never stays long on one bloom, so I think that maybe there's not much nectar available at the moment - of course, I don't know how long bees usually spend on each flower.

Thanks, TT - lol maybe I should do more "random snpas" - the ones I try to take oh so carefully usually end up blurred!

Thanks Dorjac - as this is my first Quince I've no idea what's normal for them (same for all the other shrubs, of course) - I'm just enjoying it and enjoying seeing what happens next.

Wow, that Camelia must be a sight to see! hope you've taken lots of pics.

I wasn't sure if it was a bee or not, cos of the lack of stripe - lol maybe it's a - what's the opposite of albino??

I need to look up fruiting and haresting times for Qunice, then see what I can do with the resultant crop - I've read that they're not all that nice to eat raw, so jellying them is the only option - for people, anyway. But I'd like to see what bires are attracted to the ripe fruit - think phootos of birds would be more fun than picking the fruit, leaving it for a while, then a while longer while I "get round to it" ...

And it's near the house, so I should be able to snap through the window,

I think you've snapped a little bees bum Fran , nice photo a lovely lot of blooms on there !

thanks, Amy. that's one advantage of aim-vaguely-in-the-right-direction - you might get something even more interesting than what you were aiming at!

Fran you can lengthen the interval the picture stays on your screen on camera by cycling through the menu to find REVIEW, at least that what it says on my Canon. Set it to say 4 seconds or longer for your poorer eyesight. sorry if I might be telling you how to do this when you might already know.

i'd rather set it for 0, Dorjac, then I can snap instanty a second time! and no, you're not teaching your grandmother, i didn't know about that

ps: can't see that option, though I accidentally set my pics for thumbails and had heck of a job taking it off again!