The Great Tour

Next Sunday the 2nd August 2015, Wayne and my brother Mark and fellow cyclists Rob and Denise are taking part in the Great Tour which is a fund raising challenge for the Anthony Nolan blood cancer charity.  They will be cycling 60 miles from Scarborough to Hull and it would be great if you could sponsor them - if you feel you can then you can do so by clicking on this link

http://click.contact.justgiving.com/?qs=02cd5e8679d84c23200c032d96f88cb344ea00a4ae39e0c4f2bdab6f4425fcc786be1af33856fe47

For more details of the challenge, click on this link

http://www.anthonynolan.org/8-ways-you-could-save-life/take-part-fundraising-event/uk-treks/great-tour

Normanby Hall Duathlon 2015

Last night the Normanby Hall Duathlon was held and so always up for a challenge Wayne and my brother Mark duly entered, the only problem was neither of them could run and as the race was a 5km run/20km bike ride/2.5km run the only way to enter was as a team so the search was on for runners and in steps Anna to run for Wayne and Dot to run for Mark - also spurred on by the challenge were Rob and Denise so 3 teams to shout for…

Ready for the off

Mark, Rob and Wayne

Denise on her last 2.5km

Anna who put in a fabulous 23 min 5km

Dot only her second race put in a magnificent effort

Anna about to hand over to Wayne

The transition area..

Wayne storming through Normanby

Alfie - Marks blind dog cheering him on!

Anna - first woman to finish!

Finished!

Mark handing over to Dot

Rob and Mark congratulating each other on a sterling effort

Out of breath but still standing

Well done to all - see you next year?

Ivy Broomrape - the next stage

As promised further images of Ivy Broomrape still not fully out so more to come..

A little quiz

Out of all the life in the garden at the moment these are what I'm most excited about - Id to be revealed later!

Social or Cuckoo?

Bees are so confusing if only I knew an expert, late yesterday evening in the garden was this individual  very frustrating - on the face of it its definitely a male social Buff-tailed Bumblebee because: black facial hair, single yellow stripe on thorax and abdomen, tail dirty white to buff, shiny flat and broad tibia, very hairy making it look furry!  However I could also say its definitely a Vestal Cuckoo-Bee because: very lethargic, stripe on thorax darker than stripe on abdomen, no pollen sacs and dark wings.

And one last perplexing feature - antennal segments - 13 in a male, 12 in a female, I can only make out 10 in this image!

At last a Frog …

I don’t know why but we just don’t seem to get Frogs in our pond, maybe because they know the Newts will eat any spawn but anyway this one appeared last night..

Bombus lapidarius

Lots of Bumblebees out today on the Lavender, pretty sure this one is a male Red-tailed Bumblebee, nb yellow face.

Bombus Terrestris

Finally I think I can be 100% confident in id’ing a bee!  This is at least to my mind a queen Buff-tailed Bumblebee - only the queen has a truly buff-tail and this one has if you look at the second photo.

A few more of emerging Southern Hawker

One of the four amazing creatures to emerge from our garden pond yesterday.  Despite a constant battle with 4 Mallards the Pond has been full of life this spring with fantastic displays from our Newts egg laying on anything they could get their feet on.

 

All the Hawkers came out on the Yellow Loosestrife and the flag iris on the far side of the pond all on the same day, presumably yesterday was the day around the country for them to emerge?