Spring Tulip

This tulip amazes us every year. And this year it's bigger then ever. We forget about it, and then all of the sudden I spy a glimmer of yellow. So this morning I pruned back all of the dead flowerstems around it and captured it as it is slowly unfurling its pedals.

A Bumble Bee came along to complete the scene, evidently happy to find that early splendor of a freshly opened tulip to wiggle around in.

Lavender Bumble Bee

I know this picture isn't terribly crisp and clear. But I loved the way that Bumble Bee was hanging onto the Spanish Flag Lavender. His heavy, striped body, dangling on slender legs, with his wings down behind him, translucent. You can see the flower head behind , through the "windows" of the wings. And though they are plump of body, they move rapidly from blossom to blossom. So very difficult to capture them sitting still for a moment. By the time I would focus and bring him up close, he would usually be gone again.