More on bees and blue flowers

I so enjoyed watching this little one minute of what is probably a paper wasp gathering nectar on the blue flowers that I thought I'd try to post it and hope others might enjoy it as well. True it was warm and sunny that day. Today it's cold and sunny - no bees in site today, but I still wondered about the type or species of flowers the blue ones were.

A cousin of mine suggested that the tiny flowers might be chiondoxa luciliae or glory in the snow - what a beautiful name for a wee flower. I thought it might be spring squill - another type of flower listed under the scilla family. Whatever it's name the little insects certainly were busy with it.

I can only hope that they had a nest or somewhere safe to return to for a few more weeks as true spring weather has returned to this part of the continent...sunny but cool and with true March winds making it very chilly indeed to be in the breeze

Which makes me wonder - what will happen if we have many more incidents where it becomes summery hot and then wintery cold in less than 24 hours. Will the insects adjust? Do we really know how to cope if the pollinators of our crops suddenly are gone? Certainly apple farmers up here will suffer, but we know too that wheat needs pollination from insects - it isn't all done by pollen blowing from plant to plant. Nature's design over eons has created an inter-dependent eco-system or series of ecosystems across the planet. We've lost so many of the species that our forefathers knew, can we really afford to lose many more?

And while as I've said before, the unseasonable weather we had for two or three weeks this month may well be an anomaly, it still could also be a warning of things to come, or of other climatic changes that we have yet to experience and can't yet forecast.

More reason to hope this is an anomaly and make the most of every second we have and every gift from nature. A sobering thought for a bright sunny Monday.