This week's smiles....week 424

 What a gorgeous sunny week we have had and the Bank Holiday weekend was filled with smiles [there's lots of hem this week so be warned].

As promised, on Wednesday, here is the collage of some of the many snaps I took during our trip to Dorothy Clive Gardens on Tuesday.  The Rhododendrons and Azealia were stunning as was the Laburnum arch .....there seemed like miles of stunning blooms everywhere we walked and the very best bit is that now I have lost 2 1/2 stone I am finding it easier to walk further and enjoy more.

Theo enjoyed a weekend at the coast with his mummy, daddy and Maisie dog and I really love this photo [I will give a little secret away and say Maisie's lead has been cropped out of the photo].  Happy memories were made.

After a night over and a day at Legoland the twins enjoyed the sun in their back garden when they got home.

Lulu has been trying on her new school uniform and they redid the pose they did for her first day at infant school....she's still a girl with attitude :-) She's really looking forward to starting her new school.

Our own back garden is full of blooms now....but on a slightly smaller scale to Dorothy Clive gardens :-)

I must say we really have enjoyed sitting out in it in the sunshine this week.....and watching our new visitors.......

We had a good tidy up in our garden and pulled up all the old tulips but in doing this we disturbed some very special little visitors....if you zoom in right in the middle of this photo you will see a busy little bee.  We have a nest in the ground beside one of our fuchsias....sadly one of the little darlings stung my hubby on his hand as they were defending their nest.

I found this on the internet...

These large, hairy bees are generally black with varying degrees of yellow banding. Look closely at flowering plants and you’ll probably spot several species. Common bumblebees include garden, buff-tailed, red-tailed, white-tailed and field bumblebees.

They are social insects, living in colonies of up to 200 workers. Queens hibernate underground during the winter, emerging in spring to find suitable nest sites – for example, abandoned mouse holes. Each queen builds a nest of dried grasses and then lays about a dozen eggs that hatch into workers – sterile females.

The workers gather pollen and nectar to feed later batches of grubs. New queens and males hatch at the end of the season and mate. The males, workers and old queens die; new queens hibernate. Bumblebees are not aggressive and will only sting if they feel threatened. They are important pollinators of many plants and fruiting trees.

Apparently the male bees don't have stings so it was a female bee that stung and as we plant our garden with bees, insects and butterflies in mind I feel very honoured that some have set up home with us. They usually only nest for 4-6 weeks.  We have now put a metal cage over their nest to keep Milly away so she doesn't get stung.  I am really enjoying watching the bees flying out and coming back with their little legs covered in pollen to take to their queen.

I hope you have enjoyed my smiles this week and will now link up to your below.

Hugs,

Annie x