Bees and buzzy friends

On our most recent trip to my Grandpa's house, I was able to have a look around his garden and photograph anything that interested me. It was quite a sunny day, so the garden bees were out. His garden is pretty much full of various sorts of flowers, so it was no surprise to see plenty of bees around.

Below is a picture of an arch in his garden, surrounded by climbers with flowers.

I always find it quite tricky to get photographs of bees, mostly because they almost never stay still for more than about 3 seconds. If you are lucky enough for one to land on a flower for more than 3 seconds, I find that either a) my camera refuses to focus on the bee or b) the bee is so far inside the flower that it can barely be seen in the picture. So I had a go at taking a picture of one while it was flying. My camera still focused on the flower instead of the bee :(
I'm not quite sure of the ID of the bee in the photo below.


Never mind, I suppose taking pictures of bees could be something I could work on in the summer. Anyway, moving on, also in his garden was a wasps nest, but rather where you wouldn't expect it. They had made a nest in his nestbox. It was quite a strange sight, I must admit. As you will see in the picture below, the nest bulges out of the entrance hole of the box.

Hopefully, I will post again tomorrow, providing the weather is good enough for me to go out and take any photos. Maybe even some more bee photos, who knows?!