Colour Print Trials and Bees.

The weather has been fabulous, spring has arrived and it’s been too nice to be inside so work has been a bit slow. But in between wrestling with the garden, sporadic bookbinding and printing I have been making a series of small colour print trials. These are using 2 relief plates and are helping me understand how printing ink colours behave when overprinting. It’s not always the same as applying glazes in oils or watercolours. Hmmm
The possibilities are endless. Inspiration? The pond, minus frogs though.

Bees bees bees….
I have spent the last couple of days in the garden digging, chopping and moving things. The frogs have scattered now and it’s mostly quiet in the pond but I was accompanied by the buzzing of some newly minted queen bumble bees and the odd solitary bee.

So far the bee count this year is, Queen Bumble Bees;  Bombus hypnorum, pratorum, lucorum, terrestris and pascuorum. One odd little solitary, one Andrena fulva and… joy of joys.. the male Anthophora plumipes, the hairy footed flower bees, with their unmistakable high pitched buzz and speedy flight.

         

Hairy footed flower bees.
Top; one lurking at the bottom on a stachys leaf near a favourite spring pulmonaria flower
Above; zooming off to chase away another male. He is a little supercharged bundle of male aggression and will even tackle large bumble bees who stray into his territory.

         

A dainty little B pratorum The Early Bumblebee, approaching the winter honeysuckle, tongue unfurled in the first and legs up coming into land in the second.

        

The Common Carder Bee. B pascuorum. In the second photo she is balancing on one flower with her back legs while getting her nose right up into the flower.

A gorgeous two tone ginger Tawny mining bee Andrena fulva resting in the sun.

and a little solitary male… waiting… waiting… waiting for a mate.. 🙂