bees and butterflies and dogs

There haven't been many bees in the garden this year. I 've seen clouds of butterflies and masses of dragonflies but very few bees and not many blow flies.

I live near a very large park and most springs I see a swarm or two of bees - in the park and even settling briefly (and a bit scarily) in my front garden. Not this year. The lavender, which should be abuzz with bees, is full of butterflies instead. Perhaps the weather has been too cold and too wet for bees?

I wonder if the reason I haven't had any plums, peaches, apples or almonds this year is because there have been so few bees?

Berries have been good though - I grew lots of blackberries (the approved non-weed kind),  loganberries and wrested a few raspberries from the birds - or the dogs.

Paddy loves fruit and will scavenge fallen fruit and steal it from lower branches. He got most of the feijoas last year. The nectarine tree did well this year and so did Paddy.

Perhaps you can see the fragment of a nectarine at his feet. The Kitty dog is much more conventional in her eating and usually leaves the fruit alone, but this year she followed Paddy's lead and began to eat ripe nectarines too. Here she is watching Paddy eat his nectarine.

Now she's off to find one too.

Sneaking behind the lemon tree, and sniffing around for fallen fruit.

Then she looks up  - yum!

She looks a bit ragged and un-sheepdoglike as I have just given her her second summer haircut.