Have you met my gatekeeper?

I had no intention of getting the camera out today but my gardener [my wife] called me to say that there was an interesting butterfly that wouldn't leave her alone while she was cutting the yellow privet hedge. I put on the macro and followed, expecting to be told it had gone. No, it was still around. It settled on next door's lawn. Then it came back over and sunned itself for a good ten minutes on some miscanthus leaves in our grass bed area.

Our first gatekeeper ever seen in the garden and, also, the first of the year for me anywhere. It stayed motionless for so long in the sun - had it just emerged?

Gatekeeper Gatekeeper Well, the camera was now out, so I strolled around the garden. A white tailed [I think] bumblebee was on some inula florets - as was a worker bee. They focussed well, bless them.

White-tailed Bumble Bee on Inula floret White-tailed Bumble Bee on Inula floret White stonecrop sedum album flowering on the conservatory roof.

White Stonecrop sedum album Finally a specimen of veratrum alba in flower. It took me many years to get hold of this plant and this year it has done me proud. The light was just right this morning!

Veratrum album