When a bee goes on vacation...

This afternoon, I had my camera looped around my neck since I'd just photographed the two new additions to our Wildscape. So I mozied over to check out a cactus bloom I'd spotted in our little cacti garden. So pretty! Bright yellow. Naturally, I peered down into the flower. Zowie–a bee, hidden way down deep in the flower. But then it saw me! Out it buzzed. Seconds later, it returned and went back to work. Uh...or should I say relaxing....





I watched it dive back into the flower, which was brimming with pollen. The bee just seemed to fall into the filaments and....how can I describe it?.....bask. Like someone might do in a hot tub with a glass of champagne or with a good book in a chair by a pool. I had to chuckle as I snapped away with my camera.




Now and then, I'd accidently startle the bee, and it'd buzz off. All I had to do was wait a few seconds, and back it'd come. That's the thing–it wasn't gone long enough to carry the pollen off. That bee was HAVING A GOOD TIME!


A couple of times, I watched it "lap" the filaments with its tongue. Talk about content and happy!





When I told James about the bee, he walked over to the cactus and watched it for a few minutes.

Yeah, busy as a bee, they say when someone's been at work too hard. But even bees need a vacation!!