Low Down and Bertie

Have you ever smelled a bee? Well I have.  

Genie and I had two goes at restoring a very overgrown rockery this weekend.  I started by weeding around a hylotelephium sieboldii, which a rather large (big enough to have a name, but not a national insurance number) bumble bee was taking great interest in, probably because it didn't have to spell hylotelephium sieboldii.  

Anyway, disturbed, the bee took off, circled once in the manner of a professional navigator taking bearings on the Sun, and flew across my face, giving a pleasing ear-to-ear stereophonic effect, complete with Doppler shift.  I got a distinct whiff of honey!  I could hardly believe my nose. But it did it again a few minutes later.  "You've been at the juice, mate," I thought. But whether that was directed at the bee or myself, I'm not sure.

Hylotelephium sieboldii is indigenous to Japan, but has found a home as an introduced species in the Baltic States where, presumably, there are a lot of happy bees and bemused botanists.   This is it (thank you, Genie, for the photo):

Since its name is such a mouthful, I'll call it 'hi-lo', and the bee I've called 'Bertie'. 🐝