I’ve missed beekeeping this weekend as we were away celebrating Drew’s 30th birthday in Bath. It was a beautiful day for the “Bath Half”, an annual half-marathon through the city centre, and whilst waiting for Drew’s mum to finish the race I spotted this little madam on the flowers in the park.

I’ve had a go at identifying her using the Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s guide to the “Big Six”, the six bumble species most found in British gardens. It’s hard without seeing the tail end but I think she may be a garden bumblebee, Bombus hotorum. They have long tongues, which I get the impression she has from the pic above and the fact that she’s on these tubular bell flowers (anyone know what they’re called?). I may be wrong – please do correct me if you think otherwise. I thought at the time that she looked different to a buff-tail, which is the species I see most in London.

While she was hard at work collecting nectar in the sunshine, Kenyan runner Edwin Kiptoo was building up a sweat of his own nearby, beating the Bath Half previous record  in a time of 62 minutes and one second.

Edwin Kiptoo storming towards the finish line