30 Days Wild - bees and other crawly things

The interweb informs me that this is an orb weaver spider, spotted in the ferns by the back door because of its lovely golden body. 

Have seen several ladybirds, and that's exciting as there have been none previous years and I even purchased larvae in an attempt to deal with the aphid issue. There were some crawlies on my only rose bush so I just wiped them away but hopefully the ecosystem will help protect it too.

I popped to Hulme Garden Centre on the off chance of finding some preloved planters, and was very well behaved and did not buy plants. I did browse the gardens for quite a while though and watched the bees, and managed to catch a photo of a red-tailed bumble bee (who apparently favour yellow flowers).

Then having read the descriptions more closely in the bee spotting guide I spotted several furrow bees in the yard yesterday. She is right, you would dismiss them as some kind of fly, but as you watch you realise their behaviour is more bee-like (excuse photo, will try and get a better one)

And I'm going to add this photo because the light is so good and you can see the veins on both the bee wings and the flower petals, just exquisite:

Stay safe. Be kind. Save a bee from a spiderweb and watch him crawl up your arm!