I found this little fellow on my garden path looking a bit dazed and confused. He seemed to be trying to get somewhere, but unable to fly.

Our bees are precious and they are under threat and I tried to help by sending Himself inside to dilute some honey with water on a saucer. I nudged the bee off my finger onto the plate and he immediately began to drink. It took quite a while for him to get his fill, but then a bees tongue is a tiny, tiny thing - can you see it in the photo?

Once he finished drinking, he climbed onto a twig I had provided and spent another wee while just resting before he flew away. I hope he's guzzling lavender pollen somewhere as I type...

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Red Tailed Bee Taks A Dram originally appeared on Taexalia on June 7, 2011.

Staying with the icicle theme because they will be gone soon enough, and I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to do them justice. The second shot involved lying on the floor under the window to get most of the 2' + length of the icicle in without a background of houses. It's a beezer! I had to shoot through glass too (there's probably a setting on my camera for that but I'm not that sort of a photographer).

I'm thinking about creativity and the way that some folk seem to attach to a creative person in an unsupportive way - wanting to make it a competition for instance... I'm not interested in competitive talk, one-upmanship or my photo is better than your photo... I just want to express myself and do my own thing, you know?

The icicles are a symbol of living in the moment, but today I kind of like their spikey boundary around my creativity.

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Ice Maiden originally appeared on Taexalia on December 3, 2010.

The icicles at my bedroom window today... They have an Otherworldy quality with the mix of sunshine and black clouds. Patience caught a drip in motion. Part of me wants them to stay forever...

The person I was yesterday is not the person I am today and in the next moment I can be different again, if I choose.

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Transient Pause originally appeared on Taexalia on December 2, 2010.

This is the view from my bedroom window this morning. But then again, the view has changed. The sky has since filled with dark grey clouds and I played with some photo editing software to get the orange horse effect. Can one improve on nature?

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December Window originally appeared on Taexalia on December 1, 2010.

Just playing with an image I grabbed yesterday... experimenting with software... thinking...

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Altered Tree originally appeared on Taexalia on November 28, 2010.

Doorways, gateways, arches, wooden doors with big iron hinges and locks, caves, animal burrows and places where trees meet across a path... These can all be liminal spaces, places where a transition is made.

I found a wonderful liminal space whilst walking at Lochore Meadows, Fife. As I ambled along the path and rounded a bend, I was taken with the vision of the natural archway that the Hawthorn and Scots Pine made, and the way they framed the Sycamore and Alder trees in their Autumn glory.

Another perfect Samhain vision as the threshold of winter slips past and we move into the darkness, but not without a last blast of vivid colour...

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Autumn Gateway originally appeared on Taexalia on November 1, 2010.

Samhain, Hallowe'en, the end of summer...

The life force is ebbing inward

The oak leaf is reborn with each new colour

When it is gone

The acorn holds

A promise

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Life Death Rebirth originally appeared on Taexalia on October 31, 2010.

I remembered to take my camera with me this morning, but I forgot to take a pair of gloves. I will have to give in and accept that summer is officially over, and go in search of my winter warmers.

I don't think that Jack Frost arrived so early last year, yet the Hawthorn and Rowan are laden with red berries and this suggests a hard winter. Folklore, I'm told, and yet the early frost suggests there might be some truth to it...

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First Frost originally appeared on Taexalia on October 20, 2010.

Weather. We talk about it. We moan about it. We live our lives, even in the 21st century, largely at the mercy of it. It never ceases to surprise us, and it can grind our lifestyle to a halt with the merest dusting of snow.

If, like me, you have a camera and an ounce of creativity (and I firmly believe that everyone has at least an ounce), then get yourself outside and take some pictures of British Weather. Why? Well for a start it will give you another excuse to moan about the weather as it probably won't do exactly what you want it to right at the moment you want to take the picture... the wind will blow the daisy, the raindrops will just stop, the sun will create just too much of a glare (OK that's unlikely this summer!) or the dragon you saw in the clouds will change into a blob. But get out there with your camera anyway, exercise your creative muscles and simply enjoy the world around you.

Once you have an image, or images, pop on over to the British Weather Photographer of the Year competition and give yourself the chance to win ten grand. Yep, that's right, half an hour in the outdoors and a couple of minty's on the puter and you might find yourself £10,000 richer courtesy of Lloyds TSB.

Competition Info

• The competition runs from 13th April to 30th September 2010, with judging of the 12 finalists taking place in November
• Photographs must be taken in the UK
• Entrants can submit as many photographs as they wish
• Entrants are required to:
• • be 18 or over
  • be a UK resident
  • have the right to use the images
  • read the full Terms & Conditions

If you don't want to enter, aren't in the UK or just love me and my blog to bits, then feel free to simply vote for my entry, Angelica Solstice,  so I can buy myself a new camera and some sweeties.

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British Weather Photographer of the Year originally appeared on Taexalia on August 15, 2010.

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Waiting For The Sun originally appeared on Taexalia on July 28, 2010.