From beetle to bee

I finally lit the lamp last night and will be posting about the results later today. Meanwhile, the stairs in our house are earning a reputation as a natural history hunting ground.  Following last week's big  black beetle, I assumed a return visit when I blearily came down to make the tea yesterday and saw a black object on a tread.

Oh no, mud from my going outside in my slippers, was my first thought. Then, when it moved, I made the beetle assumption. Intent on my tea mission, I decided to check things out later but it was Penny, going down for a refill, who reported: "There's a massive bumble bee on the stairs."

Here it is again, apparently interesting itself in Spanish. It was notably restless and crawled around without stopping as I tried to get a picture, but made no attempt to fly and only whirred its wings briefly after trying to climb the dictionary's spine and toppling backwards.

Bumblebees are famous for these indoor incursions which are often suicidal; I remember talking to a tomato grower in East Yorkshire who despaired of them coming into her greenhouses to certain death.

I managed to get this one to safety by tempting it on to my guerrilla knitting crochet hook and putting it gently out of the window on to our grapevine where - apologies for continuing blurring as I struggle to master our Panasonic Lumix - you can see it here, taking a breath of fresh air and, at last, a break.