A Mixed Bag

 A few evenings ago I tried several times to photograph the Sunbeams poking out above some dark clouds. They weren't very bright so this is best I managed.

 

Lovely Sunny day here. A cooling breeze from the coast is helping to keep the temperature down to reasonable levels. This was the NOAA 18 weather satellite picture from just before midday local time. 

 

The red Sunflower is facing away from the Sun so it looked really spectacular with the Sunlight glowing through its petals

  

Finally the Hibiscus is in flower and attracting lots of bees 

 

The Sunflower is attracting bumble bees but, unusually, they are too shy to be photographed.

Hibiscus

The Hibiscus bush is at about its best at the moment, or was before last night's thunder storm soaked all the flowers. It has been a bit of a relief as it produced very few flowers last year and looked dead in the Spring.





Lots of bees visiting but so far no butterflies.





A bit of slow motion video.
As usual it may need 'forcing' to show in HD



All photos and video taken with an iPhone 6s

Hoping For a Good Show

My Hibiscus bush used to produce an abundance of flowers every year. Last year was a great disappointment with very few blooms. That was a shame as it can attract all sorts of insect life. I think it was the result of a sudden change in lighting conditions when I cut down a couple of evergreens which sheltered it from the midday sun. Fortunately it seems to have recovered. This year it is absolutely covered in new buds and the first one has opened:



I hope it attracts some butterflies as they have been far and few between round here this year. I put that down to loss of habitat on the cricket field. There were several wild areas, mainly nettles and thistles, around the edges of the field but most have been cut down for the past couple of years.

Hibiscus

Hibiscus flowers are so pretty it's a shame that each one lasts such a short time:



Apparently the amount and strength of the red in each bloom depends on the weather, cooler nights can make the red more vibrant.