It's a Small World After All.

Lockdown. Confinement. 

This... is our prison.

A French Penal Colony

Doesn't it look awful? Well, Fear not, it is not as ghastly as it seems. The dual security entryway is unfinished, allowing the inmates to escape from time to time before being rounded up by the never-vigilant guards. 

The unfinished, virus-delayed porch.

Admittedly, as prisons go, this has gotta be close to 5 stars. However, for all of its unbelievably amazingly incredibly good points, there are a couple of downsides.

For example, my garden is going bananas:

The Back Gate (Palms and banana trees)

And the 'new-normal' idyllic tropical weather comes with its non-idyllic side:

A hard rain's a-gonna fall.

With the inevitable result...

A hard rain's a-bloody falling.

But I digress. This self-made prison has almost all we need. Almost. 

The exclusion of other humanoid members can be difficult. My family in the UK have suddenly become much more remote. Flight now is just a distant memory, and the borders open and close like the proverbial barn door waving farewell to the bolting horse. The world seems to have stretched larger in its apocalyptic insane decline. 

Being glued to this one spot can change your view of life. Gone are the days of travel. Africa really is a couple of big continents away now, and our chances of seeing it again become increasingly small. Tracking and photographing wild animals now must take on a slightly different flavour.

Shock! (A Bemused Crowned Crane)

We do have our own African wildlife park here. A pair of African Crowned Cranes and a wild cat too.

But for the really wild stuff, you need step back, take a good look around, at the colours, the textures...

Purple Haze (Russian Sage on Pampas)

Mauve on Red (Tulbaghia on Salvia)

 then step forward to look closer. See the flowers, the shapes, the variety.

Target (Blanket Flower - Gaillarde)

Common DayLilly on hair grass

Bee Blossom

and then move even closer still. 

There's more than just flowers in a flower garden. 

There is life.

Teeming, crazy, bizarre ... life. You just need to look...

Investigating White Holes (A honeybee peers deep into a Jasmin flower) 

Bees are of course everywhere. The garden is literally abuzz with them.

Mine's a pint (A honeybee drinks from a Russian Sage)

They are everywhere and nowhere baby.

Leaving on a jet plane (A honeybee takes off from a Passion flower)

A bee feeds from Lavender.

and not just your common or garden honey bees, 

Bumblebee on a Lamb's Ear flower

Looking closer, you may notice other bees that are even smaller.

Sunburst! (A tiny dwarf bee tangled in a St. John's Wort)

and smaller still...

Hebe baby bees.

and then there are the wanna bees that pretend to be bees.

A bee-fly on Lavender

But on close inspection prove to be teddy bears designed by a mad creator.

Some look like wasps, but are not. This is a fly, there's no sting in this tale...

Waspish (Hover-fly on a Cotton Lavender)

Talking of imitation, when I first saw one of these guys darting from flower to flower I was convinced that France had native humming birds.

A Hummingbird Hawk-moth on Lavender.

It is actually a moth. Like this fella:

A Five-spot Burnet Moth on Lavender 

And then there are their relatives;

Two Meadow Brown Butterflies say hi.

A Small Copper butterfly on a ...fake butterfly? 

And there are many other insects too.

A Grasshopper on a Fennel flower head

Bugs abound.

A Minstrel Bug on Lavender

and some multi-tasking beetles sometimes called Bonking Beetles. I can't imagine why...

Red Soldier Beetles in action on a Cotton Lavender

As always in nature, there is no such thing as a free meal. Risk is everywhere. Life is balanced by death. Around every corner doom awaits.

Come into my parlour

On a suspended lotus pad, frogs await a passing unsuspecting meal.

In amongst all this vibrancy of life and colour there is but one thing missing...

So what is the lesson we learn from this story? Is its purpose simply to show-off some photos? 

No, there is a deeper meaning; that this small world is a metaphor for our planet, a sign given to us... nah, shit, it's just to show off some photos....

There is just one moon,
And one golden sun.
And a smile means,
Friendship to every one.
Though the mountains divide,
And the oceans are wide,
It's a small world after all.
Chorus:
It's a small world after all.
It's a small world after all.
It's a small world after all.
It's a small, small world

(Repeat ad nauseam until it's permanently etched into your neural synapses.)