February depresses me.

So many things have gone wrong in Februarys past – apart from many other minor things it is always fire month and it was this coming week 11 years ago that we lost our home, many precious animals, my garden and after 20 years in a place I loved so much, we had to move.

Looking at memories on Facebook during February is fatal there is always something that pops up to break my heart. It is a month I generally leave Facebook alone and my friends understand.

There are simply too many memories and like many in the same situation, it’s necessary to find something to distract. So, I automatically turned to the garden, my place of peace.

At Mickleham there were always little Blue Banded Bees buzzing around the garden and I loved them. They are such funny little characters.

In the 10 years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen them.

Blue Banded Bees are amongst our most beautiful Australian native bees. They are about 11 mm long and have bands of metallic blue fur across their black abdomens. The little chubby souls don’t sting, just buzz loudly and seem to love blue flowers.

There I was, this morning, pruning roses and pulling weeds, trying to cheer myself up and failing dismally when I got a precious gift.

Working near the pale silver blue Salvia plant, just one flew out.

One dear Little Blue Banded darling buzzed his way through the flowers, and I smiled.

Whoever sent him,

Thank you.