Beetles

It was quite overcast when I found fifteen minutes to take the camera outside, and too windy to photograph very small creatures on tall, waving plants, so I was pleased that I managed a couple of shots with both the thick legged flower beetle and the pair of red soldier beetles in focus. Beetle identification is definitely not my speciality, but these two are colourfully recognisable. 

It was a day of little jobs in the house and garden, and was quite hot and heavy but not very sunny. I prepared a tub of gooseberries and another four bags of chopped lettuce for the freezer: our lettuces are about to run to seed, and lettuce works well in P's signature blended green soup, so we always freeze whatever we can't eat fast enough. I also picked basil and parsley for the lunchtime tabbouleh - not the usual combination, but it worked well. The rest of the basil went in the dehydrator, replacing yesterday's batch of tarragon. I also harvested the first tub of fine purple French beans (Amethyst), which will be nice in stir-fries, and decided to let the cucumbers grow a little bigger before we start making ajo blanco. I love this time of year, though it can be hard to keep up.