Lesser stag beetle

At least that's what I think it is. And, actually, I feel a bit miffed on its behalf - who would want to be known as the lesser of anything. A bit like being known as The Spare I suppose. It was in the garden this morning when I went out to do the daily watering. That is becoming something of a chore and still there is no rain on the horizon. It's nice to have some sunshine but a bit of rain would be very welcome. My water butt is close to empty and soon I will have to resort to the tap.

After a bit of gardening we got ourselves tidied up and Mr Flossmo drove us over to friends in Leatherhead. These are the ones with whom we have the occasional Cook lunch - bring your own choice of dish and a bottle.  We had a rather nice chicken Dijon and a bag of salad. It truly is a great idea - much less expensive than a restaurant but especially, so much quieter. As our hearing deteriorates the value of that cannot be underestimated. We all had a very relaxed afternoon as we caught up on recent events. 

Back home I had a kipette followed by the first part of a BBC documentary about Erdogan. The BBC do do these things so well and it made interesting viewing. After that I settled back to a few more chapters from my latest book, Raynor Winn's Landlines. It's fascinating how she manages to make a long walk across boggy ground in the pouring rain interesting. I am off to bed to read a couple more chapters.