Beetle

Sweeping the patio leaf by leaf to ward off the time I had to descend to the garden and grapple with actual yard work, I spotted this splendidly marked beetly thing.
Called mama over to see and made big fuss about getting the camera and snapping this unusual creature - neither of us has seen one of quite these markings before - and then even bigger fuss about having to process the pictures and get the tone absolutely right, and then about emailing a shot to distinguished brother ....

Rather successful: here I am at the safety of my keyboard, posting this to the blog in between chortling at all the Borat videos up on the Tube and elsewhere.

Speaking of Baron Cohen, Eee bah gum, didn't he do well? One in the eye for t'fat cats