Alexandra Beetle with Dog Rose

Or female oedemera nobilis (I think) with rosa canina.  A few seconds earlier it had been sat on by an inconsiderate foraging bee, so it was contemplating moving on to another flower.

I am no entomologist, but a book illustration is very similar to this creature. The real-life colours are more exciting in the mid-afternoon sunlight: a mixture of gold, bronze and green.

Alexandra Beetle????  Well, no, I had initially assumed it was an Alexander Beetle - refer to A A Milne (below) - but if the species has been correctly identified correctly this one has to be a female.

If you are inclined Milne's delightful little poem, it starts as follows  
"I found a little beetle, so that beetle was his name,
And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
I put him in a matchbox, and I kept him all the day..."


P.S.  This photo was not taken with a macro lens: my "standard" lens bundled with the DSLR does a pretty good job.  The beetle is a little under 10mm long.