Garden

A public holiday here today so there were minimal movements on the farm, Few milk lorries going out or coming in.
Yvonne and self went for a drive into the park but it was hot and most of the animals were in the shelter of the trees.
After lunch we had drama in that I heard the monkeys on the roof; went out  couldn't see them, but on coming back into the kitchen could see one had been in there! The fruit bowl was raided as was the bread! Ooops.  It will be impossible to keep them out of this very 'open' house! I think they might have to be scared off with a couple of gunshots. Ugh.
A wander round the garden gave me the lovely  new strelitzia flower and this beetle on the canna lily.  
The CMR Blister Beetle is a large (4cm long) and colourfully-marked beetle in the family Meloidae, notorious for excreting the toxin cantharidin in defence against predators – this can cause blisters when making contact with skin and can even be fatal if ingested, both to humans and livestock.
The very prickly plant is called a 'halfmens' which translates to half man half plant.  No idea why really...