Nor do we normally, it’s just in this heatwave we’re using it for the plants. And I might add the bucket is normally full of plants so there’s no room for anything else. But lesson learned - I’m emptying it and putting it into storage !
What do you call rubbish music ?
I have a load of 50 & 60cm plastic saucers, the sort that go under pots, here and there around the house and I put a stone in each and fill them up with water, they need regular refilling but all creatures love them.
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Hahah…e.g. the entire anthology of the Grateful Dead..
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I’m having success leaving out?water on plastic trays in a thin layer. Then I add a wet dripping tea towel to one end of the trsy, just loosely scrunched and slightly dripping. I add water and wet the cloth and wring it out still leaving it very wet.
All sorts of insects butterflies and bees are spending time landing on the tea towel and sucking up water especially at the edges.
Going to put out more separate bowls and trays shallowly filled, separately for birds. Too late to get a concrete bird bath on a pedestal this summer as I am without transport for a few months more but am going to make a note to install a proper concrete birdbath next spring if I can find one in France.
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A good idea which I will follow tomorrow. I have tranferred the remaining birdseed to a wooden beam at the edge of the terrasse from the thing I stuck to the window. I then put some water in that but either some of the kids were very thirsty or those little lumps in the bottom were actually drain holes because they are empty now. 
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That is obscene, imagine an image of a cannibal with a man in a hard white had stewing
in a big cooking pot, Eurgh
BTW I have followed some well meaning advice to return to G and T in the canicule. It may have saved me from credible thought but I suspect there is a suspicious side effect, and I am nit so thunk as sum tinkle peep I am.
Anyone seen a Stag Beetle this year??
I saw a Lesser/Small Stag Beetle the other day.. (it’s got smaller jaws.. pincers.. whatever) and it’s Big Brother should be about any time soon… 
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Yes, @Stella there was a HUGE one in my begonia trough. I’m afraid I sent him to heaven. I don’t think I’ve seen one as big as that. ‘orrible creature!
Nooooo!! Sorry but that’s awful.
They are totally harmless and do nothing but good. A very special creature that should be loved and cared for.
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Why? They are rare beautiful harmless and in decline. Why would you kill one, there’s no reason to at all.
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I may have told this story before but it bears repeating. Some years ago I was on a bus in Ealing Broadway when passengers began pointing. A stag beetle was wandering about the bus. Thankfully, somebody got it out of the bus. “That’s what you get with all these foreigners in the country” declared some old dear.
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@JaneJones and @vero - I’m really sorry if I’ve upset you by killing the stag beetle but I really don’t like them. I know they don’t do any harm but many years ago I was bitten by one that somehow got down the back of my t-shirt and it nipped me several times before I could get rid of it.
To make up for it, I did rescue a little lizard that had fallen into the pond at lunchtime.
p.s. I’ve just read about them and they are good for the eco-system etc. so I promise on my girl guide’s honour that I will never kill one again.
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Have you seen the Big One in flight… amazing!
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As loud as a helicopter!
and they look so strange as they fly as if “standing tall, on their hind legs, with head up in the air”
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A male and a female! The males use their large claws to fight and compete for the females’ affection 
I love them !
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yes, the photo I found via Google is indeed male and female (which I hadn’t realised when I posted it).
However, the actual “small” stag beetle I saw the other day wasn’t shiny… so, on investigation, I reckon it was indeed the variety known as Small Stag
Yes to fight but not to kill, I believe the test of strength with the long pincers is to turn the adversary over, from which it soon recovers.
Fran found one in her slipper one night, it was so large it might have chosen it as being the right size. It was ushered out doors.
They nest/breed in rotten wood which gives me an excuse to leave lots lying around.
@Rachel05 Please don’t worry, due to your guilty plea and obvious remorse, your sentence is reduced and suspended. 
By the way I have measured the place where my bird hide is to go, just where I wanted it up in the top corner of the ‘new forest’. It will fit nicely between an Ash, an Oak and a couple of other trees yet to be christened. No trees will be harmed in this construction.
Measuring 2.40 x 1.80m it will have slotted closable but non glazed windows all round and enough room for a bed, a swivel stool or chairs, and a soft sleeping area for Jules.
After measuring this evening as I lay on the lounger watching the the gentle sway of the tree tops far above my only regret is that I won’t be able to do that inside it because of the need for a roof (no glass panel).
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