There’s a great playground at Bom Jesus do Monte, a spectacular pilgrimage site here in Braga that features all sorts of gardens, buildings, and parks. Since my kid loves the playground and I love all the other stuff, it’s one of our favourite destinations for Sundays. Then in June 2025, an extra detail appeared that made it an even more fantastic place for me: The old oak trees there are a meeting place for stag beetles, and during the high season, many of the males drop down from the trees due to exhaustion after hourse of wrestling. This one was pretty knackered when we found him, and I let Fenja hold him, to give her a closer look. She built him a bed and pampered him in all the ways a little girl would, and after a while we put him into a quiet corner with some sweet fruit to nibble from, but when it was time to go and we checked on him again, he had gone home to beetle heave
I took the specimen home with mixed feelings: Elated to have found it (because I wouldn’t kill bugs for a collection), but also sad about its demise.
Little did I know that this was but the beginning of the stag beetle story…
80×80cm, Acrylics on canvas
There’s a great playground at Bom Jesus do Monte, a spectacular pilgrimage site here in Braga that features all sorts of gardens, buildings, and parks. Since my kid loves the playground and I love all the other stuff, it’s one of our favourite destinations for Sundays. Then in June 2025, an extra detail appeared that made it an even more fantastic place for me: The old oak trees there are a meeting place for stag beetles, and during the high season, many of the males drop down from the trees due to exhaustion after hourse of wrestling. This one was pretty knackered when we found him, and I let Fenja hold him, to give her a closer look. She built him a bed and pampered him in all the ways a little girl would, and after a while we put him into a quiet corner with some sweet fruit to nibble from, but when it was time to go and we checked on him again, he had gone home to beetle heave
I took the specimen home with mixed feelings: Elated to have found it (because I wouldn’t kill bugs for a collection), but also sad about its demise.
Little did I know that this was but the beginning of the stag beetle story…
80×80cm, Acrylics on canvas