Catkins and Green Beetle

A bright but apparently abandoned beetle (genus VW) in someone's front garden. Unfortunately, it has been deprived of its front eyes. It will be hard to restore it to life, I'm afraid.

The catkins provide better evidence of life. And I like the derivation of the word. It comes from the Dutch katteken, meaning kitten, presumably on account of the resemblance between a catkin and a kitten's tail.

Catkins are also known as aments. Ament comes from the Latin amentum. The latter word can also be translated as "thong", which might be useful knowledge for any reader needing to incorporate that word in a Latin text.