Very Hungry Caterpillar

Several childminding friends of mine tried out the Insect Lore Butterfly Garden and highly recommended it so I thought we'd give it a go too.  I really did it for the minded children, thinking that Jack and Max would be too old to be interested,  but to be perfectly honest I think my own children got far more out of it than the little ones did, possibly because they were old enough to understand the incredible changes that go on during the short life of a butterfly.

When the caterpillars first arrived they were about the size of ants!  I've never seen caterpillars so tiny before - quite a shock to know that we look around us all the time but perhaps never really see what is right in front of our faces!  I foolishly didn't take any photos of them on the first day, the picture below was taken on the Monday, 2 days after arrival, and they'd doubled in size!

They are encased in a small plastic tub with a fudge-like substance in the bottom.  The 'fudge' is their food and for a while they graze gently on it.

Eventually they get quite big and if you took a look at the state of the fudge you'd think they were almost almost frenzied about their eating!  The 'fudge' ended up smeared everywhere.  I have to admit I was quite glad our cute little caterpillars were encased at this stage as they weren't quite so cute and looked more like slugs than would-be butterflies

After about a week of eating they cocooned at the top of the jar, and after leaving them for 24 hours to ensure they'd hardened off, I moved them to their new home (completely forgetting that they should only be 4cm off the ground - oops!)

A week or so after they cocooned they emerged as beautiful butterflies which we kept and watched for 2 days, during which time our beautiful but rather stupid cat decided to jump up on top of their (folding) home and flattened it - luckily the butterflies all seemed to be ok!

Letting them go was bitter-sweet.  I found I'd got quite attached to the little things and had this whole 'proud mum' thing going on.  It felt wonderful to have them come out and sit on fingers before they finally flew off.

One even sat on the emerging 'butterfly tree' we had bough especially for them in the hope they may stick around for a while - which of course they didn't.  The last little one to come out fluttered to the ground rather than up in the air.  Turned out she had something wrong with her wing and couldn't fly so I scooped her off, put plenty of fresh flowers and sugar water on tissue paper in the netting 'cage' and kept her for almost a week until she died, presumably of old age - I'm sad that she didn't get to go free but hope that the life she did have was a happy one.

Mona, the Painted Lady

My minded children worked hard and made a fabulous display to go with our theme.  I'm very very proud of them.  Some of the children who contributed to this are as young as two, the oldest was 4.  I 'drew' the outline for the caterpillars in PVA and the LOs popped the red lentils on to make their caterpillars.  They were so careful not to smudge the glue and worked very carefully and quietly until they were satisfied with the outcome.  The butterflies flutter in the breeze when the door is open which brings their display 'to life'.

Wonder what we'll do next...

Walking the Dog

One of the things I love most about living out in the country is living out in the country! Okay so that sounds mad but with this on your doorstep I think you'd feel the same!

I love it here!  With beautiful country walks right outside the front door and some small family run shops in the town for necessities it feels like Heaven on earth to me.   That probably seems a little extreme but I'm sitting here writing this and the door is wide open, the sun is streaming through and all I can hear is birdsong.  I feel as if I was made for this kind of life and at last I have 'come home'.

Anyway... Moving on... I'm not the only one who loves it here, Sam does too (although he's never really known anything else...)

He really enjoys sniffing out rabbits!

and sniffing to see if any of his doggy mates have been along today (he just likes sniffing if I'm honest!)

He does occasionally turn around to see if I'm coming though!

He has to stay on the long lead on this walk because the path borders a nature reserve.  He's still very much a pup in his head and I don't totally trust him to come back if there was something interesting to chase.  He doesn't seem to mind though and since the night when he pulled me off my feet with his exuberance he has been a lot more careful I'm glad to say!

A Bad Egg

A very very long bus journey (really must learn to drive!) culminated in a picnic at Exeter Quay and a visit to see the swans and ducks there.  We seemed to spend forever on the bus but the munchkins were very well behaved as always and a credit to their parents as they did not complain at all. :)

Once in Exeter we decided to take them to see Stepcote Hill and the Tudor houses at the bottom of the hill.  We counted the steps but lost count with so many of us doing it, lol! I know from years ago that there were more than 100 though and I bumped the buggy down each and every one - major mistake!  Luckily the buggy had fantastic suspension so the child riding in it didn't feel a thing...

 We enjoyed a leisurely walk along the quay discussing the ducks, the views, the people etc and were really happy to be there until we happened upon the saddest thing I have seen for a while: A smashed swan egg.  Yes, some lout (or indeed loutess) had decided to steal the egg from its nest and smash it on the pavement. The mother swan was nesting not more than five or six feet away...  At that precise moment I hated my species and their casual disregard for all other forms of life, I can only hope the male swan gave them a damned good peck before they left!!

All through the picnic the munchkins asked if they could share their food with the swans, I'm not totally convince that swans would thrive on cheese or ham sandwiches so made sure there was only a tiny little bit for them!  Have to admit that the swans themselves had no such misgivings about their food source and greedily looked for more!