Two days

Lloyd has been home from work for the last two days :) - well, four days if you count the weekend :) I love it! Apart from taking the children to their various classes, we have been outside gardening the whole time :) We have got so much done and its looking great out there!

Of course...still tons to do....it's kind of a never ending job and summer here is far too short - kind of wish this global warming thing would hurry up and happen so summers would last longer!!!

I love having him home all the time. Love it!

Into the tank!

Today we moved the chrysalises into a bigger tank ready for them to change into butterflies. This is their last home until we release them. Four are still attached to their paper tops so we pinned the papers to the branches. Two didn't attach so we have rested them on the bottom. They need humidity in the tank so they have some grass and moisture in there - some rocks and branches - and when the butterflies come out we will feed them orange gatorade!!!

I will take some better pictures tomorrow but these will have to do until then!

The next stage....

The caterpillars started to turn into their chrysalises at the weekend. It happened very fast. One moment they were caterpillars and then we went back a couple of hours later and they were half changed and then we'd go back a little later and they were changed completely! Within a day or so all were changed! Amazing! They are quite stunning in the light with goldy copper shiny patches in them that sparkle in the light. They occasionally wobble but apart from that don't move and they are quite hard.

All they left behind was their exoskeleton....kind of looks like their heads fell off - YUCK!!!

Happy Birthday Susan!!!

You old lady you!!!! :) Isn't being 36 wonderful????? :) trust me it's even BETTER than 35 ;)

I love the gifts you got for Mothers Day!!! Those framed pictures that Scott has made you over the years are gorgeous!!! And Jakes plate picture is wonderful! Have a lovely dinner with Scott :) Thinking of you!!!

And your little Sammy is just a darling :) She's just so snuggly and kissable :) I love seeing pictures of her - she always looks so happy :)

If anyone wants to see what I'm talking about - head on over to 'It's my blog' :)

Sharon..... :)

I cropped this from a piccy of Abby on her bike lol so I hope you can make out the tubs - but they have canes stuck in the ground around them.....and if there is a frost (like there was a chance Sunday night) I drape bedsheets over the canes like a tent around the tubs and tuck them in around the tubs :)

But in town you shouldn't get any more frosts now - certainly none in the forecast and it should be safe to plant out today if you want - it's further out of town there would be a chance but even out here it looks good now! I just leave the cames up now in case they say a risk of frost! I planted the flowers for the bees knowing there was a risk of frost but they have been fine.

Still no frogspawn - we keep checking!!!!

Flowers in the garden.....

The fear of frost seems to have passed - although I have my sheets ready to go out at night to go around my tubs if necessary (and check the gardeners forecast religiously) but I planted my tubs so the bees have some flowers to visit!!! The yellow daisy is a perennial in my flower bed though.....they should spread over the next few years along with my Shasta Daisies and Echinachea and Black Eyed Susans....