On the edge

Edge

Balanced on the edge

Loaf

Two grandkids loafing on the couch

Bridge

Chinese opera on a bridge

Mine

Replica mine entrance at a theme park

Black

Yellow lights on a black night

My choice

Beautiful silverback eating popcorn at

Orana Wildlife Park, Christchurch

Netball and butterflies and other things in between

This morning my daughter rang to see if I wanted to go and watch the netball with her. Youngest grand daughter was playing a social game at 1pm. It's a while since I've watched her as she has played football (soccer) the past two or three years. I noticed she'll have to get used to using her arms again in defence, she hasn't been able to do that in footy. That's her with the topknot hairdo just under the ball. They played a good game for the first of the season and won 25 - 12. It was played inside where her brothers were playing futsal during the summer.

Autumn has arrived, the mornings and evenings are drawing in and getting just a tad nippy. The days are still warm though, in double figures, and in fact some of them are as warm as our summer days were. Anyway, I have finished knitting my daughter, same one as above, a snood for the winter. It's the same as the one I knitted for her sister a few months ago - I had several balls of  the wool left over so thought I could do that. There is still a ball there so I have decided that I will knit the beanie that is on the wrapper you can see around the wool. It is black I know, but it is fun wool and okay to work with once you get used to it.

I have finished my book for April and as I said I was going to do I picked one that was  light and trite. So much so that I can't remember what it was about. So if you want something light and easy to read and you don't have to worry about, this is a good one. 

That Certain Age by Elizabeth Buchan.

But having said that, I have read several others since. (Excuses, excuses). And I am well into the one I picked for this month. I think it could be classed as an autobiography but I'm not really sure. 

Pippa Blake - Journey.

It is the story of her life with Sir Peter Blake up until his untimely death at the hand of  bandits in December 2001. So far, so good. A Christmas gift several years ago from one of my children.

During the week I ventured down the yard to the roses thinking I would cut them back and then dead head the dahlias. Well the roses were not co-operating at all.  Only one of them had finished flowering and all the others are in bud and starting to bloom again. Honestly, even the plants think it is springtime. So I cut the one back or perhaps I should say I pruned it, and tidied up the rest of them. You can see one of them in full bloom below, with a bud ready to open just behind. Then I walked over to the dahlias to begin on them. They also have a lot of tiny buds on them, but I think the frost will get to them before they get to the opening stage. But who knows? So just the deadheading was done there as well.

Speaking of the garden we have noticed a lot of different butterflies this year, and more of them. Among them were the monarch butterfly which is so lovely. This a photo taken while I was still working. We had hatched some caterpillars in the dining room and released them outside when they were ready. This one flew onto branch just outside the window and stayed there for most of the day, much to the joy of the elderly folk inside. It is sad that they have such a short lifespan, only 2 - 5 weeks.

We also had visits from the Great White or as we know it, the cabbage butterfly. These are far more common than the monarch or any of the others we saw and gardeners regard them as a pest. As well we had visits from a black butterfly with white spots on the wings, which was quite common when I was a child but which I haven't seen often since I moved south. I have no idea what it is called as I have always, mistakenly, thought it was a codling moth! 

The other visitor we have seen is red admirals, I think. I say I think because it is a slightly different colour to the ones I remember, so perhaps these ones were yellow admirals? I used to see more of them when I was a child as well. Of course none of the more uncommon ones stayed on the foliage long enough for me to go in and get my camera, so no pics. But isn't that the way?

And that is it from me today.

I am going to join Amy for Five on Friday

 and hope you'll pop over for a look as well.

Diana

Extremely loosely connected stuff...

Life has been very quiet of late and there I was last night

 lying in bed thinking that as soon as I get to the end 

of this chapter I'd turn the light off.

Then in the distance I heard a rumble then a bang and an earthquake hit. 

By the time I slammed my book shut and commented  that

'this is an earthquake' and my GKB replied

'I think you're right " it was all over.

No time to leap (it's amazing how fast you can move when you have to) out of bed

and go into earthquake mode because it was all over in about 10 seconds. 

So we lay there for a few minutes waiting to see if  there were going to be any more.

There weren't, but eldest daughter rang to check in and have a chat.

She was home alone with 2 teenagers and just wanted a bit of reassurance. 

It was centred only about 10 miles away as the crow flies and quite shallow

so it was quite a jolt and gave a lot of people a fright. 

Youngest daughter's youngsters slept through it 

but the teenager was on the phone to her boyfriend at the time.

She hung with her mother and father for a wee while after that.

What have feijoas got to do with an earthquake you may ask.

Not a lot but the tree next door that hangs over our fence 

is absolutely laden this year and so when I went out this morning

 there were quite a few windfalls lying about.

But I rather think they were 'quake falls this time. 

Never mind, I still harvested them and have a nice little bowl full.

Now for something completely different.

I just bought this painting of the butterfly about a week ago.

I had been eyeing up another painting for several weeks which was much more

abstract but had all the same bright colours. 

They go well in our lounge.

But when I showed my first pick to my GKB he wasn't terribly impressed. 

He pointed out a butterfly painting that he quite liked

 but it wasn't anything like what I was wanting.

 Then a couple of weeks later we came across this colourful butterfly, 

the colours I wanted with the not quite so abstract picture he wanted. 

A nice compromise.

And ... it was a fraction of the price of the original one.

And talking about butterflies, youngest grand daughter 

is going to her school formal in a couple of weeks.

Her mother arrived over today with her dress which is now hanging in a wardrobe here.

They have 4 cats at the moment and she didn't want to take the risk of them

(2 are kittens) using the dress for climbing practise.

It's rather lovely on her and later I hope I can show 

you a photo of her all dollied up ready to go out with her beau.

And this is just another random picture I took 

in an ice cream shop while we were up at the caravan a while ago.

The walls on the left of the house are all lined

 with small cubby holes filled with jars of lollies. 

It's quite a delightful little gingerbread house.

joining in with:

roses of inspiration

Keep well 'til next week

Diana

Beautiful Monarch

This morning at 5:15 am a new monarch 

emerged from it's Chrysalis.

We had been watching it grow

 from a minute caterpillar to a very fat, 

yellow and black striped eating machine.

Then one morning, just a week ago,

 it spun a web and closed itself away in it's chrysalis.

It only took a couple of hours.

Just one short week later it emerged

 - a fully fledged, beautiful creation.

Such a quick transformation.

At lunch time today the residents where I work, 

set it free in the garden, 

where it attached itself to a Magnolia tree 

outside the dining room window.

It spent the afternoon drying and spreading its wings.

What a blessing.

Unfortunately my photo's didn't turn out 

so I've had to cheat and take some 

from the internet. I hope you don't mind.

Diana