Painted Lady Butterflies

When we came back from Essex, we had a look in our butterfly habitat and found that all of the chrysalises were still hanging patiently. But that evening, one butterfly suddenly appeared! We watched it as it sat figuring out how to change its proboscis from two pieces into one and for its wings to harden. The next day we checked the other chrysalises, and within a couple of hours the four butterflies were out pumping up their wings. We found a few different flowers for them, some fruit and also made some sugar water.

We visited Savernake forest and found about 17 geocaches. We also nearly lost Evie's lion! See if you can spot the difference between her in these pictures:

Yes, no lion. But amazingly, I found the lion again near one of the first trees we had been playing near. Phew! Nearly lost another raa raa. 

There were lots of interesting beetles to spot, including dung beetles rolling up poo on the ground. We had been learning about beetles and their life cycles so that was interesting.

Isla and Evie were really excited about the butterflies. They liked watching them feed on the flowers and fruit. After a couple of days,  Isla said that we should release them as they looked like they wanted to fly out.

The butterflies landed on plants in the garden at first, and then flew away to find other plants outside of the garden. They like thistles and clover and so they would have gone to find those in the fields and hedgerows.

A trip to Essex

Choo Choo! We had a look at how steam trains used to be made at STEAM museum in Swindon the other week.

We enjoyed going to Devizes play park and feeding the birds there.

Then we headed off to Essex after leaving the cats in their holiday chalet.

The weather was nice on Saturday and we made the most of it in the garden, climbing the trees and pond dipping for tadpoles.

On Sunday we visited Mountfitchet Castle near Stansted. It is a Norman Castle and village recreated with animals, campfires and buildings to look round. We started by feeding the deer and goats, although a goat managed to sneak the food bag away and gobble it up too! The lumpy deer is called Lupin and is 23 years old.

Isla at the whipping post, for laziness and disobedience.

Isla in jail for more serious crimes.

Some more punishing.

Grandpa had a visit from a friendly turkey gobble gobble.

And he ground us some flour at the milling stone.

Isla up a tower.

Back in Felsted, at the playground.

Helping to walk Lexie.

 On Monday, we visited the brilliant Colchester Zoo. We fed elephants with cabbage (Isla's hand went in the elephant's trunk!) and saw a tiger as close as you could ever get! Luckily, there was glass in between us. We also saw the painted hunting dogs fighting over a bone, watched the wolves, and saw the sealions swimming upside down. The penguins were making funny honking sounds and Evie enjoyed watching them jump in the water, one even slipped in which was very funny. We now have a new Raa Raa (this used to be Isla's favourite toy when she was two. The original Raa Raa got lost at a beach in France a few years ago) and a cuddly tiger and lion as well as a couple of little frogs.

After a trip to the tip, we enjoyed a delicious lunch where Proudfoot's shop used to be. We found some old toys such as Poochie and Zig, and Sindy, in the attic.

Back to Wiltshire on Wednesday via Harlow to see the house I lived in until I was six: