Moppet in Cocksfoot grass
Cotswold Minnie Moppet, a delightful Irish/English donkey lives here.
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New Butterflies

We keep a few companion animals, four cats, two donkeys, two Shetland ponies and a few hens for eggs.

We only have a couple of acres bought in 2000 as a bare block on top of a hill. Native trees, some of which were planted before we built a house have thrived. Many species of birds now enjoy the fruits of our labours. Nick keeps a wonderful vegetable garden while Lea takes care of the flower garden which is gradually becoming a haven for many insects and butterflies. I hope you enjoy looking around my web site and visit the other sites listed.

Native trees of New Zealand are suited to our environment, but I am also interested in other species that help our native creatures survive. The NZ Praying Mantis and Red Admiral Butterfly along with Monarch Butterflies are threatened. Some people have gardens that are just too tidy (sterile) and do not provide any cover for lizards. Every garden should have a wilderness area for habitat.

NZ native Rata in flower
Monarch butterfly on native broom
Cotswold Minnie Moppet and Cotswold lavender Rose at School for ANZAC lessons.
Senior cats Mother of Pearl and Amber
Black Pearl and Bidi

What's been happening

July, 2019: Wade came down with his chainsaw to release nine Totara trees from Black Matipos which were crowding in on them. I want to give them room to grow well. Read more about why and see a photo. Photo

26 November, 2017. Three hens enjoying a dust bath beside stinging nettle which is the food source for caterpillars of our endemic Red and Yellow Admiral butterflies. You must allow a patch of nettles to flourish in your garden. Copper butterflies live on Muehlenbeckia which is also shown growing behind the hens.

July 23, 2016. Nick and I enjoyed a day trip to Castle Hill Photos

July 11, 2016. At 6.35am frost reading for Timaru is -2.6°C. The high is forecast to be 9°C with -4°C tonight. The Swan plants are still alive though I expect they will all die now.

On March 16, 2016 I decided to use the new W3C code instead of Bootstrap. Both use W3C standards and all my web sites are validated.

On Waitangi weekend our Christchurch family stayed and the smaller children had a ride on the donkeys when the weather cleared on Sunday. Photo

New Year, 2016 — Our Melbourne family came to stay. Photos

December 28, 2015 — My Sister Meg stayed and we enjoyed Christmas with our Son and family in Christchurch. Photos

6 October, 2015
We are having some nasty Nor-west winds which dry out the soils and batter plants. A Kaka beak (Clianthus puniceus) which was flowering profusely suffered a broken branch. Their wood is brittle. Finished digging the extended area for Snow tussocks. We are experiencing nasty Norwest gale force winds.

3 October, 2015
1st Monarch butterfly appeared. I have spent days digging a new area from pasture to make way for more Snow tussocks (Chionochloa flavicans) as the donkeys love to eat the leaves which stay green longer than grass in dry summers. I am also growing plants for bees and butterflies and that includes stinging nettle as it is necessary for Red Admiral butterflies. I was surprised to see a Monarch fluttering about. As it is still very early in the season there is little for it here and I wonder where it might have overwintered. Surely not on our place as the winter has been colder than normal.
I have sown seeds of Swan plants, Lavatera and many other plants which are beginning to come up.

Web sites I like to visit

Weather Stuff NZ NZ Herald Kindle ebooks W3C CSS 3 HTML 5 Browser support Character set W3C Validator Google's Mobile Friendly test

Other web sites Lea designed

I am using Responsive design using W3C code for my most recent pages.

Waldos Kiwi Cotswold Stud Pemberton Donkey Stud History of Geraldine Catholic Church

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
Albert Einstein