Wonderful World Wednesday - Praying Mantis

What do you do when the children find a Praying Mantis?? Gather round and look at it, oh and grab your camera too!
WOW this little guy was super amazing!! He/she (do you know how to tell the difference??) was sooo happy on my hand, and I was soo happy taking pictures of it! You can even see this little bug cleaning.... WOW AMAZING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What cool insects do you like to watch??
Smiles The Torrents'

Wet Weather = Puddle splashing!

It has been a HUGELY WET DAY today! Rain and Wind and Rain and wind and... well you get the picture! I decided to take the girls out hunting for some puddles....... we found a beauty!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we were all effectively wet we walked back home to warm and dry in front of the toasty fire!
Turned out to be a pretty awesome wet day - YAY!
Smiles The Torrents'

Winter veggie garden

 

I've not ever bothered with a Winter veggie garden as the sun doesn't really reach that part of the yard at this time of the year. However I was talking to one of my wonderful friends Hubbie, and he encouraged me to give it a go!! Esther is one of my keen gardeners, she loves to get out there and get her hands dirty! I love that cause then it motivates me to get out there too! So after much weeding and digging we were ready to plant!

 

 

 

We planted some Spinach, cauliflower, carrots and parsley! What a fun afternoon in the veggie patch we had.
Smiles The Torrents'

Wonderful World Wednesday - Huntsman and Wasps

 

The strangest thing happened the other day after it rained, I noticed 3 dead huntsman around the place, one inside and 2 out in the backyard! It was something I'd not seen before.

Then as the sun warmed up (and so must have the spiders) the dead spider next to the steps had attracted some wasps. YUMMY for them, the two of them were enjoying a tasty lunch!!

 

 A black ant joined in while the

Wasps were fighting.

We notice some fighting between the wasps on and off during the course of the meal but then they would forget about each other and simply eat again! Sapphire and I found it very interesting indeed!
Smiles The Torrents'

Wonderful World Wednesday - Peacock feathers

After our Wetlands walk last week we headed to The Gorge. I had noticed that the Peacock's had been moulting and most of their tail feathers were gone and growing new ones. I thought perhaps, just perhaps we might find a tail feather in the bushes so the look was one to see what we could see!!

Little did I know that we would come home with SOOOO many wonderful samples of Peacock feathers!! I did end up finding a tail feather, the one with the eye on it and with the help of my beautiful girls we found feathers from all over the Peacock's body!!

We had such a great time that after Sapphire's sleep we ended up going back and that's when Hannah found 2 MORE eye tail feathers!! She was over the moon with her find!!
They are sooo amazing to look at and study, each one with it's delicate details.
Smiles The Torrents'

Happy Birthday sweet Sophia

Our beautiful sweet Sophia Mae is turning 9 today!!

WOW what a wonderful year of growth and learning it has been....

what an exciting time ahead it will be as she gets closer to DOUBLE DIGITS!!

We Love you sooo much precious treasure,

Happy Birthday

Love Daddy, Mummy, Hannah, Zeke, Esther and Sapphire 

xxxxxx

Wonderful World Wednesday - Little black beetles

 

It's a new year and a new look at our Wonderful World Wednesday!! This week we are looking at these amazing little black beetles. Who knows what they are??? We tried to search "Google" but couldn't find anything that looked like them.... Do you know what they could be??

They were hanging out on the blackberry bush with the amazing little cone looking thing! It was like they had hatched from there, notice the brownish, shriveled looking insects there?? Were they food or little black beetles that didn't make it??

When we first saw them they were all together in one huge group but they sensed the movement from around them and scattered! They did join up once more but after another disturbance didn't huddle again. It certainly gave the children something to look at and study throughout the day (and me too!)
Smiles The Torrents'