Giant steps & monarch caterpillars

 Carol having a noodle moment in town recently.


Wellington has taken the wellbeing of monarch butterflies and caterpillars into their hearts. They fly such awesome distances. So at this time of year all the nurseries are flat chat keeping up with well meaning gardeners who buy Swan plants by the gazillion (the monarch's only food of choice).

It's common to see locals lining up with their Swan plants in shopping trolleys, keen to make sure their voracious caterpillars have enough leaves to chomp on.

We have four - this is the chubbiest. I hope we see its cocoon.

And below, our steps leading down below are all done and looking terrific.

 I set to work laying down weedmat. We had 2m3 of metal chip delivered and I set to, backfilling. 'Twas much speedier when Carol came home with the wheelbarrow (she'd filled the tyre with air).  We slept well that night.

Sue and Phil did a fantastic job, mattocking out the compacted clayey soil from the steps I'd made. Lightning fast were they - we went out shopping and when we got back they'd finished.  Awesome!