Monarch Butterflies

Has anyone seen monarch butterflies in Pukawa recently?.
I haven't seen any so I was surprised to see 8 caterpillars on a swan plant.
Unfortunateky the beastly soldier beetle also arrived and has killed the caterpillars one by one. I have squashed three beetles but usually by the time I see them the damage is done.  The butterflies may still arrive but it is getting very late even for this area.

Glorious Autumn

We have experienced the most wonderful Autumn weather over the entire month of April with several small amounts of rain to freshen things up. We don't remember having so many lovely sunny days and with little wind, it has been most enjoyable.
Yesterday Friday 27th we had light rain over night followed by steady rain all morning resulting in 20mls which would do so much good in the bush. I noticed on Thursday how very dry the bush was, the leaves "crinkled" as I walked.

Earthquake reports.

We often have reports of earthquakes in the Taupo region but at the bottom end of the lake we seldom if ever feel  them so no shakes here at Pukawa.

No news

I have fallen behind in reporting on my blog, but do remember that no news is good news.(:-)
Pukawa once again missed the big blow that caused so much damage from Taupo north. I personally witnessed the damage on Tuesday as I travelled to Rotorua and on arriving back found Taupo shops in darkness with many closed due to the power failure. Wondering what I would find at Pukawa I reached home to find Russ and his friend returning from a walk in the sunshine with only a gentle breeze blowing, we never lost the power here either.
On Wednesday night however we did have heavy rain, 43mls but that would do a lot of good as it has been so warm the last few days.

Storm report

We did have fierce gusts of wind for several hours yesterday but there was no rain  and I feel that I can report that the storm passed us by. This morning is cloudy but we expect a sunny day.

Stormy Weather

It is 9am as I write, the sky looks lighter with  the odd patch of blue. We had an inch of rain over night, just gently falling rain and we have so far missed the wind. It is blowing yes, but nothing out of the ordinary which makes us hope we have missed the worst.
The two clutchers of tiny quail that appeared this week would have little chance of surviving, we can only hope that at least some do.

Earthquakes

In the last few days several earthquakes have been reported, one near Taupo and one near Wanganui but neither were felt in Pukawa.
When we notice that the pictures on the walls are no longer level it alerts us to an earthquake having occuried elsewhere.

Rain Rain.

Having reported it was so dry in Pukawa I can now tell you that we have had light rain, 10mls fell overnight and it is quietly raining at this moment.  Last night was a very hot night, definately a sheet only night.
It seems to be so dark in the mornings, this is after all only February, really strange weather.

Dry weather.

Pukawa has not had any rain for a month now and although night time dews help a little, many trees are showing signs of stress. The weather is so strange as we have had day time temperatures of 30 degrees but at night it has dropped to 8- 12 degrees.  In the sunny side of our house temperatures have risen to 35degrees day after day, so there has been a huge swing from very hot to quite cool, not the best for the garden. At least my rabbit fence around the vegie garden has beaten the rabbits so it is not all bad.

Read The Signs

We are heading for an early Autumn, autumn crocus are flowering, polyanthus, and the first trees to show autumn coloured leaves are always the Liquid Amber.  I was quite shocked to see those trees in the Turangi car park with so many autumn coloured leaves, this is only February after all but we need to heed the warning, --think of mice!!