Not a Monarchy.

Near our front gate we have a Cunonia bush ( tree ) also known as a butter knife plant.( because of the red buds shaped like one ) It is an attractive tree that flowers in Autumn with small bottlebrush type flowers which smell quite pleasant and as the photo shows attracts Monarch butterflies.

 The most I managed to get in one shot was 9.

 The bees like it too.

 The property behind us is a park and they have a butterfly garden where they feed on swan plants as caterpillars.  They have recently been tagging the butterflies ( on their wing a little sticker with a number ) and releasing them.There is a tree there which hundreds are clinging too just like they do in America.

 If you enlarge the photo the butterfly at the top right has a visible sticker.

 I have noticed in the garden the monarch are also attracted to my zinnias. We also find quite a lot of dead ones having only travelled about 500 metres from their release site.We have given up reporting our finds and the butterflies numbers cause there are so many and they really want to know if they travel a long distance.
 It's quite pleasant having them around.

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 This is the easiest way for me to collect the walnuts off the ground. each green bin holds 500 nuts. The drop has slowed right down now.

 I am keeping 2 tallies . One for nuts I pick up, the other for kilograms of nuts shelled.

 Walnut tally this year so far, = 7,111.

 Shelled so far =3.960 kg.

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I have also been doing this.

 We have a huge crop of capsicums. Some are getting spoilt / chewed and rotting and I don't want to waste any really. I roast them till the skins blister and leave them to cool. I then skin them  make roasted cashew nut and capsicum dip - which is pretty yummy. I freeze some in little tubs for later use. I also eat a lot!

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Thank you for your kind comments on my last post. My friend Sue's funeral was very well attended. Luckily I got there early and was able to sit. ( there was a whole pew full of her quilting buddies. )

 The bright side to a sad day was I meet there an old friend . We went to high school together and then to Teachers College too. She and her husband, also a teacher, had  lived in the same small town as Sue's family for many years. What A shame I hadn't worked that out when Sue was still alive - she would have loved that we had a mutual friend. So quite a lot of talking catching up on all our other school friends took place.The talk had to be curtailed as my friend and her husband had to travel 5 hours back home that evening.