Friday 15 July 2016

Cool Coastal Garden

Class 5R and guests at the opening of the garden
Two chefs from Rick Stein's came to join us on the day of the opening of our coastal garden. We were excited to see their alfresco cooking demo with a coastal theme, the delicious smell of hake and the peppery Spanish salad filled the air.



To create the dishes they used produce we had grown and harvested ourselves, the onion only being pulled moments before!

While they were cooking knowing we could try it are mouths started to water. When we tried it we all loved it, the mixtures of flavours gave it a great taste.

Fresh salad to accompany the fish

After that, we had Vincent, a landscape architect, who was a key part in the making of the coastal garden, cut the ribbon.

Vincent cuts the ribbon

A much appreciated fish 'n' chip lunch

Monday 11 July 2016

Butterflies and beetles

We were looking for bugs in our school grounds in the wild flower meadow in the orchard
and we saw these butterflies: skipper, meadow brown, gatekeeper and marbled white.

The skipper is a short stout insects with shorter wings than most butterflies.  Their antennae end with thick hooks.  Skipper caterpillars are usually green or brown sometimes yellowish never brightly coloured.
A skipper butterfly in the orchard
Cerys dug out some facts about the marbled white butterfly.


1] A marbled white butterfly is black and white.
2] The marbled white is one of the most distinctive butterflies.
3] Marbled white butterflies live in long grass and plants.
4] A marbled white feeds on a wide variety of grasses.
5] A marbled white caterpillars are brown and green.
6] Marbled white butterflies are the only butterflies are the only black and white marking
7] The females have a slight brown tinge on the underside of their wing
8] Marbled white butterflies like sun bathing in hot weather.
9] The marbled white butterflies often is found in large colonies.
10] There are similar species to marbled white which come from Galatea in Spain and South France.

We also saw three different beetles: soldier beetle, swollen-thighed beetle and a two-spot ladybird.  Zoe found some information about the swollen thighed beetle.

The swollen-thighed beetle

1] Swollen-thighed beetles are a very common  in the summer and often found on bramble flowers.

2]Swollen-thighed beetles are a very hard creature to spot because they are very small about a centimetre long and camouflaged.


3]It is a feature of the males only so it may be some advantage when mating.



Tiny swollen-thighed beetle in our orchard
closeup of swollen-thighed beetle