Jane and her monarchs

from 15 February Blenheim Sun newspaper

by The Blenheim Sun

Community hangar opens

By Chris Valli

Blenheim’s Jane Clark recently released her 500th Monarch butterfly of the season.

Attracted by a swathe of swan plants, visiting Monarchs started laying eggs in her Blenheim garden in September.

Husband Peter says Jane carefully transferred each leaf to a container indoors where predator wasps, praying mantis and ants couldn’t reach them.

“About a week later the eggs hatched and the tiny caterpillars began to eat the leaf. With a daily resupply of leaves they grew to about three centimetres and can be moved outdoors onto swan plant stalks protected within a fine-meshed net cage,” Peter says.

Now, with up to 50 very hungry caterpillars at any time, Jane’s challenge is to find enough swan plants to keep them all well fed.

“Fortunately there are many generous people around town who are happy for her to take whole stalks from their gardens,” says Peter.

When fully grown, each caterpillar climbs to the roof of the cage, spins a silk pad, hangs down and pupates into a light-green chrysalis. 10 days later the adult butterfly emerges and is released.

Jane says “It can be a production line at times but she really enjoys lending nature a helping hand.

“I don’t know if any of the females come back to lay their eggs here but I like to think they do,” she says.

Jane says her monarch butterflies can be a production line at times but says really enjoys lending nature a helping hand.

Council to trial public forum initiative

Council’s Economic, Finance and Community Committee meetings will be the site for trialling a new public forum, starting next month. The initiative will give residents the opportunity to talk, for up to five minutes, about agenda items relating to EFC and its areas of responsibility. The year-long trial is subject to ratification by the full Council on March 2.

EFC Chairperson Jamie Arbuckle said similar forums were an established process in a number of other councils around the country. If ratified, the first opportunity to speak will be the Economic, Finance and Community Committee meeting on Tuesday 21 March.

SUPERBOWL LV11: American tourists Adam Weiler and partner Stacey were part of a small but parochial group of fans fixed in front of the TV screen at Fairweathers on Monday afternoon to watch the pinnacle of the NFL (national football league) season between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. Adam, from Michigan says he was rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs as his sister lives in Kansas City, Missouri. “I think they’re being outplayed right now but we’ll see how they do,” he says. “We arrived in Marlborough to do some wine tasting and doing a road trip from the north to the south. Admittedly this is the first football game I’ve watched all year.” The Kansas City Chiefs won the game 3835 coming back from 10 points down at the half, the Chiefs rallied for a win over Philadelphia to capture their second NFL championship in the last four seasons.

Marlborough Interest in Vineyards for Sale

Marlborough Lines Limited recently announced it was seeking to sell shares in Yealands Wine Group Limited (Yealands) by way of a private sale. Yealands indirectly owns or leases approximately 1,848 hectares of farm land in Marlborough.

This land is primarily used for horticultural purposes, specifically as vineyards for the Yealands group.