All is quiet on the cabbage leaf

You may recall that recently I was sent a butterfly rearing kit to review. Since we introduced our caterpillar specimens to study it has been the cause of horror, revulsion, fascination, disbelief, curiosity and even a small dose of love and tenderness. I have tried to retain a scientific detachment but it has not been easy. There is something deeply distasteful about the crawling creatures that spend every moment with the simple objective to devour and excrete, yet my sense of responsibility to them, having taken them from nature for our own purpose, has been great. Almost, dare I say it, maternal.

I overcame my reluctance to open the net cage and put my hand  in. Their food needed replacing with frightening frequency - these little fellas could really eat. When the source of the nasturtium leaves I had been feeding them became completely depleted, I bought a cabbage. I was unsure if they would accept the new diet but other than going on night raids into neighbours' gardens in search of more nasturtiums, it was my best option.

In my haste to provide food for the hungry caterpillars, I neglected to wash the cabbage leaves. I soon regretted this oversight. The caterpillars quickly found their way onto the new vegetation but instead of voracious devouring, at best there was half hearted nibbling. I thought maybe they just needed a little time to adjust to the new taste and texture of the cabbage. I gave them time. They seemed to grow more sluggish and lethargic. I began obsessively checking on them every few minutes. The thought occurred that unlike my organically grown nasturtiums, this cabbage that I had bought for 50p at my local supermarket may well have been sprayed with all sorts of harmful chemicals designed to kill exactly the species that I was now trying to nourish with it. I felt like a murderer. In a 'shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted' type reaction, I placed a new, thoroughly rinsed cabbage leaf inside the net cage.

Nothing happened.

My husband came home from work one day. He broke the news. You do know those caterpillars are dead, right?

I refused to believe it but my frequent checks revealed no change. It was almost like insect taxidermy - a perfectly preserved scene frozen in death for all eternity (or until the cabbage rotted!)

I promised that I would chuck the whole sorry lot in the dustbin the next day and never speak of it again.

My amateur naturalist friend who had helped me identify the species suggested that it was possibly just a normal part of the life cycle. I wanted to hold onto that glimmer of hope but it seemed too much of a coincidence that they had all gone into a 'death-like' state as soon as I had introduced potentially poisonous brassica leaves. And the few bodies curled up on the floor of the cage seemed to be the indisputable evidence that this was NOT normal.

Then something miraculous happened. One of my daughters noticed a caterpillar moving! They're alive. I had all but given up on then but there was a caterpillar lifting its head and waving it gently. Definitely moving. Definitely alive.

The caterpillars resumed eating and even the 'corpses' that littered the bottom of the cage uncurled and started exhibiting caterpillar-like behaviour.

It was our very own miracle. A caterpillar resurrection. Could they have simply been in a cabbage coma?

As delighted as I was not to have killed my caterpillars, I was less delighted by the fact that my porch was beginning to smell unpleasantly cabbagey. I relocated them to the garage.

It wasn't long after the relocation that the first of the caterpillars left the cabbage leaf and began to climb the sides of the net cage. We watched with interest as it settled on the lid of the cage and began to pupate. Despite close observation, I have no idea how this happens. Silky threads just seem to appear around the body. Within the mass of silk are well defined anchor points to hold it securely in its chosen location. The body then  hardens and changes shape into something that looks to me almost prehistoric. What you see with your eye is fascinating enough but what must be going on inside to transform the caterpillar into a butterfly is beyond my comprehension.

Several more caterpillars began the climb to find a suitable spot to pupate... and then more.

So now I wait... and wait... and wait some more until the day our first butterfly begins to emerge.

The very hungry caterpillars

Recently I was sent a Butterfly Rearing Kit to review. It was a great little kit containing all the equipment and information needed to observe the miraculous metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly. There was an option to send off for captive bred caterpillars or alternatively you could find your own specimens. We decided on the caterpillar hunt but were either not very good at it or there really was not a single caterpillar anywhere in the entire garden. I wrote my review by the deadline despite the lack of caterpillar success.

As soon as the review was posted, would you believe the garden was suddenly alive with the wriggly leaf munching little creatures. I suppose you could attribute that fact to Sod's Law, or maybe the caterpillar collective conscious was just having a little prank at my expense.

We chose an army of tiny green and black caterpillars that had made a home on a nasturtium leaf in my hanging basket and set up our kit.

We positioned the kit in our porch (already proving a great talking point for visitors) and began our observation.

One thing that is impossible not to notice is these little beasts can eat! They eat. They poo. And they grow. I couldn't believe how quickly they grow. As they grow, they molt - crawling out of their skin to leave a shrivelled little caterpillar husk behind them.

The kids love watching them. Little Addy looks at them with such affection saying "They're so cute". I try to watch with a scientific detachment but I do find myself feeling utterly repulsed. I even had a dream last night that there were caterpillars and worms in my living room.

At first, I collected fresh nasturtium leaves twice a day to feed them. As the caterpillars grew, so it seemed, did their appetites.  My hanging basket was looking decidedly bare. I had a few other nasturtiums planted around the garden but they hadn't grown terribly well. Rather than trying to pick individual leaves, I repotted a whole plant into a small pot and placed it inside the kit. Within moments, those voracious beasts had found the fresh vegetation and were devouring it.

When there was nothing left of it, I repeated with another. My potential for summer long colour in the garden was reducing with each meal! Last night, as I  carefully placed a tender young nasturtium inside the kit, I was reminded of the scene from Jurassic Park where the tethered goat is placed in the T Rex enclosure. By this morning, the nasturtium was little more than a stump of a stem and a memory.

The demand for food was rapidly outstripping the supply potential from my garden. I needed a plan B.

A friend of mine who is a keen amateur naturalist identified my caterpillars as the Cabbage White variety. That was my Plan B - off to Asda to buy a cabbage. My fingers are firmly crossed that this will work.

Of course I could have (should have) chosen these caterpillars that were feeding on the leaves of a tree with an almost limitless supply of food.

We live and learn!

All is quiet on the cabbage leaf

Fly Away, Butterfly

The Day a Comet Came to Tea

There is a comet on its way - comet ISON. For a million years it has journeyed through space and later this month it will pass close to our sun. It is predicted to be a spectacular sight - so bright as to be visible during daylight hours to the naked eye.

I have been keeping a lookout for the celestial visitor but all I seem to see is clouds and more clouds. I have not given up hope but it is frustrating.

There is another comet on its way. This one is less elusive and it's coming to tea!

The Day a Comet Came to Tea is a wonderful little story told in satisfying rhyme with quirky illustrations from 'Judge Dredd' artist Stewart Moore. The author, Guy Lachlan, was inspired to write the story as a means of encouraging children to join in with his love of science. The comet that arrives outside the house of a boy and his daddy with a bang then joins them for tea is certainly one way of opening a child's eyes to the wonders of the Universe and being part of that Universe. I can't think of a better way of introducing my young children to the idea of the very real comet that is passing our planet right now and just possibly inspiring a lifelong passion for science.

The Day a Comet Came to Tea is available to purchase for iPad, Android and Kindle all at pocket money prices, from the website  http://www.cometbook.co.uk/ which also has lots of information, puzzles, games, free downloads and a competition.

I absolutely love the story and the concept behind it but don't take my word for it. Listen to what Addy has to say (and don't forget to look up to the skies - Comet ISON is up there somewhere!)

Click here to purchase The Day a Comet Came to Tea

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Follow on Twitter @DayACometCame2T

For twitter feed on Comet ISON follow @Cometison2013

Electro Dough

The weeks of this summer holiday seem to be flying past far too quickly - but we did manage to squeeze in a moment for some frivolous fun with technology after being sent an Electro Dough Kit from Technology Will Save Us as part of a new campaign being launched by the charity Nesta.

The campaign Make Things Do Stuff  aims to encourage young people to be creators of digital technologies rather than just users.

My 16year old daughter, Charis, was happy to take on the challenge.

The kit contained an exciting mix of electronic components, some fun shape cutters and instructions detailing first how to make your conductive dough and then what to do with it!

Charis wasted no time getting stuck into making her dough and apart from dyeing her fingers blue with food colouring (slightly embarrassing for her as she was due to practise her piano duets later that day) the whole process was very straightforward.

Connecting the battery pack to the balls of dough and then completing a simple circuit gave us the satisfaction of seeing our first LED light up - a cause for much celebration!

Unfortunately, time ran out for Charis before she could really get to grips with the possibilities and unleash her creativity. As she headed off for her piano lesson, dad decided it was his turn to put his Physics degree to good use.  Five year old Addy was attracted by the blue dough and fascinated by all the intriguing little components. Between them they had lots of fun.

It definitely felt like doing 'proper' science with plenty of freedom to explore and try out your own ideas.

The Electro Dough Kit is available online for £13.50

The Make Things Do Stuff website which contains a wealth of information, including step by step tutorials, can be found at http://www.makethingsdostuff.co.uk/ 

Wild Science Hyperlauncher Rocket Ball Factory

This is not the first Wild Science set I have reviewed on my blog. Previously, I have enjoyed having a 'Lava Laugh' (amongst other things!) with the Wild Science Beauty Salon and made lip balm with the Wild Science Lip Balm Laboratory. Both these sets had a decidedly 'girlie' flavour. Not so with the latest of the Wild Science sets I was sent to review. The Hyperlauncher Rocket Ball Factory has much more boy appeal and contains everything you need to make your own Mass Accelerating Launch Ball.

As with all the Wild Science sets, the instruction booklet gives very clear, step by step diagrammatic instructions with lots of science to support the school curriculum. The importance of safety is emphasised and the kit comes with a set of protective goggles - guaranteed to make you feel like a 'real' scientist!

The kit is aimed at boys (and girls with a preference for such things) in the 8+ years age category. I set my ever willing teenagers the challenge of trying out the kit, including videoing their efforts. This is how they got on.

I was impressed with how well the bouncy balls turned out, although they do need to be stored in a plastic bag to stop them drying out and becoming too hard. We had to limit the experimenting part to what we could do inside as the weather was not good enough to take the experiments outside. 

There are plenty of the 'hypergranules' left to make more bouncy balls with the potential for much more experimentation.

I really love the Wild Science range. I think they are great fun and if they can capture the interest of our children and inspire a passion for science - that can only be a good thing.

RRP £12.99

Wild Science - Lip Balm Laboratory

My children have already experienced the Wild Science Beauty Salon - the older ones supervising little Addy to get her experimenting and thinking in a scientific way. It was lovely to have the opportunity to do the same with the Lip Balm Laboratory from Interplay that I was sent to review.

Once again, I was impressed with the quality of the set, the instruction booklet that contained plenty of information in a very digestible format and I particularly loved the workbench that kept everything neat and to hand with a 'laboratory' feel to it.

Although the ingredients are all non toxic, the kit is intended for use by children 8+ with adult supervision so it isn't something that you should let them loose with while you try and grab a bit of 'me' time. We did enjoy our afternoon as scientists and it definitely made a change from a board game or jigsaw.

The video shows how we got on.

Wild Science Beauty Salon Set - Review

Wild Science Beauty Salon Set

£19.99

"Experiment using this cool Beauty Salon and make lots of bath bombs, scented crystals, scented note paper and much more!"

The trouble with asking anyone brought up on old school Blue Peter (John Noakes, Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves) to review a toy on camera, is that they instantly adopt "TV presenter" persona and give you a full half hour program complete with "here's one I made earlier". Well my sister does, anyway!

I have had to edit her video to within an inch of its life to get it down to my target of under 2 minutes, but I had such a lot of fun doing it.

The toy we were reviewing, the Wild Science Beauty Salon Set, was quite surprisingly - REAL SCIENCE but with a girly twist.

I loved science at school and went on to do my University degree in Chemistry. This kit ticked the boxes for me in terms of the quality of the apparatus and chemicals. The safety goggles took me right back to my days in the lab!

The well illustrated instruction booklet gave clear, step by step instructions for a variety of projects along with the science behind them and information about safety.

The experiment that my sister demonstrates in the video didn't work quite as well  as it could have (I think her soap solution was too dilute and I would have used more of the red colouring) but it does (I hope) give a sense of what the kit is all about. Enjoy!