nature lovers: frost

The frost was a great artist yesterday morning. 

 He painted the trees beautifully.

I can't believe I almost didn't take time to capture it.

Z has been sick all week, and I had to run out to get some things from the store.

Duty was calling, and almost kept me from the highlight of my day.

Yet, I felt that inner prompting saying "Go.  Take a moment.  Enjoy." 

So, I did.  

I'm so glad, because by the time I got back home, it was already starting to melt!

from caterpillar to chrysalis

Two summers ago our family had the privilege of watching 20+ caterpillars hatch and go through the amazing process of turning into butterflies.  I had stumbled upon a milkweed plant at Home Depot, and that was the beginning of an amazing summer.

If you haven't read those posts, there are three and you can read them here, here and here.  At the end of the series, I promised to post some more photos...

Two years later, here they are! (Better late than never, I say.)

That summer we witnessed monarchs landing on our milkweed plants and laying eggs.  Eggs hatching, caterpillars growing, and finally crawling off to let their transformation begin.  I saw at least two dozen caterpillars hanging upside down in their "J" position (which they do for a very long time!)

Then then next thing I saw was a little green chrysalis.

Despite trying to keep a watchful eye, it was nearly impossible to catch them in the midst of their transformation.  I would get tired of waiting and give up.  Or, I'd be there at the right time, get distracted for like 5 minutes and come back only to find that I'd missed it again!

Until finally, one morning, I saw it happen!

They hang upside down like this for a very long time--at least it felt like a long time when you're trying to "catch" them in the transformation process.

They sort of curl up really tight, and then go back to the "J."

Their coloring changes a little bit.  See how he looks slightly greenish?  To me they look a little unwell during this whole process, sort of puffy and bloated.  Their antenna become a little limp and lifeless looking too.

They do this a lot, and it gets a little boring to watch them curl and unfurl over and over...

But, that morning, I saw something different.  All of a sudden, it was the right time, and he straightened out.  Something I'd never seen happen before.

And then, in a split second, his skin split open at the head.  It was honestly so freaky to witness.

His old skin looked like it was just shriveling up, and this very odd, strange green blobby-thing began to emerge.

The old skin lost its color too.  It must not have any color to it--it must just be the shell that holds this amazing creature inside.

What do you call it at this point?  It's neither caterpillar nor butterfly.  It looks like a little green alien!  Whatever you call it, the not-caterpillar-nor-butterfly's skin is all shriveled up.  To get it off, the creature starts doing a crazy dance.  Seriously, I wish you could see it.  It's like this wild wiggle dance.  I felt like we should be playing music for it.  Something akin to LMFAO's "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" line from their hit song--you know the one I'm talking about, right?

Okay, so here's the skin.  It still strikes me how this old skin that once held a caterpillar is now useless to it.

The crazy wiggle dance keeps playing in my mind as I watch continue to "dance."  Maybe he was just so happy to be out of that old skin?  Wild and free now?  And yet, this creature looks pretty naked and vulnerable, having just lost his skin and not yet being a chrysalis.  It's probably his most vulnerable state--no skin and no shell to protect it.  Yet, it doesn't last for very long at all.  The entire process probably took less than a minute.

After the crazy dance is over, he starts to shrink up and become more and more compact.  Until he becomes the little green chrysalis I was so familiar with.

It still strikes me, two years later what a miracle it is when a butterfly fully emerges from its cocoon.  So many things can go wrong in the process.  Sometimes, there were too many caterpillars on one plant, and they ran out of food before fully growing.  Wasps abounded that summer, and over and over again, I'd find half-eaten caterpillars lying dead on the ground.  Those who made it to the cocoon stage often had problems emerging successfully.  If they didn't get out of their cocoons in time, their wings would shrivel up, and they would die before the next day.  We witnessed lots and lots of crumpled up butterflies whose wings were not able to fully open up to dry in time.  Once, I saw a butterfly emerge successfully, only to have a wasp come along and attack it.  It couldn't fly yet because it's wings were not dry, and there was no way for it to escape being in such a vulnerable state.

It still makes me sad to think of all the tragedy involved in the transformation process.

Why is it such a struggle to emerge a butterfly?

I still have more questions than answers.

But, now, when I see a monarch butterfly, I know there are countless others who did not survive.   

And, I know what a miracle it is that it did.

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dew drops on grasses

One morning a few months ago we woke up to dew drops.  Everywhere!

I think I was inspired by the fact that we now have real grass and a big backyard.

As soon as I got home from dropping the kids off at school, I grabbed my macro lens and went outside to explore the world.

There were little tiny spider webs all over the grass.  They are probably there every morning, but that morning I could see them because they were covered in itty-bitty little dew drops.  

It was so pretty!

I was enthralled!

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Thank you for your suggestions on renaming the blog.  I have such funny, puny friends.   

Still thinking about it, but will let you know when I decide!

nature study.

The week has begun and ended with school.  School at home.  Again.  I have signed up again to attempt to school my children at home.  Call me crazy.  I do.  I call myself an "accidental homeschooler."  It's not something I ever thought I'd do, had no intention of doing, and didn't really want to do.  At first.  And, now, it has become part of my life that I'm beginning to really enjoy. 

Because it's becoming more "me."  When I started I had no idea what in the world I was doing, so I just did what the curriculum guide told me to do, not really knowing why I was doing it, and not really sure it's what my kids needed or what I liked.  But, I've grown in confidence over the years, and I've realized curriculms/methods that I do like and others I absolutely do not like at all!

It's been a journey.  In some ways a journey that parallels the rest of my life--one of figuring out who I am, and living out of that place.  It's not easy and takes a lot of work. 

 

One of the things I do love about homeschool is that I get to learn with my kids about the things I am passionate about.   One of them is nature!  I probably enjoy it more than anyone else, but incorporating nature study into our year has been so fun.  We took a field trip to Merrit Island National Wildlife refuge last winter.  We saw lots of things there--typical Florida gators, Spanish moss, migratory birds, and also this spider.  I've forgotten his exact name, but I call him the "Freddy Krueger" spider.  His face is scary!

This year we are studying "Botany."  I have learned so much already about plants that I never knew before.  Below, is a photo of some lichen that was growing on a tree in my backyard--it's a non-vascular plant (meaning it does not have veins/tubes to absorb water through roots).  It grows in very wet environments by absorbing water from the air (hello, Florida!)  

There are also many things I do not love about homeschool.  One of them is the fact that I can not seem to plan meals to save my life while school is in session.  Yesterday, upon my friend Sarah's recommendation, I signed up for E-Meals.  It's brilliant.  You get a meal plan and a shopping list every week.  And, there is a sale on Groupon right now.  Score!

 Fall is always a time of transition--I just have to remind myself that it takes time to get into the routine of things, and that after a few weeks or so, we'll settle into our new normal.  Little Z will eventually begin to entertain himself and stop erasing the white board while I am in mid-sentence.

In the meantime, I will "Keep Calm and Carry On."

our butterfly emerges

It was on Day 8 that the butterfly emerged!  At first when I checked on him, he looked like this:

I sent the girls to VBS, started to clean up a bit, and about an hour later came out to find this:

Isn't he beautiful?  Yes, I could tell that it was a "he" because his the black veins were on the thinner side, and he also had two distinctive black spots on the lower wings.  The spots are special scales that emit pheromones that can detect when a female butterfly is present. Females have thicker veins and no black spots on their lower wings.  (I'm sorry I did not specifically photograph this difference to show you!  I was just too caught up in how remarkable this creature was!)

He just clung onto the branch for a long time, letting his wings dry.  He really didn't seem too interested or rushed to go anywhere.  I was happy that he didn't want to hurry away.  I kept staring at his body wondering how in the world he became so beautiful?  His body was now black and white and furry and his legs were so long!

Here's a crop of the wing so that you can see the detail more clearly.  I'm just amazed at how detailed the wings are.  They look like tiny pixels all lined up just perfectly.

Here's another close up of the previous wing photo.

A glimpse of his previous home.  It's amazing to me that he fit in there!

Here's his face.  He kept curling and unfurling his proboscis.  It's really fascinating to watch.  I was continually struck by how furry his body was.  And those white spots are just so pretty!

Here's a cropped in photo of his legs.  There are "V's" at the end of each leg making him "sticky" and able to cling onto just about anything.  I loved watching him walk around.

There's his little face.  Seems like a face that only a mother could love.  A little bug-eyed for me! Those little tufts at the top of his head look a bit owl-ish to me too.  Maybe that's why his wings are so beautiful--makes up for the lack of beauty in his face.

And, there he is again.

Well, I wish this story had a happy ending, but I'm sorry that it does not.  Our butterfly stayed on our bush for a long time, but when he finally took flight, he fell and broke his wing.  After that, he could not fly anymore, and seemed really hurt.  We tried to rescue him by putting him on some of our nectar flowers, and even giving him some sugar water before bed.  But, sadly when we got up the next morning, he was dead.  I was so sad that I cried.  All the work he did seemed so wasted.  We had watched him grow and eat and transform and finally emerge a beautiful creature, and then he just died.

That same day, as I was thinking about all of this, Miss M looked out our window and noticed that a butterfly was visiting our milkweed plant.  We ran out to look at it, and it was a male monarch butterfly--just like ours!  He was perfectly formed, and seemed so happy.  Somehow he gave me hope--that someday all brokenness will be restored and made right.  Butterflies won't fall, break their wings and die anymore.  Someday.

Here he is, broken wing an all.  If you look closely on the lower right wing, you can see the black spot I'm referring to which makes him a male.  I decided to keep this guy as a reminder of hope--that even broken wings will be made right someday.  

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Well, that is officially the end of my butterfly story.  I have to tell you since our first butterfly, we have acquired two more milkweed plants.  One day a female butterfly came to visit our plants while we were in the yard and we had the privilege of watching her lay eggs an several leaves.  

Would you believe that we currently have watched 20 caterpillars grow from tiny eggs into huge caterpillars?  We currently have 9 chrysalis and 9 caterpillars in our yard.  Yesterday we had our two butterflies emerge successfully from their chrysalis.

Although, this is not really a nature blog, I will be posting some more photos about caterpillars, chrysalis and butterflies.  This little blog is about our lives.  And, currently, sort of by accident, we're doing a lot of butterfly gardening this summer.  Stay tuned for a few more nature posts!