Butterfly Houdini

Tuesday evening, while we were eating, I glanced over at Lilly, (she always lays on the floor by the table just in case something drops or someone is feeling generous with a bite of leftovers). To my surprise, she was nose to nose with a black swallowtail butterfly! Mind you, we were eating in the kitchen, not on the patio!

I immediately got up, let the butterfly climb on my hand and took it outside. I am still baffled by how it got loose in the house.




I have brought in a few black swallowtail caterpillars to watch the metamorphosis, I keep a close eye out for them and I was certain all of them were accounted for.

I am assuming that somehow one of them must have escaped the enclosed space and the chrysalis was attached somewhere in the kitchen.

I'm so glad that Ms. Libby the kitty was upstairs or there might have been a different outcome for the beautiful butterfly.

Wordless Wednesday

Milkweed Bugs

If you grow milkweed, more than likely you have seen this orange-red and black insect. It is the milkweed bug. Milkweed bugs feed on the pods and seeds of milkweed. They are harmless and can be good for controlling milkweed overpopulation in the home garden. The downside to that is that they damage and cause deformity to the seed pods preventing collection of seeds for those who would like to grow more milkweed.

They have a lifespan of about one month and during that time the female can lay up to 2000 eggs. Like ladybugs, they do not go through complete metamorphosis; they go through a series of molts. You can see the varying instar stages in the collage above.

This year they were prolific in my garden and were treated as pests. They were either smashed or collected in a bucket of soapy water. Not to worry, there are still plenty there to control my milkweed population!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I am thankful for the rain this morning. The flowers were drooping and the grass was just about dead. I am looking forward to some cooler weather! We have had the opposite summer compared to last year. Instead of the cool rainy weather, we have had a very hot and dry summer with twenty-eight days of temperatures in the 90's. I don't think we even hit 90 last summer.

Thank you all for your kind comments and the welcome back!

Back in the Saddle

These aren't exactly beautiful pictures of butterflies but I wanted to show that you can attract a variety of butterflies by providing fruit for them.

Hackberry butterfly- (First time to see this one in the garden!)

Each time I cut a melon I place the rinds outside. The butterflies flock to it! The flies do too, but I try not to think about that.


I think this is a Viceroy

I found this blue plastic tray with a stand for $2.00 at a garage sale early this summer. I bought it with this specific thing in mind. It has worked just like I had hoped that it would!

Red Spotted Purple

Last year was cool and rainy, I think I may have seen five butterflies all summer long. This year has been hot and I have seen more species in my garden than ever before. I think the watermelon has helped attract them to the garden, especially the red spotted purple. They love it!

Question Mark

I apologize for my lengthy absence. I just needed some time to process all of the changes in my life. Losing my mother was such a shock. Sadly sometimes these things tend to bring about the worst in people, so there have been some challenges regarding extended family as well. I was not expecting to deal so soon with greed and malicious behavior. It is very sad and incredibly hurtful.

It is time to move on and try to enjoy my life and my own precious family again.

Monarch

I have also had frustrating computer issues. My desktop computer has been in the shop twice and it needs to go back again. Thankfully it is still under warranty. The laptop I use now is frustrating because it skips letters and without warning it erases large sections of script and pictures. I just have not felt like doing battle with it and Blogger to post. Hopefully, now that I am in a better frame of mind, I can get back in the saddle and post more regularly.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and encouraging comments for me during this very difficult time in my life. I've missed you all!

Just The Way It Is....

Thank you all for your kind comments, your prayers for my family and your encouragement to me. I wish I could find the words to tell you how much it means to me.



When I first started this blog I wanted it to be a place of beauty and encouragement to those who visited. I shared very little about my personal life. I still want to share the beauty that I capture from my home and garden, but certain aspects of my life right now are difficult and sad.



I'm finding it hard to blog, because I am more in the mood to be contemplative, quiet and withdrawn. It seems that there has been one gut punch after another, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.



A couple of days before my mother passed away, my brother, who is 17 months younger than me, had surgery on a mole that had suddenly changed. I found out a few days ago that he has stage 4 melanoma cancer. I'm very worried about him.



Also, I just found out today that a dear cousin has Chrondrosarcoma cancer. He is my cousin, but his wife is my very dear friend. His mass is attached to his chest wall and protrudes about two or three inches, it is quite large. Surgery is not an option right now, hopefully chemo and radiation will shrink the mass. My heart is breaking for them.



I am thankful once again for beautiful distractions. I have walked around my yard for hours at a time with my camera in my hands. It is there, behind the lens, that I can lose myself momentarily.



Please pray for these loved ones of mine. Hopefully one of these days things will calm down and life will return to normal and I'll feel more like blogging again. Right now I have a difficult time thinking and finding the right words to say.