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!

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!

*******************

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.  

************************************************************

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!

the long wait

I checked faithfully on the chrysalis everyday.  Day 2 was remarkable because of the beautiful gold ornate "bumps."  The one around the top is known as "the golden zipper."  Even on day 2, I could see the beginnings of the wing pattern starting to form.  I couldn't get over how beautiful the chrysalis was.






Day 3 looks pretty similar to Day 2.




On day 4 the wing pattern appears to become more defined.




Day 5: no apparent change.


I have to be honest.  By day 6, I was getting tired of waiting--tired of not seeing any real changes.  What the heck was going on inside there?  And why couldn't I see any more apparent changes on the outside?  How many ways can a photographer think to photograph the same little green chrysalis?  I was getting impatient.


So much so, that I forgot to take a photo on Day 7.  I was no longer so enthralled with the process.  I knew something was going on inside the little green package, but I was recording the process more out of duty than true desire.  I had better things to do every morning at 10am than photograph a little green chrysalis.  My dishes were calling my name.  Continuing to photograph this little guy felt like an interruption in my day.

But, on day 8, I discovered a huge change.  What in the world?  How did this little guy change so fast?  What a surprise!  When I was least expecting it, all of a sudden, that little green chrysalis was no longer green, but clear.  Translucent.  And, wow, what a transformation!  To think that I had grown impatient, and had almost gotten too busy to keep waiting.  I could have completely missed it!



I promise to finish the story, and post butterfly pictures sooner than later!

Again, all photos taken with my 100mm, f/2.8 macro lens.  Some photos are cropped in to show more detail.

the caterpillar story

A few weeks go I was talking to a friend, telling her how I felt like I just had to "sit down" in life.  I felt like I had been turned upside down, inside out, around and around so much that nothing made sense anymore.  And, I so I found myself just "sitting."  Of course, I do have three children, so there are lots of basic things I had to keep doing, but in my spare moments--the precious few that I have--I found myself in a very still and quiet place--internally.

My friend recommended a great book about the process the heart goes through when you have to wait in such moments when nothing makes sense.  The author uses very rich language and imagery throughout the book.  One of her metaphors is the caterpillar's process of transforming into a butterfly.  She calls it the spiritual art of "cocooning."  When you enter a dark, quiet place, nothing seems to be happening on the outside, but on the inside, an incredible transformation is taking place. The caterpillar must enter the cocoon in order to transform.

Anyway, this imagery really resonated with me.  I feel that God often uses metaphors and imagery to speak to me--make because I'm partly a creative type, partly analytical--they really speak to me.  

A few days into the book, while I was shopping for some flowers to plant in my yard, I ran into a nice lady who had two large flowering plants in her shopping cart.  Guess what was on the flowers?  A large monarch butterfly!  I remarked at how incredible her plant was, and she proceeded to tell me all about "butterfly weed" (a.k.a. milkweed) and how monarch butterflies lay their eggs on it.  She harvests the eggs to take into her great-grandson's preschool classroom so that the kids can to watch the process of caterpillar-to-butterfly.  She regularly checks the store to see if they have "butterfly weed," but it is very popular, and sells out almost instantly.  But, there was one plant left that day, and she showed me where it was.  I brought home one milkweed plant, thinking that maybe we'd attract some butterflies.

A week or so later, guess who I discovered on our plant?

A monarch caterpillar! Miss M named him "Silky."  

Just to give you a sense of scale...

Again, for scale.  This is Miss M's hand "petting" the caterpillar. She loves creatures!

Our milkweed plant.  Did you know that monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed?  It's called a "host" plant.  One monarch butterfly will lay a total of 400 eggs, but they will only lay one egg per milkweed plant because they want to make sure their babies have enough food.  Incredible!

Here's "Silky" again.  He was so fascinating to watch.

A close up of his "face."

He ate and ate for several days, and then on Monday, he took off.  I went out to check on him, and he was gone!  I freaked out, and found him on the rim of the milkweed pot, so I carefully put him back on the plant, thinking that he had fallen down somehow.  An hour later, when I checked on him again, he was gone!  I searched and searched, and found him on our neighboring basil pot, two pots over.  I was just about to leave the house for an appointment and didn't want him to escape so I temporarily put him in a glass jar.  ( I know, I was a little obsessive.)  

When I got home, I tried putting him in the azalea-bush-turned-topiary, but he did not like that at all, so finally I tried my hibiscus bush, which he loved!  It was time for him to make his chrysalis.

Look what he did!

They curl and unfurl over and over in order to let air in underneath their skin in order to shed it.  This is the final molting and the process by which they become a chrysalis.  So, turning into a chrysalis is really a process of shedding their outer skin in order to become who they really are.  Isn't that fascinating?

I kept checking on this guy because I didn't want to miss anything.  I shot the above two photos, and then came back out to check 40 minutes later, and this is what he looked like!  I was a little disappointed to miss the process.

"Silky" has be a chrysalis for less than 40 minutes at this point.  It looks almost wet.  I just love the incredible detail!

If you look closely, you can even see the wing pattern beginning to take shape.

 The above shot is one of my favorites.  I love the artsy feel.  You can even get a little sun flare action on the chrysalis.

Clearly, I'm obsessed! I'm just so drawn into the transformation process of this little creature. One other interesting factoid: the grown caterpillar was around 2.5 inches long.  The chrysalis is only about an inch long.  He's in a tight spot for sure!

Okay, these next few shots are such a contrast.  It's the caterpillar's shed skin.  I found it just directly below the chrysalis.  

A little freaky, I admit.  but, wow.  To think that the skin that was once so perfect was no longer suitable, and that he had to shed that skin in order to become a new creature.  

You can even see his old legs.  I guess he won't need so many legs when he can fly! 

Back to the chrysalis one more time.  Look at how he's fastened himself.  He's on the underside of a leaf on my hibiscus bush, hanging by some silky thread.  There's a proper name for this, but I've forgotten.  

This was all from Day 1.  You can be sure that I'll keep posting photos of this little guy in the days to come.

In case you are wondering, I shot all of these with my 100mm, f/2.8 marco lens.  A few photos are cropped in more closely so that you can see the detail close-up.