Monday Mourning

All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing. ~Maurice Maeterlinck

Yesterday was a rough day in Pillar Place: Swallowtail ... Both Hannah and Fiona hatched and BOTH were massively defective. Hannah looked like someone had forgotten to iron her wings -- they were about 75% pumped up, but didn't quite make it all the way. Fiona, OTOH, never stopped looking all crumpled as though she'd just climbed out of her pupa. Both were unable to fly. Absolutely broke my heart. I thought that maybe Hannah might figure things out, and decided to let her have a chance -- I put her out in the middle of a field of flowers near my house, but I knew Fiona was a goner so she was humanely euthanized (i.e. put into my freezer for several hours).

The worst part about this is that these weren't the ones we thought might have problems. Carole is the one glued to the netting, and Fiona's box-mate, Greg has somehow broken one of his webbings, too. They are the last two swallowtails we have and I sure hope they emerge healthy.

Everything is quiet (except for lots of milkweed munching) in Pillar Place: Monarch. We haven't found any more eggs or bugs yet, but today we're making another foray into the milkweed near the library. Wish us luck.

Butterfly tidbit: Butterflies taste with their feet. They don't have mouths that allow them to bite or chew, instead they have a long straw-like structure called a proboscis which they use to drink nectar. But the proboscis doesn't have any taste sensors. A butterfly's taste sensors are located on the bottom of its feet. By standing on a leaf, the butterfly can taste it to see if it will be good food for her caterpillars.

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Note to spammers: even if you mask your spam links inside what appears to be a legitimate comment... I'LL KNOW. And it will be summarily deleted. Yes, I read all my comments. Yes, I will find it -- even if it's on an ancient post. So really, just stop it.

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Did more writing yesterday. I actually wrote the ending of something (no, that doesn't mean it's finished. I almost always write the ending first or at least right after the first couple of chapters -- gives me something to work toward) but wonder if having these two get engaged at the end might be too precipitous. Twice I've had reviewers state that they felt my characters needed a "hopefully ever after" instead of a "happily ever after" because they thought things moved too quickly. So... I'm giving this ending some thought.

Anyway, it was good to write.

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