Sunday, June 27, 2010

Butterflies and Ash

And the case of butterflies so rich it looks, As if all summer settled there and died. ~Philip Larkin, "Autumn"

I wish I could sleep in. I gave it the old college try the last couple of nights -- even locked up the cat -- but only made it until 5:30 both mornings, which is sleeping in for me, not not SLEEPING IN. Yanno?

Oh well.

In Pillar Place, we had two hatchings yesterday: Hercules and Kappa.

Hercules gave me a scare. He fell from his pupa when he emerged, butt huge, wings crumpled. He hurried to the side and climbed the mesh to hang, but his wings took forever to straighten, and the bottom little whoosies that make him a swallowtail never did go completely straight.

Regardless, he managed. Here he is:



Kappa followed a couple of hours later. Even with her wings crumpled, I could tell she was female. YAY! We needed a female. She did everything right and had no mishaps. Here she is:



See how much more blue she has on her wings? Kappa also had one of the biggest chrysalides. We're trying to pay attention to those things to see if it helps us sex them before they are butterflies.

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Otherwise my day was uneventful. I did more weeding (it never ends), moved some of my annuals (turns out it's too hot in front of my house for portulaca, despite the fact they love heat ... they were dying a slow death) and raked the clippings from the grass to use in my garden.

DH dumped ashes into my garden when I wasn't looking... I came home from the store and it looked like my eggplants had survived a volcanic eruption. Because ... he didn't toss it into an empty spot, he dumped a big pail right on top of my plants.

Oh yes he did.

So I had to shovel away a bunch (a little ash = good, too much ash = kills plants) and then give my poor eggplants a bath. There's still quite a bit of ash there. Hopefully it doesn't kill them.

First the deer. Now I have to figure out how to protect the garden against husbands.

*sigh*

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Rain Makes You Sleepy



You tend to move extremely slowly. It takes you a long time to adjust to change.

You tend to have your head in the clouds. You are a bit absent minded, and you're often lost in your thoughts.

You are naturally content and happy. You can adapt to your environment easily.

You prefer to be around a wide variety of people. You believe that you learn a little something from everyone.

You find peace when you are alone. You know how to balance your emotions well.



Except for the end, it's completely wrong, lol...

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11 comments:

Michele said...

I'm sorry, but ROTFL! You're last comment had me in giggles.

Yeah, guys. I wrote on my blog about another GUY Incident I could have done without. What IS it with them anyway?
Men need us - without women, they'd de-evolve. I swear.
Hope your plants do fine and thrive!

Michele said...

YOUR last comment, Not You're..I'm comma happy this morning.
sorry.
;-)

Marianne Arkins said...

Michele, I'll have to pop over and read!

And you... comma happy? hahahahaha... ;-)

Ceri Hebert said...

Such beautiful butterflies!

While I don't have any Husband vs Garden stories I have one from my mom. One year my father sprayed her apple tree (not sure if he was spraying it with something to get rid of the pests or some kind of fertilizer-yeh, I'm that much of a gardener). But he got his bottles mixed up and he sprayed it with poison ivy killer. That does quite a job on apple trees too. Luckily in a few years the tree recovered and now it's beautiful and healthy.

Dru said...

I'm glad you explained about the ash because I couldn't see why it was needed in a garden. Silly husbands.

The butterflies look beautiful. You probably answered this, but I think of these questions while I'm reading and admiring you as you help the butterflies, but what is their average lifetime?

Rain Makes You Happy

You tend to move slowly, but you still get a lot done. You are steady.

You are down to earth and practical. You like to live an ordered and organized life.

You are well prepared for anything life throws at you. You keep your expectations low.

You prefer to be around people with strong personalities. You like it when others speak their minds.

You find peace when you are alone. You know how to balance your emotions well.


This is accurate.

Have a good Sunday.

Marianne Arkins said...

Ceri ... um, oops? LOL...

Dru, swallowtails only live a couple of weeks as butterflies. It's kind of sad. Monarchs live right around nine months and are the sturdiest of butterflies (you can even "tag" their wings for tracking purposes!) because they have to migrate.

Tori Lennox said...

The butterflies are so pretty but delicate.

Brandy said...

Oh, your emerging butterflies are gorgeous! That's sad about the swallowtails lifespan. I guess it makes us appreciate them more?

You tend to move slowly, but you still get a lot done. You are steady.
You tend to have your head in the clouds. You are a bit absent minded, and you're often lost in your thoughts.
You have high expectations for your life, and you're sometimes disappointed. You wish that things were easier.
You prefer to be around people who are sweet and caring. You have a low tolerance for meanness.
You find peace when you are alone. You know how to balance your emotions well.


Huh, not bad, not absolutely correct.

I hope you have a peaceful day!

Brandy said...

Oh, and the quiz also said: Rain makes you Happy. Um, yeah, actually it does. *G*

Anonymous said...

I continue to be amazed at how brilliant the colors are on these butterflies! Not sure if I've ever seen them so close up. Beautiful!

Marianne Arkins said...

Liz, the sad thing about black swallowtail butterflies is that they are considered pests by much of the farming community because they love to eat "people food": parsley (the pillars are often called "parsley worms"), fennel, dill, carrots, etc. Much of what you find on the internet about them is how to destroy them.

My DD and I purposely grow their crops not for US to eat, but for the caterpillars. I think they're just gorgeous.