Ends and Beginnings

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine. ~Jeffrey Glassberg

We released our one and only monarch butterfly on Tuesday. Lenape went through her life cycle in a picture perfect way and we wish her well.



I washed out all our containers and boxed everything up for another year. Pillar Place 2009 is over, and was a year that will go down as our worst yet. I sincerely hope things shape up next year.

We also made Dakota's day:



I spent a good part of the day pulling weeds again yesterday. It's amazing to me how quickly they grow and how strong and deep their roots are. I feel it could easily be an analogy for something (maybe negative thinking?), but am only on cup of coffee #1 so the brain isn't up and running at full speed yet. What do you think -- what can fast-growing, strong with deep roots be an analogy for?

The goldfinches are out in full-force at my feeders. This is the time when their babies hatch -- they are later than most birds because they eat seed exclusively and need to wait until things go to seed in order to be able to feed their babies well. At any given moment during the day, I can look out my window and see two dozen little yellow bodies covering my feeders. They're so pretty :-)

School starts in two weeks. DD is not happy. I'm not exactly thrilled either -- she tends to forget it's just as much work for me, and that summer vacation is a vacation for both of us! I occasionally envy the mothers who celebrate the start of school because they earn a bit of "me" time... but still, at least for now, I'm happy I'm homeschooling. This year will mark some changes though: we're planning on getting quite active in a local homeschool group, and DD will have a series of classes she'll be participating in. I'm going to have to figure out how to use time more efficiently than ever.

Wish me luck.

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Read any good, funny romances lately? I'm looking for some new rom/com's to read.

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Your Defense Mechanism is Humor

When life gets you down, you just have to laugh. And that's a very healthy reaction. It's not that you don't take your problems seriously. You do. You just don't let them control you. You are able to make the best of things, even when things look very, very bleak. Some people may consider your sense of humor to be dark, but it has served you well!

What's Your Defense Mechanism?

Um... mostly.

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The Joys of Editing

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter. ~James Michener

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. ~Author Unknown

I really don't like to edit. The First Draft is like that initial rush you feel when you start dating someone... especially someone who might be The One. Everything is exciting and good and fun.

And then, the second draft begins. Suddenly you notice he burps after he eats or scratches himself in public. Maybe he leaves his clothes laying all over the house and snores.

What do you do? Do you ditch him and look for someone new? Or do you try to work things out?

As I've mentioned, I'm editing "Return to Stiller Creek" and, though I know what needs to be done, it's pretty major (adding an entirely new character who must be layered in through the book AND changing the antagonist entirely, which also means changing the OLD antagonist to someone who didn't do it) and I'm not really enjoying myself.

I lost my internet connection for a while yesterday and decided to go work in the garden. I still hadn't moved deer-resistant plants to the veggie garden, so opted to do that (why I decided to do it at 3 pm in 90 degree weather, I have no idea). And, as I dug up plants from one area, pulled the weeds that surrounded them and then replanted them in another better place, I realized that this is what editing is. Pulling the weeds and moving things around until they work better. Sometimes it means planting new seeds or getting new plants altogether and working them into the existing garden.

In an odd sort of way, it made me feel better about what I'm doing. So, when I lost my internet again this morning for thirty minutes or so (and WHAT is up with my internet??) I wrote two new scenes for the book AND introduced the new character in an existing scene.

My "Stiller Creek" garden is beginning to grow and look healthier already.

What about those of you who are writers? Love editing? Hate it? Why?

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At some point between 4:30 a.m. (when I got up) and 5 a.m. our lone monarch pupa (Lenape) became a lone monarch butterfly. She's just lovely. Perfect. Has all her parts. She's hanging from what's left of her pupa and letting her wings harden. She should be ready to release once the sun is well up. At least ONE of our pillars in Pillar Place: Monarch looks to have a happy ending. I'll have pictures later -- don't want to freak her out yet while her wings are still soft.

We've looked at all the milkweed around here and none of it has any more monarch pillars that we can find. We did find Tussock Moth babies (so cute and fuzzy), but no monarchs. Very sad.

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Win an eReader!

An apocryphal story - the word "apocryphal" here means "obviously untrue" - tells of two people, long ago, who were very bored, and that instead of complaining about it they sat up all night and invented the game of chess so that everyone else in the world, on evenings when there is nothing to do, can also be bored by the perplexing and tedious game they invented. ~Lemony Snicket

LOL... doesn't really have anything to do with today's post. I just liked the quote!

First off... just a quick reminder that the Long and the Short of It's second anniversary bash started TODAY. We're giving away tons of stuff -- the but the grand prizes are three (yes THREE) Sony eReaders. And, hey, feel free to spread the word :-)

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A writing friend, Wendi Zwaduk, shared her exciting news with me yesterday: she got her release date for her upcoming book with The Wild Rose Press. I was VERY excited for her, but also gobsmacked -- the release is for next May. Her edits are done, the cover is completed, the ARC is approved... and it doesn't release until next May... nearly a year from now. Holy smokes.

The reason this impacted me so much was this: even if I finally get something submitted (whether to TWRP or somewhere else), does this mean it will be a year or more before it's released? Because, yanno, I expect that with the NY publishers, but not with the ePubs.

So, I have to admit to being a little discouraged.

Still, I did manage to write a little last night. I opted to continue revising "Return to Stiller Creek" since it's the closest to being submitted. I clearly need to get something in the pipeline, so that's my goal. And, I will (I WILL) make time to write every day, even if it's only 30 minutes.

Yes, the fantasy still calls my name. Yes, I have other things singing their siren song. But, I need to be realistic and focus.

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Bad, bad news in Pillar Place: Monarch -- Jane died. She never even made her pupa. She went into her J and then just sort of... dissolved. It was quite icky. And Maria? Superglued Maria? Her pupa has turned black, so we're guessing she's a goner as well.

So, to recap: we began with ten eggs. We hatched four pillars. Nancy died as a baby. Jane died as a J. Maria died as a pupa.

And then there was one. All our hopes lay with Lenape.

NOT a good year to be a caterpillar.

In other news, though, I actually saw my first monarch butterfly yesterday... so maybe somewhere there are other pillars hatching?

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The Wonders of Superglue

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all. - Cecil Frances Alexander

'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' - Matthew 25:40

Yesterday, I checked our "J" pillars, and discovered that Maria had fallen from the roof and lay, curled in a ball, on the leaf below. I poked her once, but she didn't move and I was sure she was a goner. Still, ever hopeful, I left her where she was.

Later, I checked her and this is what I found:



In fact, she was still wiggling to get the skin off (if you look closely at the picture, you'll see the little ball of black skin beside her). At this point, I'm not certain whether I'm happy or sad -- the last time we had a pupa fall (it was a swallowtail) the butterfly emerged missing its back wings. Still, Maria clearly has a lot of will, so I had to figure out what to do.

Enter superglue gel. Again. This has been my butterfly savior this year. I globbed a ball on the roof of her "house":


Tried to pick her up using tweezers on the little black "stem":



Realized that I couldn't do that AND poke the stem into the glue so I carefully (because the pupa is squishy) lifted her into my palm:



And the scooted her to the edge and poked the stem into the partially dried glue blob:



And then it occurs to me that it will be hours before the glue is dried enough to hang her, so I find an alternate holder:



Let her dry for a couple hours and VOILA!:



Now we let her cook and hope she emerges with all her wings and other various body parts.

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Today DD and DH are boating. So I have a day off of being wife and mom. YAY!

What are you doing this weekend?

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Home Grown

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James

I picked five squash and our first cucumber yesterday. Nothing tastes as good as freshly picked ANYTHING. It's amazing how much better veggies taste from the garden -- they are crisper and yummier. WAY more flavor. Summer spoils me for store bought stuff. My tomatoes are all splitting before they get ripe, though. I need to look into why that happens.

In Pillar Place: Monarch, Lenape and Maria are both in a "J" and Jane is on her roof, so I anticipate her making her J soon. I'm glad, actually -- it means they'll all hatch around the same time and then it'll be done. Still, I'm really horrified at the small number of pillars we found this year. It really brings home the fact that the monarch is having issues.

Butterfly Tidbit: Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature falls below 86 degrees.

I dreamed last night that we had two raccoons and a bear at our bird feeders, and I tried to scare them off with my pooper sccoper... lol. If that isn't full of symbolism, I don't know what is.

You Are Cobb Salad

You seem simple, but you're actually a very complicated person. You stay well organized, and because of that, you're on top of all the chaos in your life. You work well with others. You are able to check your ego and cooperate. You are also very open-minded and accepting. You're happy to let people do their own thing.

What Kind of Salad Are You?

Um... about 75% right... You? As an aside, I love Cobb Salad, especially the bleu cheese crumbles. I bought some at the store yesterday, opened the dish and DD proclaimed "It smells like dirty socks." I told her she didn't have to have any :-)

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And Then There Were Three

I shall not die of a cold. I shall die of having lived. ~Willa Cather

We're in a bit of mourning here at Pillar Place: Monarch. Three of our eggs didn't hatch (Kathy, Karen and Oscar) and one of our pillars died (Nancy). Monarch pillars seem to be particularly fragile ... I've never gotten through a season without losing some without warning. I blame one of two parasites (taken from Wikipedia):

The bacteria Micrococcus flacidifex danai also infects the larvae and causes “black death”. (We've lost pillars to this in the past, but this wasn't Nancy's problem)

The protozoan Ophryocystis elektroscirrha is another parasite of the monarch. It infects the subcutaneous tissues and propagates by spores formed during the pupal stage. The spores are found over all of the body of infected butterflies, with the greatest number on the abdomen. These spores are passed, from female to caterpillar, when spores rub off during egg-laying and are then ingested by caterpillars. Severely infected individuals are weak, unable to expand their wings, or unable to eclose, and have a shortened lifespan but probably occur at low frequencies in nature. This is not the case in laboratory or commercial rearing, where after a few generations all individuals can be infected. (I suspect this may have been what affected Nancy)

Regardless, all I know is that one moment she was fine, and the next she was hanging limply from the wall of her container with a puddle of green "goo" (we call it pillar vomit, though I don't know what it's from) beneath her.

So... we're down to only three: Lenape, Maria and Jane. And still no more eggs.

It's a rough year for butterflies.

=======================

As I lay in bed, trying to get to sleep last night, I began thinking about my fantasy novel ... it's truly a pet of mine, and I love the story, but it's HARD to write. Still, the final scene played through my mind like a movie and I was so excited to see it! It was nothing like what I'd originally imagined, but I think it's going to work even better.

I know I sound like an ADD writer (maybe I am?), but this story draws me like no other. I don't work on it as much because the world-building is tough and I have to remember to remain consistent. It's not just a simple matter of writing what I know.

Today, my plan is to write that final scene while its fresh in my mind. Wish me luck -- it's action-packed and quite dramatic and that can be difficult to put into words effectively.

======================

You Paint the World with Vibrant Colors

You are a true visionary. You are very inspired. Your friends can always count on you to be adventurous. You're up for anything. You are a truly bold person ... though sometimes you can be a bit too outrageous. You are a bundle of energy. You are hyper morning, noon, and night.

How Do You Paint the World?

Hmmm.... dunno. What do you guys think?

==========================

Writing Struggles

“You can’t be a serious writer of fiction unless you believe the story you are telling.” - Norman Mailer

So... I took some time yesterday to do a bit of writing. I worked on "A Jewel for Geoff" because it was on my mind. I wrote an entire scene but it felt rather flat and I finally figured out why: I'm not particularly attracted to him.

Usually, when I write a story, I fall madly in love with the hero -- I should, right? If I don't love him then why would a reader?

The problem is that the cover for "One Love for Liv" portrays Geoff as a follicly challenged geeky guy... not how I had pictured him at all. But, that cover was my last hurrah -- and I had no choice but to take it (w/o complaint). So instead of the rather handsome and yuppy-ish Geoff I had pictured in my mind when I wrote the book:



I ended up with balding Geoff:



And I can't get past it. One line I wrote had Geoff raking his fingers through what little hair he had left, and I kinda went... eww...

**sigh**

So what do I do now? I can't change him into a different person. He is who he is in the first book... It's a conundrum. A quandary. A problem.

Of course, Mike didn't look at all like I'd planned either. Here is my Mike:



Fun, irreverent, goofy -- not Mr. hot and intense from the cover.

I'm thinking this sequel may not end up written, which makes me a little sad. Geoff deserved a HEA. I'm just not sure I can write it.

========================

Good news in Pillar Place: Swallowtail!! Carole hatched yesterday without any problems! She popped right out of her glued pupa and fluffed up her wings in no time at all. We released her without incident about an hour after hatching. It was a beautiful thing.

In Pillar Place: Monarch things are about the same. We have five pillars munching away happily and growing in leaps and bound, while the other five eggs show no sign of hatching. Odd. We also haven't found any more eggs. This whole pillar season has me worried this year. I sure hope somewhere there is a bumper crop of pillars, because it surely isn't here.

Butterfly tidbit: The caterpillar has about 2,000 muscles in its body. That would be 1,344 more than us humans, we only have 656.

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Wherein I Summarize Using Many Colons

When I get real bored, I like to drive downtown and get a great parking spot, then sit in my car and count how many people ask me if I'm leaving. ~-Steven Wright

Color me swamped. I'm overwhelmed at The Long and the Short of It right now -- we're having an anniversary celebration next month and it's going to be HUGE... lots of fun and prizes, culminating in a giveaway of not one, not two but THREE Sony eReaders.

This is taking a lot of work and organization (things on which I normally thrive) to the point my head feels like it's going to explode (unfortunately, that's not figurative, as I've been fighting a three-day headache... so far this a.m. it's feeling pretty good, though :::fingers crossed:::).

I tell you this so you'll understand the brevity of this post.

Weather: pouring rain.

Pillars: Growing like weeds (we have 5 hatched monarchs)

DD: cranky because no boating today.

Dakota: Sleeping on the couch -- she had a long day of being chaotic yesterday. SEE:



Writing: Limited, but there.

Gardening: Did some weeding yesterday... barely made a dent. Killed another squash borer moth (grrrrr...). Picked one squash and about 8,009,765 peas and green beans.

Me: Spinning plates.

Have a great weekend!

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My Life in Pictures

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. ~Eudora Welty

Several of my Asiatic lilies had flopped over, so I cut them for a vase inside:



DD decided she needed to paint them:



I think she did a pretty decent job! I'm putting her in homeschool art lessons at our local art museum this fall -- they work in all different mediums and, because it's a homeschool class, too, delve a bit into art history and the famous masters. I think she'll enjoy it.

I've been trying to lose a few pounds this summer and have been taking long walks every morning -- good for me, DD and the dog. But I've found that my dog has a fetish... she can't pass a water bottle and leave it.




She'll carry the bottle with her through the entire walk and when we get home, she'll toss it around the lawn a bit, playing with it, until we finally dispose of it properly. She has a thing for paper, too, but luckily we don't find much of that on the road.

I found a flower growing on the side of the road during our walk recently that looks a little too much like milkweed for comfort. I wonder if it's one of the plants that the monarch lays her eggs on and then, when the pillar hatches and tries to eat, dies. This is the plant:



This is milkweed:



Pretty close, huh?

In Pillar Place: Swallowtail, we released a butterfly yesterday -- Georgina (formerly Greg) hatched and was healthy! PHEW.



The only one left is Carole, the one I had to glue in place. She should have hatched before Greg/Georgina, since she made her pupa several days prior. I wonder if my handling killed her? At this point, we're six healthy butterflies released, two handicapped butterflies, and one question mark. Not horrible, I suppose, especially considering that the likelihood of their survival was pretty low outside due to the constant rainfall after they hatched.

Still... I'd prefer 100% success.

Today looks like it's going to be sunny, so I might play a little hookey and work in the garden a bit. It needs weeding. My plants are still pathetically small, except the squash which are getting huge and happy (I'm trying not to think negatively, but can't help but assume the squash borer has laid her eggs on them since I've see the moth buzzing about). I hope to get enough squash to eat (my new fave recipe? Slice, brush with olive oil and sprinkle a bit of seasoned salt on them, then toss on the barbecue) and to grate and freeze for squash bread and muffins through the winter.

Have a great day!

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I Have a Confession to Make

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody. ~Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, 1894

I fold my underwear. I never thought this was weird until I got married. My DH doesn't understand why I fold our underwear, or even why I match our socks. When he was single, he had two laundry baskets: clean and dirty. He never folded ANYTHING. When the "clean" basket was empty, it was time to do laundry.

I have another confession to make. I HATE ironing to the point I've been known to got to extremes to avoid it: throwing the item in the dryer with a wet wash cloth or even completely washing it again. But, I also HATE wearing anything that is wrinkled. Yes, it's a conundrum. DH has no problem with wrinkles (nor does anyone else in his family -- which I find odd because they are all tidy to a fault and absolutely freaky about taking care of their stuff to point that it's a little scary). I've seen him walk out of the house in a shirt that he'd had stuffed into his "lake bag" -- wadded into a ball and shoved into the corner, surrounded by damp towels, and looking like it was... well, wadded into a ball and shoved into a corner. I wouldn't leave the house in clothes like that if my life depended on it.

I also alphabetize my CDs. And my books are organized by genre and then by author and series order.

Once, my DD "helped" me clean by reorganizing the spice cabinet. I nearly had a breakdown.

My DH thinks I'm not a tidy person because I tend to keep "piles". I have piles on my desk, a pile by the phone, etc. But what he doesn't understand is that I know exactly what is in each pile, and they all have a reason for being where they are.

Judy calls me an A+ type personality.

I know this: I wouldn't want to live with me... though oddly, I've only had a few room mates, and they all stuck around for years at a time and we were friends even when we stopped living together, so I guess I can't be THAT hard to be around.

Just don't mess with my spices.

What about you? Quirky? How?

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In Pillar Place: Swallowtail -- Dru asked in comments yesterday what we do with the deceased butterflies after we freeze them. We actually have a butterfly graveyard outside in DDs garden. She buries them (usually in cardboard so it will biodegrade eventually) and they get a stone over them in commemoration. One year, she did crosses on popsicle sticks, but they didn't last long.

In Pillar Place: Monarch -- we only found ONE egg at the library yesterday and no butterbabies. Some good news... my friend, Michele, IM'd me yesterday to say she has a monarch egg on her milkweed! Remember, too, that in a month or so, I'll have more milkweed seeds than I know what to do with, so if you have space to grow it, I'd be happy to send you some. Just email me!

Otherwise, no new hatching and nothing much to report. The ones who are hatched have more than doubled in size (though considering how tiny they were to start, they aren't all that big).

Butterfly tidbit: Female monarch butterflies have several hundred eggs to lay during their short life in the spring time (and I want to know why they aren't laying them at MY house... just saying). - courtesy of http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/

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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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The Day Before Monday

May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer

That has nothing to do with anything, I just thought it was funny :-)

So, it's hot here. I'm not complaining, really -- I swore I wouldn't complain when summer finally arrived after our month of rain in June. And, to be honest it really isn't the heat that's getting me down, it's the humidity. Yesterday it was only in the 80s, but with the 917% humidity (okay, I might be exaggerating a little...) it made it tough to get out and do anything. Even the dog didn't want to walk in it. Much.

Once I got over the guilties about not working outside in my garden (which is more weeds than garden) I decided to write. I wrote a couple thousand words yesterday, which was awesome... but I seem to have lost my funny bone, which was not. Since most of what I have in process right now is along the lines of a rom/com (except my fantasy), my inability to think funny thoughts made life a little difficult, and I'm going to have to do some pretty major editing on what I wrote because of it. Still, I've been frustrated at not writing, so was determined to do some.

I'm determined to do some today as well. I WILL get something completed and ready for submission by August 31st. THAT is my goal... y'all want to help hold me to it? *G*

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In Pillar Place: Monarch, we hatched another butterbaby -- Jane is now a wiggly-squirmer instead of an egg. So... we have Jane, Lenape, Maria and Nancy thus far. And, despite looking for more eggs on our walk yesterday, we found none (which worries me). AND, we still have no swallowtail babies on our rue or carrots (which also worries me).

Dru asked if the monarch baby always eats its egg. Yes! I don't know for certain why, but wonder if it provides nutrients it can't get from milkweed (protein?). They also eat their skin after they shed it -- and I can't help but wonder if it's for the same reason.

Monarch tidbit: One problem for Monarchs in North America is the black swallow-wort plant. Monarchs lay their eggs on these plants since they produce stimuli similar to milkweed. Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars are poisoned by the toxicity of this invasive plant. If you see these non-native species in your area, destroy them as they are invasive and deadly not only to butterflies, but to the native plants.

By the way, Monarchwatch.org encourages the creation of "Monarch Waystations". These are amazingly easy to create, beautiful and help with the conservation of not just Monarchs, but butterflies in general. They even offer seed kits and a neat plaque to put in your garden -- it's a great project for you to encourage your schools and libraries to do if you don't have room to do it yourself. You can find information on it here.

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We Have Butterbabies!

“Butterflies... not quite birds, as they were not quite flowers, mysterious and fascinating as are all indeterminate creatures.” - Elizabeth Goudge

We have butterbabies! In Pillar Place: Monarch we hatched two butterbabies yesterday: Maria and Nancy! My camera won't take the super-duper close up pictures of this, but Bird Chick has this amazing post about Monarch's hatching. The baby is actually far harder to see than the egg! If it didn't have it's little black head, I'd probably never find it on the milkweed.

I found this cool video of a pillar hatching (filmed through a microscope, which should tell you how tiny they are!):



Monarch tidbit: Monarch butterflies are one of the few insects capable of making transatlantic crossings. They are becoming more common in Bermuda due to increased usage of milkweed as an ornamental plant in flower gardens. Monarch butterflies born in Bermuda remain year round due to the island's mild climate.

In Pillar Place: Swallowtail, we had another release. Bugsy emerged and was another female. Welcome Bugsy:



As an aside, we found a pile of Milkweed Tussock Moth eggs, and DD wants to raise them inside, too. I've said "NO", but may cave in a moment of weakness. They ARE really cool to look at, don't you think:



=======================

You Are an Ice Cream Sandwich

You are well grounded, reliable, and very balanced. You love to work hard, but you also know how to take it easy. People might be surprised to know you have a very goofy side to you. You like to let loose and have fun. You just don't let yourself go too crazy!

What Frozen Treat Are You?

That's remarkably close! ...

=======================

Pillar Place: Monarch

Flowers and butterflies drift in color, illuminating spring. ~Author Unknown

DD, Dd and I have been taking long walks every morning the past few weeks and yesterday on our walk, we made stops at all the milkweed to look for eggs. We found ONE and were tickled pink.

Later in the day, we ran a few errands, including going to the library. There is a new road behind the library that winds through some milkweed, so we took the long way home, stopping every few feet at various clumps to look for eggs. It was hot, it was humid and the hills were at about a 70 degree angle and I was in flip flops, so it was... interesting to say the least.

But we had some success... we found six more eggs (after looking about about 150 plants with about 10 leaves each... yes, we are dedicated--or insane. You decide).

So, despite the fact there are no eggs (yet) on my own milkweed, Pillar Place: Monarch 2009 has begun.

Meet Kathleen and Karen -- our first "twin" eggs. I've never found two eggs on the same leaf before:



And, just to give you an idea of what we were up against while hanging off hillsides looking underneath all the leaves (because, yes, that's where they lay them so we have to carefully FLIP every leaf to check it) this is the size of the egg as compared to a quarter:



Monarchs are so much easier to raise than swallowtails. We keep them in Gladware that we've punched full of airholes and tape a piece of construction paper on the lid. They eat and then crawl onto the lid to shed their skin, then eat and repeat until it's time to make their pupa, which is ALSO always made on the lid. Unlike swallowtails, they don't stay on their food until they are ready (a rude awakening for me the first year we did them), but they are very predictable and low-maintenance. It's also easier to pick a leaf and put it into the dish instead of having to use floral foam and water to keep them fresh... milkweed is amazingly hardy.

So, now we wait. We prefer to start with eggs since monarchs are a host for a two types of parasitoids: tachinid flies and braconid wasps. These insects lay their eggs ON the caterpillar and the pillar is slowly consumed until, when they go to make their pupa and hang in the "J", the larvae of these critters will emerge (thus killing the pillar). It's impossible to know which of the caterpillars is paratisized, and it's a BAD problem, so we try to catch the pillars before they are.. yanno.. PILLARS.

A small tidbit about monarchs: In December 1995, scientists estimate that 5 to 7 million Monarchs died after a snowstorm hit the overwintering sites. A snowstorm in 1992 killed a similar number. (Source: Monarch Watch)

Eggs hatch about ten days after they are laid. Since we don't know WHEN these were laid, we'll keep you posted on their progress. Currently we have:



Our little family of seven: Jane, Kathleen & Karen, Lenape, Maria, Nancy, Oscar.

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Fun With Wildlife

“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.” - W. C. Fields

Once upon a time, there was an itty bitty garter snake with eyes far bigger than any other part of him. But he was stealthy and he was quick and ... SNAP!! He got himself a meal.

Unfortunately for him, the meal was too big to fit in his itty bitty mouth. So there they lay, in the grass: snake refusing to let go, despite the fact his prey wouldn't slide down his throat (and even if it did, it would kill him), and prey struggling in vain to go free.

Until a savior in pink appeared and called, "MOM! There's a snake out here with a toad far too big for it."

And Mom, who was in the middle of weeding, came to the rescue. She stepped on the snake's tail, causing it to open its mouth. The toad, a bit stunned, only moved away an inch or two. And the snake, being nobody's fool, tried to run... er... slither away.

But he hadn't counted on the speed and fearlessness of Mom who caught both Snake and Toad for a photo op.



Toad was handed off to DD to put in the garden, but Snake got to hang out with us a little while.





Yes, I'm raising a DD who has little fear of anything in the wild -- though she's not too crazy about yellow jackets or other critters in the "crazy stinging" family.

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In other wildlife news, we had another release in Pillar Place: Swallowtail. Ethel hatched! We were actually able to watch her emerge from her pupa and pump up her wings. Unfortunately, she's in the box with Carole, so I couldn't open it up for pictures. I took one through the netting of her fat little behind and crumpled wings because I'm always amazed at how they begin:



We waited and watched and hoped this one would finally be female... and she WAS! Meet Ethel:




You can tell that Ethel is female from how blue the bottom spots on her wings are. Compare her to Daniel:



See how yellow the spots are on his wings?

Also, the females are significantly larger than the males. We think Hannah will hatch today -- her pupa is getting quite dark. We have only Bugsy and Carole left (and maybe Greg and Fiona... but I have a BAD feeling they are going to overwinter).

Still no monarch eggs. Last year, we found our first eggs on July 15th. Not this year.

:-(

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I've Been Reading Forever!

"The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination." - Elizabeth Hardwick

Yesterday, I was going through all my old pictures, trying to find enough for a particular project (I didn't, but that's another story) and came across this (forgive the quality -- it's a picture of a picture as I don't have a scanner):



Yep... that's ME at 2 1/2 years old, book in hand. And, even today, you can pretty much find me the same way at any given hour.

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In Pillar Place: Swallowtail, Ichabod hatched successfully. However, when we found him he was more than ready to fly and so I didn't get a picture. The moment the netting opened he was GONE. We did see enough to know that he as another male. So... three boys and no girls yet. Think that'll be a problem?

Unfortunately, Carole's pupa fell again. And I glued her again. But I'm terrifically worried about all the handling (not to mention worried that the glue has soaked through the outer coating of the pupa and, when she tries to hatch, her wings will be stuck -- I don't think I could stand that).

No monarch eggs yet. Will go out again today and look underneath leaves. We do have milkweed beetles and milkweed aphids (of course -- what fun would it be if there were no pests??).

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Saying Thanks!

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. ~ G.B. Stern



Diane Craver gave me this lovely blog award. Thanks, Diane!

Here are the rules:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to other blogs.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Although I don't always comment, I usually make it by several blogs nearly every day (or at least when the update):

Tori
Brandy
Melissa McClone
Allie Boniface
Dru Ann
Jen
Ceri Hebert
Sarita Leon
Keri Mikulski
Maria Zannini
Jennifer Shirk
Wendi Zwaduk
Charity Tahmaseb

And ... gah... so many more I'm probably forgetting some (I feel a little like I won an Academy Award, lol). But, hey -- I love you guys!!

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As you probably know from the posts below, yesterday was busy in Pillar Place: Swallowtail. Sadly, we may have also had a casualty, though we won't know for a week or so.

Carole, the pillar who made her pupa on the netting, had an accident. When we release the butterflies, we carry the entire box outside with us (the last thing we need is for the butterfly to be lose in the house). Yesterday, when we released Able and had set down the box, the wind blew it over. It gave ALL the remaining pupae a good jolt, but Carole had one set of her anchors break, and literally dangled by a thread. They can't hatch like this, not safely, so I made an executive decision.

Handling the pupae is never a good idea, but I had little choice. And, I remembered reading that super glue was originally developed for closing wounds, so I hoped it wouldn't injure the butterfly.

Yep. I used superglue gel (I figured the gel would be less likely to soak through the outside casing) and glued Carole back into place. I had to hold her for several minutes, though, and just manipulating her into place required a large amount of handling. The last time we had any of our pupae fall, the butterfly emerged only partly formed.

It's been a rough season for Pillar Place. Because of the incessant rain, the butterflies haven't been able to eat or breed efficiently. Last year, we raised nearly 30 swallowtails and we left several butterbabies outside (on DD's carrots) to raise themselves. This year, we've been unable to find ANY pillars except the nine we found originally, and this includes looking on my SILs dill plants (where we hit the motherload last year). So, I'm worried, and I deeply value each of our butterflies. They may be nine of only a few hundred that survive this season.

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You Are a Monroe Piercing

You are glamourous, sophisticated, and very classy. You're the type to think carefully before getting any sort piercing or tattoo. You are naturally charming. People find you to be very alluring. Your manners are impeccable, and you always have something witty to say. While you look like you're high maintenance, you have simple tastes. You're a homebody who often rather curl up with a book than go out.

What Piercing Are You?

Yep, that's me: glamorous, sophisticaed and very classy! LOL... seriously though, they have most of it pretty close. And since my only piercings are in my ears and I have NO tats I'd say I'm pretty careful about them.

You?

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And... Miracle Number Two!

This is Able (formerly Abigail -- whose spots indicate that he, too, is a male). We weren't expecting him to hatch since he made his pupa a day after Daniel, but the best laid plans and all that...

He would NOT sit still however, so we couldn't get a perfect picture. He's awfully pretty despite his fidgety behavior. A banner day for butterflies!

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Our First Miracle

Meet Daniel (formerly Diana... his significant yellow spots indicate he is a male). He hatched this morning while DD, Dd and I were out walking. Isn't he gorgeous? Truly a miracle...

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A Little This, a Dash of That...

Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen. ~Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer. ~Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

No, that quote has nothing to do with today's post... I just found it amusing! *G*

So, I tried to find the results of that sensory writing lesson I spoke about yesterday. I no longer have the original version, but I do have what I pared down to 100 words, submitted and had published in FlashShot a few years ago.

For fun, I give you "The Hot Dog":

I was starving and her hot dog smelled incredible. Saliva pooled in my mouth. I smiled, trying to charm her out of a morsel.

“This isn’t on your diet. That is.” She indicated the slop beside me, and then took a nibble. Chewed.

I hadn’t eaten in days. Who could face that swill? Despairing, I silently pleaded again for a taste. Only one bite left.

She lifted it to her mouth, but at the last moment tossed it in the air. I caught it handily between my teeth, gulping it down without chewing. My tail thumped the floor in thanks.

Makes me remember how much fun it is to write flash fiction. Flash Me Magazine has lots of short stuff, too, if you're interested in some REALLY quick reads.

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In Pillar Place: Swallowtail our last 'pillar has readied himself to become a pupa. He's hanging out on the roof in a little sideways "J" and should shed his skin for the last time at some point today.

Also in PP:S, today our first pupa may hatch. It's been ten days since Diana became a pupa, and so I must keep a close eye on the box to see if she bursts forth in all her butterfly glory.

On my list of things to do today: stake up my milkweed. Between all the rain, and the incredibly high winds we've had, about half my milkweed is flopped over and lying on the ground. Thankfully, the stalks aren't broken, but my DH already mowed over one so I need to get them standing up again before that happens to the rest of them. I can't WAIT for the monarchs to arrive...

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You Belong in the Upper West Side

You have what it takes to be successful, but not snooty. That's why you belong in the New York of Sex and the City and Seinfeld!

Where Should Your Inner New Yorker Live?

Since I know next to nothing about New York, I'll just say... Okay. And successful but not snooty (that word always reminds me of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" -- you know, in the restaurant?) sounds good to me.

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