Monday Meandering

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. ~Rabindranath Tagore

It's Monday, yay! It wasn't a bad weekend, not at all, but busy. I'm still behind, still scrambling to catch up. I really do think it's possible to do that, once I have a few days with no interruptions. My Saturday was mostly like that (after I got home from the dog park and helping my mom move some furniture) and it helped. DH and DD were boating so I had no drama, no interruptions. I was so relaxed and settled by the end of the day. I felt very zen.

It helped that I did some weeding. Really. I love to weed. It's one of those quiet, introspective times for me but still productive (I really like to be productive) and a time where, when I'm done, I can step back and see results. It's satisfying for me on so many levels.

Of course, nothing is ever perfect. I was chopping down some of my mini-iris greens that I have ringing my veggie garden, because they're blocking the sprinklers and nearly chopped off my thumb with the snippers. Oops. Oddly, it didn't really hurt (though it's tender now), so I finished the job with blood running down my hand, lol.

Still no monarch pillars or swallowtails (though I'm grateful about the swallowtails now as any caterpillars would be the kind to overwinter as pupae and I really don't feel like keeping them in my basement again). We DO have a ton of tussock moth pillars. They're so cute and fuzzy and I want to hug them (I don't ... really... I'm a little odd, but not totally crazy). Aren't they adorable?


They usually come in big batches until they get MUCH bigger and it's easy to find them because they totally decimate the leaves they're on.



Brandy asked why I thought we were not getting any pillars this year, and I'll be honest and say that I have no idea. Our winter wasn't the harshest we've had, the spring wasn't the hottest or wettest. Best guess? Butterfly numbers are down. I'm not a crazy uber-environmentalist, but even I can see that when we overuse pesticides, destroy habitat, etc., there will be negative results. The swallowtail typically eats people food plants (carrots, fennel, parsley, etc) so we kill them. The monarch eats a plant considered to be a "noxious weed". In Mexico, where they overwinter, their habitat is being destroyed, hundreds of acres at a time.

In truth, there may come a time we don't see the monarch or black swallowtail anymore. And that makes me sad. But the fact is: I've seen dozens and dozens of tiger swallowtails -- they're everywhere -- and the only difference between those and the black swallowtail is food. The tiger swallowtail eats tree leaves. So, I can't blame the dearth of the black swallowtail on the weather. They overwinter the same.

**sigh**

Tirade ended.

Today, my mom is taking my DD for most of the day. And I'm going to spend a least a little of that getting the new ending to my "Kitchen Matches" sequel written. I have the entire scene in my head, playing out like a movie, and I desperately need to get it down.

I also am planning on trying to visit you. At least as many of you as I can.

I miss you.

In any case, I hope you had a good weekend!

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You Read to Escape

You appreciate creativity and imagination in all aspects of life. You love a good fantasy. You can be passionate to the point of being possessive. It's hard to quell your flames. You see beauty everywhere, and you like to share your inner world with others. You love to get lost in someone else's head. You are truly curious about other people's dreams.

The Bookmark Test

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes and 3 Stupid Ones

All that from a bookmark ... and pretty close to correct.

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Sleep, Ah Sleep ...

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm tired.

Here's the thing: I'm not a good sleeper. I don't know if I was as a kid (well... except when my brother would threaten to wait until I was sleeping and then push in the "drawer" of the trundle bed I was sleeping in), Mom would have to answer that -- but the last 15 years or so, I don't sleep well. If I get more than a couple hours solid sleep in a row, I call it victory. OH, I stay in bed a good solid eight hours (mostly), but I spend much of that staring at the walls.

Part of that is because I'm a light sleeper and I acknowledge that, but the other part ... ? I have no idea. Last night was no exception. Bed at nine-thirty, read until ten, lights off. DH comes home from work around eleven and I wake up when he comes to bed. I did get a solid hour of unconsciousness, which was good. Then, because I'm awake, he gets gabby and we talk for awhile until he nods off (DH could sleep through a nuclear war -- comes from being stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Navy). I lay there, wide awake. Finally, after listening to him snore ("I don't snore") I get up. The dog gets up with me. I wander around the house, have a drink, stuff a rag in DD's door because it's thumping just a bit from the wind, check the emails on my new phone (*G*), curl up on the couch with the dog. By now it's well after midnight. I stare at the ceiling a bit, brain is going a hundred MPH and won't slow down...

Eventually I nodded off, but this morning five a.m. came WAY too early.

In other news, the friend from yesterday with the swallowtail butterbabies on her fennel reported MORE swallowtails on her parsley! AND, she said her kidlets found two monarch pillars on her milkweed (yes, I've indoctrinated her and her boys to the dark side ... of pillar ranching). She's not THAT far from me (a couple hours), so I guess it's about time to start looking for monarch eggs. YAY!

Brandy had asked about the field Cigna owns with all the milkweed. I haven't seen the woman who was going to work with them on NOT mowing until the first frost for several weeks, but I'm hoping to see her this weekend at the dog park (she's owned by a goofy Golden Retriever). Hopefully, that's all settled and there won't be a mass pillar-cide this year.

DD found the coolest spider in her schoolroom the other day. He was fairly small with a bright yellow butt.



I've never seen one like it before. We scooped and released. Anyone know what he is?

And now I need more coffee.

Have a great day!

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You Have Depth

You are the ultimate escapist. If you can't escape physically, you escape with your thoughts. You love the idea of travel and faraway lands. If you could, you would travel constantly and see the world. While you are a bit on the quiet side, you're a great partner. You are supportive, devoted, and loyal. More than any other type, you honestly still believe in true love. You hold on to your ideals.

The Cookie Test

Mostly right.

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New and Notes

Lots of people talk to animals.... Not very many listen, though.... That's the problem. ~Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

Woke up with an amazingly bad headache, so any brilliant ideas I might have had for a blog post escape me (and it seems like I *did* have something to say).

We still haven't found any swallowtail caterpillars. The day before our insanely bad storm last week, we thought we had a black swallowtail laying eggs on the rue -- but have to assume that the wind and deluge of rain must have killed the eggs. DD is very sad at the thought of having NO swallowtail pillars. With the exception of the one black swallowtail butterfly we saw, we've seen no others. Very sad.

I pulled up all the lettuce in my garden -- it had bolted and was bitter. Everything else appears to be VERY happy, though. And several plants I thought were dead (leaves shriveled to the ground) apparently decided they were only taking naps. I have three cucumbers and an eggplant coming back from the ashes, so to speak.

My mom is moving back here after leaving us almost four years ago to live in California. She's slowly driving cross country, visiting family. Her last solo stop is Kansas City, where my DH will go pick her up and drive her back. We're very excited to see her again! Only ten more days...

Father's Day is Sunday and we haven't gotten so much as a card for DH. I should probably remedy that today.

DD has two more days of school... she's VERY excited to be done. And her new school starts off with a barbecue / orientation for their first day, so that should be fun. She's thinking about playing soccer... something she's never done. So, I'll probably invest in a soccer ball and she and I will practice over the summer.

Maria Zannini has a new book out. She sneaked that sucker through without even letting us know she was WORKING on it. Just BOOM! Oh, by the way, I have a book out... sneaky, sneaky.

I bought $66 worth of stuff at CVS yesterday for $14 (including toothpaste, deodorant, fish oil, gum and a razor and refill blades. My best scoop yet.

And that's about all my brain can say today. Sorry... hopefully my meds kick in soon and I can function normally.

Hope you all have a great day!

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You Would Be a Logical Doctor

You are a very rational person, and it's nearly impossible for you to be swayed by emotions. As a doctor, you would let logic be your guide. And with it, you'd find some ingenious remedies and cures. You are a natural problem solver. And you never give up until the problem is solved. You would be well suited to being a neurologist, pathologist, or oncologist.

What Kind of Doctor Should You Be?

That's mostly right.

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The End of Pillar Place 2010

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

Yesterday marked the end of Pillar Place 2010. Both of our last monarch pupae hatched successfully. Here is our final butterbaby of the year, Xandy:



DD documented our year of monarchs on my white board:



She added tidbits, and made sure all the name tags were included:




I guess it rather ended up like a science project. :-)

We had a very successful year -- between Black Swallowtails and Monarchs, we released more than 60 butterflies, with only one loss -- a newly hatched monarch pillar. That is absolutely incredible. We've never had such a productive year with so few losses.

All the boxes are washed and stored for next year, except the cardboard "hatching" box which is in the garbage. It's seen us through many, many years, but was on its last legs. Next year we'll start fresh with a new box and hopefully as many or more pillars.

Good luck butterbabies!!

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You Are Even

You are an easy going person who is both even-tempered and even-keeled. You value stability above all else, and change can be a bit hard for you. You are compassionate and understanding. You want everyone to feel included. You tend to shy away from anything you don't understand and know. Embrace your odd side every once and a while!

Are You Even or Odd?

About 75% right.

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Watching a Miracle

I can enjoy society in a room; but out of doors, nature is company enough for me. ~William Hazlitt

Yesterday, when I went out to bring in my clothes from the line I saw my first live monarch butterfly. I hollered for DD and she came tearing out. I said, "I think it's a female... look how dark her lines are."

And then came the most amazing thing: she started laying eggs. I swear, seeing nature up close and personal feels like witnessing a miracle. We held very still and watched as she fluttered around, selecting just the right leaf (she only chose the healthiest milkweed -- one side of mine is in the direct sun and isn't doing as well, but one side is in almost complete shade and is near the faucet so stays pretty damp and cool and is thriving. She fluttered around the unhealthy milkweed, but always came back to the good plants) and then she'd land, curl her little butt around and ... POP... out came a tiny egg.

Here's a YouTube video I found showing a backyard butterfly doing just that:



In any case, we gathered most of her eggs after she was done (she got chased off by a Fritillary -- who knew they were territorial? I hope she'll be back). It was a little dicey collecting the eggs because our milkweed blooms are absolutely covered with bumblebees (it sounds like a distant motor outside with all the buzzing), but we pulled in nine. I'll check again today.

So, along with Xi, Pi, Omicron and Rho (all of whom are growing like weeds) we now have: Sigma, Tao, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, Omega, Alex and Bonnie (who share a leaf). We ran out of Greek Alphabet letters and have moved on to the 2010 Hurricane names *G*.

Another swallowtail has hatched this morning -- we've lost track of who is who, so ... we'll let her remain nameless. Only two left, but I'm all but positive one is going to overwinter. Her pupa is a completely different size and color than the others. We'll see (I really hope not).

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

No rain yesterday. There's a 15% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon, so we'll see... really, our best chance comes on Saturday with a 50% of rain off and on all day. Then it clears up again, so I really, really hope it pours on Saturday.

So far, my garden isn't dying (I do admit to cheating and watering my spinach and swiss chard that's in pots). :::fingers crossed:::

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You Are Cheerful

You are a friendly and welcoming person. You know how to make the best of a bad situation. You tend to think most about yourself. You can't help but look inward and introspect. You are open minded and tolerant. You believe strongly that people should be allowed to do their thing. You have the most fun when things are simple. You don't like making a big fuss out of anything.

The Surreal Test

About half and half, I guess...

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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.

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

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.

The Rainy Day Test

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

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Growing a Salad Bar

Despite the gardener's best intentions, Nature will improvise. ~Michael P. Garafalo, gardendigest.com

So, yesterday I went out to check my garden, excited that we've had this rainy / steamy weather that plants seem to love. I had visions of ten foot tomato plants covered in blossoms, cucumbers for days, squash plants taking over the garden...

... what I found instead were deer prints and 6" high nubbins.

Yep, it's true. The deer came and pretended my garden was a salad bar. All but three of my tomatoes were eaten down nearly to the ground, the cucumbers are half the size they were, and even the squash had a a few bites taken out of it. The also trampled my baby lettuce, and I lost about half of what was planted.

So, I guess my grand harvest will have to wait a while.

I swear, I'm going to move into the middle of the city.

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

In Pillar Place, we have one more pillar on walkabout: Beta hit the trail last night. There are two more in The Box: Theta and Eta, but I don't think they'll be quite ready to start baking for another day or two.

Alpha should be bursting free of his chrysalis early next week, and I'm excited to see our first butterfly of the season.

Speaking of butterflies, Maria Zannini emailed me about a great Monarch site I hadn't visited before. It's www.livemonarch.com and they have all KINDS of cool information about monarchs. I know Groovy is planning to host monarchs up in her neck of the woods, and there might be others of you. You should check it out.

Even cooler, they offer monarch eggs for sale. I'm seriously considering buying some... but they aren't cheap. We had such a shortage of them last year, though, I think it might be a great idea.

Again, I say to anyone who has some space: GROW MILKWEED. The loss of habitat is one thing that has affected the monarch population more than nearly anything. I have some milkweed seeds now and will have more in the late summer. It's common milkweed, indigenous to pretty much the entire USA, so you wouldn't be introducing a non-native species to your part of the country.

I will send it to you at no cost... just plant it if you can.

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

You Are a Delight

You are easy to get along with and easy to be with, but you're definitely not a doormat. You'll cheerfully ask for what you want, and you're almost always ready to compromise. You are comfortable speaking your mind, and you're also willing to admit you may not be right. You know how to work well with others. You can bend in the wind, but you don't break.

Are You Dominant or a Doormat?

Actually... I think I'm a little pushier than that, lol.

Thursday Thirteen

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here

Thirteen First Lines To Stories I've Written (published and WIPs):

1. Corinne Weathers, Cori to her friends and family—but not to her very proper cooking class teacher, Micah DePalma—gave a squeak of fear at the flames creeping up her apron. ("Kitchen Matches")

2. It wasn’t going to happen, not by tomorrow morning anyway. ("A Change of Heart")

3. A line on the switchboard buzzed at the same moment Lizzie Scott glanced at the clock. ("Don't Fence Me In")

4. “Disgusting.” Cass Edwards wrinkled her nose against the stink. ("Magic")

5. Millie wiped down the counter and tried to keep from looking at the clock for the hundredth time that night. ("Miles From You")

6. “Come on, Mommy. Let's go!” Melinda's feet shuffled in place while she tried to drag Sarah off the motel room bed. ("Now That We've Found You")

7. Her obsession started innocently enough. ("Pregnancy Cravings")

8. Nothing good ever happened at Christmas. ("The Christmas Curse")

9. Tina Springfield knelt in the dark loam and nipped a dead blossom off her Veteran’s Honor rose bush, pleased with the remaining buds’ classic shape and deep red color. ("Tickle Fights and Barbecues")

10. Liv Leigh tugged a faded Boston College sweatshirt over her head, careful not to dislodge the wig covering her platinum blond hair. ("One Love for Liv")

11. Geoff Quigley stood on the sidewalk on a gorgeous, fairly warm May day and stared at his dream house. ("A Jewel for Geoff" - sequel to "One Love for Liv" and a WIP)

12. “Why can’t Micah do this with you?” Zach Weathers grumbled at his sister, Cori as she dragged him through a door with fluffy white curtains and into hell--otherwise known as Now and Forever Wedding Planning. ("Now and Forever" sequel to "Kitchen Matches" and a WIP)

13. No one deserved to be beaten to death. ("Return to Stiller Creek" - a complete novel in edits)

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In other news, we saw what was either a female tiger swallowtail or a black swallowtail yesterday. Usually tiger swallowtails are yellow with black markings, but the females occasionally color themselves in what looks remarkably like a black swallowtail. If the critter had let me hold it, I could have told the difference, but they're funny about that, lol.

It's supposed to rain pretty hard here today, but we'll start looking for butterbabies anyway. and, I need to buy parsley to give them a second choice of food.

I love Pillars.

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You Are Kind

You have a broad perspective on life. You are very understanding and forgiving. You prefer a quiet, peaceful existence. You don't like noise in your head - or in the world around you. For you, there's no such thing as too much calm. Having time to think is a gift that you treasure.

The Happy Smiley Test

That's pretty close to correct, except the forgiving part. I have a tough time with grudges, lol...

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Summer Is A-Coming....

Plants give us oxygen for the lungs and for the soul. ~Linda Solegato

Yesterday was hot and sticky again -- I swear, I feel like I went to sleep and woke up in July. But, by late afternoon, the wind kicked up and blew all that funky weather outta here!

Today, it's more like normal, cool this morning and none of that nasty humidity.

I love summer except it tempts me to be out in it and makes it VERY very difficult to concentrate on those things indoors that need to be done. We planted peas this weekend, and I sprinkled some thyme seeds in my herb garden. My rosemary doesn't appear to be coming back, and it's supposed to, so I'm not happy.

I think I'm going to buy my "soft" plants this week: tomatoes, squash (only two of my summer squash seed came up and I want one butternut for Dakota's dog food), cucumbers (only four of my cuc seeds came up) and I'm thinking about peppers, though they never do well for me.

We saw a tiger swallowtail yesterday, so you know what that means... okay, for those of you new to the blog, it means that the overwintering butterfly pupae are hatching, including the black swallowtail. And here at his house, we host a butterfly ranch every year for black swallowtail babies and monarch babies. So, it's time to start checking out my rue for pillars!

Pillar Place 2010 will be open for business shortly.

DD is distraught because we've counted how many days she has left of school, and she's going to go into June a little. She really wanted to be done by May, but we just aren't able to do school efficiently when DH is home, and since he took of most of November, we got a little behind. Worse, he's planning on taking off next week. The problem is, when he's on vacation, he schedules tasks that I have to help him with (like laying hardwood, etc) because he doesn't realize that just because HE is on vacation doesn't mean DD and I are on vacation (being home every day does not equal vacation).

Should be interesting...

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Your Height Says You're Daring

You are a true adventurer, and you live for the thrill. You have a lot of charisma, and you're good at convincing people to join you in your schemes. You are open to the world, and you make connections easily. You have lots of friends. You are likely to have many life paths to choose from. There are many possibilities open to you. You are about as tall as the average British man.

What Does Your Height Say About You?

I'm about as tall as a lot of men... which made dating a real pain.

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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.

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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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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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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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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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The Fat Lady is Oddly Quiet...

... in this war on voles.

War is the only game in which it doesn't pay to have the home-court advantage. ~Dick Motta

So... yesterday it actually cleared up. I went outside and worked in the yard a little (only a little, because in the way of the world it was miserably hot and humid). Obviously the endless rain had awakened all the toads and frogs and every time I moved, I'd scare one up.

I had a few plants to put in the ground (some lamb's ear and a bit of portulaca), and at one point I had to move a small batch of grape hyacinth bulbs. Later, as I was tossing some weeds into the woods, something moved at my feet again. I thought it was a toad and looked closer (DD likes to grab all the toads and pat them, lol). It wasn't a toad... it was a VOLE.

Now, as I'd been puttering, I noticed little "dig holes" all over the place -- in DD's garden in the lawn, in my front garden -- but they didn't go anywhere. Just little shallow bowls in the ground. Dakota has also been staring out the windows and growling and barking again -- she did this before when we had voles "mulch surfing" out front. But the clincher on whether we had voles came only an hour or two later, when I glanced out at my front garden where I'd planted lambs ear and moved the bulbs.

The place where I'd put the bulbs? Empty but for a big hole. They'd come and swiped them already!! I could NOT believe it. I stood and stared for the longest time, half-thinking I was seeing things.

*sigh*

So today? The poison goes out again. I HATE it, but these little devils will decimate a garden. They leave NOTHING behind when they get going and I'm not prepared to have a pile of earth left. I'll deal with the chipmunks and the squirrels and the deer and the moles. They don't lay waste to everything they touch. Voles are absolutely, and without a doubt the most destructive thing I have EVER come across.

I don't know if I can ever win this war, but I'm going to go down swinging.

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In Pillar Place:

We moved four pillars into a new box full of sticks. They are the big bubbas... the ones large enough to start on walkabout, and for the first 24 hours their little dangly bodies (pre-pupa) shouldn't be moved -- so if they'd been in the little box with the littler butterbabies, I wouldn't be able to lift the lid to feed the ones who weren't on walkabout.

I know I promised pictures, but forgot to take them yesterday and DH is sleeping so I can't get to the pillars. Tomorrow (and tomorrow, and tomorrow) I will get some. Swear.

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Your Hands Say That You Are Logical

You are logical, analytical, and rational. You have good verbal skills. Idealistic and dreamy, you tend toward the impractical. You have a knack for getting yourself in sticky situations. Consistent and reliable, you like to count on structure and routine in your life. Your emotions tend to be nervous and potent. Your energy - both positive and negative - deeply impacts your life.

What Do Your Hands Say About You?

That's about 80% right, lol...

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I Fought the Woods...

Despite the gardener's best intentions, Nature will improvise. ~Michael P. Garafalo, gardendigest.com

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there. ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

Yesterday was our first and last nice day for a while -- they're predicting overcast and rain for the next week (Um... hello...isn't it summer?), so I decided to get out and WORK. I played hookey from the computer for most of the day and DD and I tackled some of the big tasks.

The hardest, by far, was cutting back the woods where it is infringing on our cultivated spaces. The way things grow here should be legend. Truthfully, if we abandoned our house today and no one did anything, we could come back two years later and it would look as though no one had every laid a blade to the earth (this actually happened to a house down the road -- the people left it and in a little over a year, you almost couldn't SEE the house for all the vegetation).

So, I went to my back woods garden with shovel, clippers and strong resolve.


The poor garden is so overgrown and full of weeds that my plants are barely surviving. They are full of weeds (especially blueberry and raspberry bushes, not to mention TONS of grass) and I felt like a bad mother. I decided to clear cut everything for about two feet back from the garden. This is not as easy as it may sound.



DD's job was to snip down the trees that had grown too close, mine was to dig up the earth and get the stumps out. Then we would line the back of the garden with rocks (which, we discovered, I had done once before -- but you couldn't see them because they were covered with rotting leaves and growth).

We worked and worked and WORKED. We were eaten by bugs (despite a nice coating of bug spray), we were filthy and tired and sore. But WE DID IT.







Now you can SEE the plants (though we didn't accomplish much actual weeding of the gardens -- we pulled the worst, but there is still MUCH work to be done). Still, I discovered my columbine:



And dianthus:



And foxglove:



And many other perennials that aren't blooming yet.

Speaking of blooming -- my milkweed is about ready to burst! I can't wait -- it smells SO amazing I wish I could bottle it up and wear it.



And, as promised, a picture of the growing pillars -- almost HALF are green now (instead of "bird poop" black and white):



We still have two that are so tiny you can barely see them -- they are the ones that were actually brownish when we found them. We must have found them the moment they hatched.

No more butterbabies on the rue yet -- but we look when we can. I'm waiting for DD to remember that my SIL has TONS of dill and that is where we found the bulk of our pillars from last year. And, no, I'm not reminding her, lol, but we're going over there for a Father's Day bash on Sunday, so I bet she realizes it then!

Have a great day.

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You Are Chips and Salsa

You are energetic and a real go getter. You can even be aggressive at times. You love taking risks and taking the rewards. You are a true daredevil. You can be a bit greedy in life, and you go after what you want. You are courageous and edgy. You will do what others are afraid of.

What Mexican Food Are You?

Huh... okay.

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Problems, Pillars and Puttering

I plan on living forever. So far, so good. ~Author Unknown

Am all but having a nervous breakdown because I can't load up today's new pages at The Long and the Short of It today. Seems our webhost is having issues. GAH. Gives me the shakes, because I don't even have a way to tell people that I'M TRYING. No ETA on when their issue will be fixed either. :::grumble, grumble:::

The butterbabies (aka Pillars) have more than doubled in size. Seems the one I found had JUST hatched! Yesterday, as I was watering the floral foam, I looked at the tip of the leaf he'd been on and there was an itty bitty "bubble" -- his eggshell.

I find the differences between the two species of butterflies we raise very interesting. For instance, the first thing a monarch does upon hatching is to turn around an EAT it's egg. Makes me wonder if it's kind of like colostrum? And... monarchs go on "walkabout" to shed their skins (which is why they get kept one each in small, COVERED containers. The Black Swallowtail just sits on its food and sheds its skin and only goes "walkabout" when it's ready to become a pupa. They both eat their shed skin, however.

Is talking about eating skins appropriate this early in the morning?

Will try to get some comparison pictures today so you can see how big the babies are getting to be. AND... it's finally supposed to be at least a little sunny today, so we may go on a pillar search later to see if we can find more.

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Did more edits on Stiller Creek. I like my new character (which I shouldn't because this character is the bad guy) and I feel sorry for him. Should the bad guy invoke pity? Hope so, since mine does -- at least to me!

Also found some anthology call-outs that I may consider. 15 - 20 thousand words and it'll go to print. That would be cool. There are bunches of subjects they want, so finding something to write about (even something I'm currently working on) should be simple enough.

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Okay... gotta go check my hosting site and see if I can get the LASR/WC pages up yet. I'm getting the shakes...

How is YOUR day going?

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Pantser ISO Plotter for Writing Help

"The first thing you have to consider when writing a novel is your story, and then your story—and then your story!" - Ford Madox Ford

So... I had challenged my fellow JaNo-ers to write a scene about chicken and/or chickens last week. I posted my scene (I think I'm the only one who did the Spontaneous Chicken Incident, lol) at the JaNoWriMo blog and then remembered how much I loved those characters...

I've decided I'm an ADD writer. Seriously. I can't seem to stay focused on just one story and keep spreading the love around. At this rate, I won't have anything finished for another year... but then I'll have twelve complete novels! LOL...

Currently in progress: Camilla, Playing House, The Cartoonist and the Cat Lady, Drive Me Crazy, A Jewel for Geoff, Perilous Love, Queen and Assassin, an unnamed story geared for HQ American, and about fifteen short stories.

I clearly need focus. I think I need to sit down and work through rough outlines of all of them... some are nearly finished (Playing House IS finished, but then I made a plot change and it needs so many edits, it's essentially being rewritten, and Camilla is at 44,000 words) and some are just in their infancy, but I love all the story ideas and truly wish to get them all done.

So...

Instead of actually writing for the next week or two I'm going to try something I've never done (except once in F102 on Playing House): writing outlines. Anyone have any tips or ideas on how to write a good outline? All you plotters out there... this pantser is crying for help.

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I checked back to last year's Pillar Place to see when we found our first butterbabies and it was on June 15th. The eggs I saw laid a couple weeks back must not have hatched, because we never found any pillars, darn it.

None of my parsley came back this year, which concerns me greatly as that is what they laid most of their eggs on (and the dill, which is also not growing yet).

What to do? should I got buy more parsley plants? I don't WANT them to lay eggs on the dill, so that doesn't bother me, but the only thing we have for them currently is rue (and carrots... which, if they lay eggs on those we CAN'T bring them in and this distressed DD to no end).

Being a butterbaby parent is a lot of responsibility.

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