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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Pillars Move South

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

I was greatly heartened yesterday when a friend who lives in Massachusetts told me that she had black swallowtail caterpillars all over her fennel. She's a good doobie, and is letting them consume it (and I might have to plant some next year, along with lots of dill). They eat: parsley, fennel, dill, carrot greens, rue and queen anne's lace. Interestingly enough, they will ONLY eat what their eggs are laid on -- i.e., if they hatch on rue, they won't eat dill. This even goes as far as if they are hatched on curly leaf parsley, they won't eat flat leaf parsley!

I can NOT believe we haven't had even ONE pillar this year. Neither can DD, who is incredibly sad and disappointed. Monarch season should start in the next week or two. I hope the trend doesn't continue.

In other news, after spending three long hours at the phone store yesterday (with DD and the dog -- who got pats and dog cookies from the FedEx lady and the mail lady, but interestingly enough NOT from the man who was the representative from a popular dog food company... he barely even glanced at her) I am now the proud but confused owner of a Droid "The Charge" phone.

It's slow learning, though now that I've found the users manual on the phone (silly me... I was trying to use the little print one they provided which has almost NO information) and also found a tutorial on the phone, things should go a little faster. I did manage to get most of my email accounts added (yeah, I have a lot of those) and got onto one of my Facebook accounts (it won't let me add more than once, which makes me sad). I got my weather and local news and did all my contacts... I haven't set up my voice mail yet, or even really played with the fun stuff.

Seriously, though... I'm pretty sure my phone is smarter than I am.

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

You Should Take Up Knitting

You are patient and focused. You are good at sticking with projects and following instructions. You follow and play by the rules. It's important to you to do things by the book. You are highly observant. No detail slips past you. You are generous with your time. You believe that the best things in life don't come quickly.

What Crafty Hobby Should You Take Up?

Mostly right, but knitting drives me crazy ...

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Father's Day Weekend

Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes. ~Gloria Naylor

Just to make me a liar, yesterday we saw several black swallowtail butterflies (Dakota almost ate one). Hopefully this means we'll be seeing some butterbabies soon.

The weather here went from cold to cooking overnight. The plants (mostly) like it, but I have to get out and water every day again. Stuff is growing, but SO slowly -- everything is only a few inches tall ... I'm ready to start harvesting squash and it's barely got three leaves! LOL...

Don't know what this weekend will hold, other than a family gathering on Father's Day... I really miss my dad every year at this time. It's been twenty years since he's been gone, and there are times I feel like I should be able to call him up, or visit. I didn't appreciate him nearly enough when I had him.

And now my brain is empty. I feel like I should have more to say, but ... :::looks through the files in brain::: ... nope. Empty.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and Happy Father's Day!

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Your Friends See You As Confident

You automatically take charge when chaos or confusion arise. You know you make a good leader. You are strong and determined. You are ambitious and even stubborn at times. You are dominant, and you enjoy being in charge. You have vision and ambition. You have a vision of how your life should be. And you plan on getting there one day.

How Do Your Friends See You?

That's pretty much right, though it makes me look a bit like Napolean...

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

Busy Day At Pillar Place

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

First off, I have to say our "rain storm" was a bit of a bust. It poured all around us, especially south (lucky Boston), but we got little more than a dribble. There's a slight chance of some thunderstorms today, but for the most part there's not more rain in the forecast for nearly two weeks.

We're dying here. Literally.

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

Pillar Place was pretty crazy yesterday.

In Pillar Place: Monarch -- we had THIRTEEN eggs hatch. Yes, you saw right: THIRTEEN. Things are going to be REALLY busy in a week or so, keeping up with the hungry pillars. We watched three of them actually hatch (all the while wishing for a magnifying glass). It's pretty amazing. Check out this video:



This photo (borrowed from this blog post on raising monarchs -- which has some incredible pictures, if you're interested) shows just how tiny the eggs are:




In other Monarch news, Xi is hanging from his roof in a "J" and should be making his chrysalis very soon. Our first baby is growing up! It was so fast. We found him as a little bitty pillar only ten days ago, and he's already becoming a butterfly. It's amazing how quickly they grow.

In Pillar Place: Swallowtail, we got a bit of a surprise last night! I went to check on Xi because he'd been on his roof, and I glanced at the swallowtail box and -- there were two butterflies inside! The pupae had never turned black, so it was completely unexpected, and they'd probably been there all day. It wasn't as though we could release them anyway, due to the general cool, overcast and damp day, but I felt a little bad about them being cooped up all day anyway.

So, that's the last of our swallowtails. And, incredibly, it's the first season we've EVER had without any casualties. No pillars dying, no butterflies hatching with disabilities. How wonderful!

So, hopefully it'll clear up and be sunny in a few hours so we can release these two. Do you suppose they'll send a postcard?

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

One more day of DH's vacation and then we're back to normal here at the homestead. Actually, it's been remarkably calm and relatively stress-free for a change, so I haven't minded the disruption in routine.

We've gotten all of DD's curriculum in the mail, and are awaiting the delivery of the DVDs. She's agreed that we should start early, doing only a day or two a week in August, just to get back into the swing of things slowly.

She's taking a typing course this year, so that's exciting for her. She's always amazed at the fact I can type without looking at the keyboard, lol. I told her that I learned to type on a circa-1900s manual typewriter (remember that typewriter, Mom?) and in high school "upgraded" to an IBM Selectric. I remember days and days of learning how to type on carbon paper, and ... remember White Out? Ah.... the days of no computers. PCs weren't commonly available until I was a junior in high school, and even then it was ones like the Commodore 64 (with 64 megabytes of memory -- which was HUGE then). Ahhh... the memories.

So, my DD is in junior high this coming school year. Seventh grade. How did that happen??

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I've recently discovered that there are blog posts not showing up in my Google Reader. If I haven't visited you recently, that's probably what happened. I'm trying to go through my list on reader one-by-one to get to folks who've posted and I've missed, but it's remarkably time consuming. I haven't forgotten or ignored you. It's just a technology fail. Sorry!!

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You Should Move To a Better Neighborhood

You really don't have the personality for moving. You only move if you should. You tend to worry about what might go wrong, so moving should be a clear upgrade for you. You would might rest easier if you were in a safer part of town closer to more services. Consider upgrading neighborhoods or home if you can. A homebody like you should have nice home to live in.

Where Should You Move To?

HAHAHAHAHAHA.... neighborhoods don't get much safer than mine. This cracks me up. And I *love* moving. Love it. I get itchy if I don't move every few years (so, yeah, I'm REALLY itchy now).

It needs to say, "You should move out west so you can be closer to family and friends who matter, and so you wouldn't have to deal with Japanese beetles and deer flies any longer."

Why doesn't it say that?

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Nature and More Pillar Place

Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are. ~Osho

I was a bit behind in my blog-hopping, so have been spending this morning trying to visit (haven't been to many blogs, but am doing my best to catch up), and I discovered something... I'm oddly intimidated by blogs that have LOTS of comments. If I get there and there are already 20+ comments, I don't want to leave one. I don't know if I feel like I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said, or if I feel invisible, or what, exactly.

:::scratches head:::

Maybe I need to see a shrink.

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

It was an icky day yesterday. Kept *threatening* rain but did nothing until well after dinnertime. I planted some green bean seeds (finally) and DD planted her carrots, in the anticipation of nature giving them a thorough watering. By afternoon, we gave up and watered them ourselves...

I was chatting with Alpha (our black swallowtail caterpillar) about the fact he was all alone. Told him we were trying to find him some buddies, but hadn't yet. He's getting quite large, actually -- probably about an inch long now. I should take some pictures.

In any case, right before dinner, it was all black and icky again, so DD went out to take the cover off our composter so it could get watered, too. And on the way in, she checked the rue plants.

She made a haul of pillars. She must have eagle eyes to have found the ones she did, because I'm pretty certain that they had JUST hatched. I mean, literally were coming out of their egg as she found them. They were as small as I've ever seen and some were looking a little damp.

I'll admit, one she found on a different bunch of plants, and s/he was probably a couple days old -- still black, but fairly big (yanno, like 1/4" long).

But the others? They're *maybe* 1/8" long and the width of a straight pin.

We've opted to stick with the Greek alphabet in naming them, so we now have:

Alpha (Whom you've already "met")
Beta
Gamma
Delta
Epsilon
Zeta
Eta
Theta
Iota (this is the somewhat larger one)

I'm concerned that all the newbies may not make it. They were still alive and kicking last night, so here's hoping.

In monarch news ... I was watching "Life" yesterday -- one I'd TiVo'd on Insects and I saw the saddest thing: the monarch pillars will frequently drown in the milkweed sap. Apparently, if they bite the vein when they are first born, the amount of sticky, milky sap that comes out can overwhelm them, trap them and kill them. It's the plant's defense. They stated that only 1/3 of monarch babies survive this. Considering that monarchs are already endangered, it broke my heart.

The good news is that when we break off the leaf and bring in the egg, it stops sap production, so this will never happen to those pillars who are hand-raised.

Still, the problem we are having is that fewer butterflies are getting up here to lay eggs. Last year, we only successfully raised ONE monarch. How sad is that?

Nature can be very cruel.

It can also be very beautiful. Look what we saw over the top of our trees last night:




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

Yesterday, more than one of you asked what DD thought of the picture. Ever since she looked at my wedding photos and said, "Mommy, you used to be beautiful!" I haven't asked her opinion...

Just saying.

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You Are What

You are a very smart person, and you are happiest when you're learning something new. You're interested in so many things, and you feel like there's always more to discover. You're very curious. You believe that knowledge is empowerment. You do your best not to be ignorant about anything. You are well read and continually adding to your database of information. You never stop learning.

Are You Who, What, Where, or Why?

Mostly right.

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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?

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

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.

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

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.

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

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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A Good Day

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone. ~Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now

We had a pretty decent day, weather-wise, yesterday. Partly cloudy with two short but intense rainstorms. DH and DD went to the lake and stayed for the fireworks, leaving me blessedly alone. I haven't had a real "alone" day in so long I don't remember. It was wonderful. It's also amazing how much happier I feel when the sun is out.

I took walks with the dog. I took pictures of DD's chalk pictures, because she'd worked so hard, and the rain would wash them away.



I admired my echinacea that is just beginning to bloom.



I watched "P.S. I Love You" because I knew so many people really loved it ... but I didn't. I couldn't get past wondering why her dead husband had even loved her -- she was mean and nasty to him all the time and he spent every moment apologizing or groveling to her. She wasn't nice to her mother or her friends. Basically, I really did NOT like the heroine at all. So, the rest of the movie just didn't work for me. It was good in concept, and I liked the idea, but I didn't like the execution.

I also worked on the computer, of course. I even did some writing -- practice, really, more than something I would use for publishing (though one never knows what will happen). I recently had an editor tell me I needed to add more description using all the senses... that some of my writing could be much richer if I just slowed down a bit and made sure people could see, taste, touch, smell, hear what was going on.

I remember taking a class when I first joined WVU about a million years ago that concerned this very thing. We had to write a short story using all the senses. It was a challenge to write those things in without them feeling false. Fact is, we typically use sight and hearing and sometimes forget the rest.

So, yesterday I went back to school and practiced. And it was good.

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In Pillar Place: Swallowtail we have one more pillar making her pupa (Fiona). I had her make it in the small box with the lid, because I'm worried she and Greg (our last pillar) are over-winterers. If they aren't, fine... that box works for them either way. But the bigger one without the lid would NOT work.

I hope they aren't going to over winter. *sigh*

No monarch eggs yet. I wonder if they weren't able to fly up here due to the lousy weather. Will keep you posted. Monarchs are so much easier than swallowtail to raise.

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Rainy Days are ALL WET

Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

It's raining.

Again. Or maybe that should be "still".

I had something to talk about today, but I can't seem to get past the rain... It never stops. And, oh good, thunder, too. We had seven (SEVEN!!) days of sun in June. We almost set an all-time record for fewest sunny days in June in the history of New Hampshire. And, it's raining again today -- so July is off to a great start.

*sigh*

Seattle is sunnier than we are. DH and I have talked about relocating and we love Washington state, but opted to stay east of the Cascades because of the dreary weather on the coast, but I'm beginning to think that was just silly...

I know a lot of you are battling heat right now. Texas is in a drought state, my mom is "enjoying" days of over 100 degrees every day, but I would trade my weather with you in a heartbeat. Even if it was too hot to go outside, at least I could sit INSIDE and enjoy the bright sunshine. I crave it.

It had BETTER clear up for the Fourth --- I do not want to listen to my DH and DD complain about not being able to go boating and missing the fireworks.

I want to sit outside and look at my flowers (many of which I've missed because perennials have a short bloom span and then they are done), I want to weed (I swore I'd weed a little bit every day so it wouldn't get so out of hand), I want to walk with the dog through the neighborhood, I want to ride bikes with DD, listen to the birds, have my windows open for fresh air.

In other words: Summer Please.

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

I wrote some more on my plotted short story. I'm enjoying it, which is good, but only wish I had just a wee more time to give to it. DH is off from work until next Weds, so things are a bit unsettled here, but I'm giving it a try!

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In Pillar Place: Swallowtail -- We have only two 'pillars left who haven't made pupae (Greg and Fiona). Yesterday, Hannah made hers on the wall at the very bottom of the box (which could make things a little dicey when she hatches, since she has nowhere to hang to let her wings dry -- they typically hang from their pupa casing) and Carole made hers on the netting at the top (also not a great idea since I have to open it up to get to all the other butterbabies inside). When I saw she was settling up there, I tried tickling her little feet to get her to move, but she was having none of it -- just horned me and stayed put. I'm beginning to think we don't have the smartest 'pillars in the neighborhood, but at least they didn't have to survive all this rain.

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Pillar Place Update

“How does one become a butterfly?" she asked. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” - unknown

The pillars in Pillar Place have grown by leaps and bounds. Yesterday, the last black "bird poop" pillar shed its skin and is now parsley worm green. It was an amazing thing to watch as she slipped out of the old skin--what a lot of work! She's still tiny, but is well on her way.

We have one, Diana, who looks big enough to go on walkabout soon. She'll wander the box and find the perfect spot to make her pupa. I need to put in some sticks for her to use if she wants, instead of just the lid (which is incredibly inconvenient). One or two others are getting close, too, though they'll probably take a few days longer than she will.

Today, though overcast so far, is not raining -- so we'll go on the hunt for more pillars. Soon we should be getting monarchs. According to my last two years of Monarch Ranching records, we typically get our first Monarch butterbabies about two weeks into July. I'll start checking the underneath of our milkweed leaves for eggs next week.

I'll take some pictures today of the Swallowtail butterbabies and post tomorrow. I tried to video one eating, but I had to put the camera quite close, and they stop moving when they feel threatened -- or they "horn" us.



See the yellow horns on its head? When the pillars are frightened, those come out. They actually release a bad smelling odor that deters other critters from eating it. We try not to make them "horn" much because if they do it too often, they die. We've lost a couple that way and it's very sad :-(

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Your Address Says You're Brainy

Right now, you have so many interests and hobbies that you hardly have time for anything else. You live a rich life, and you find the world to be very fascinating. At your best, you're discovering new literature, art, music, and food that you love. At your worst, you are a bit picky. Sometimes you find it hard to be open to new things.

What Does Your Address Say About You?

LOL... oddly, this is remarkably close!

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Pillar Place 2009

And what's a butterfly? At best,
He's but a caterpillar, at rest. ~ John Grey

So... after our massive rainstorm, it finally cleared up after lunch (and actually got hot and ridiculously humid -- apparently there is no in between). I decided to take a turn around the yard to check things out.

Between swatting at VERY hungry mosquitoes, and admiring how much my veggie garden has grown (we won't talk about how much the WEEDS have grown... *sigh*), I decided to check out the rue -- the only plant we have that black swallowtail will eat since my parsley and dill didn't come back this year.

And after a close inspection I found ONE pillar. It was teeny and I'm still amazed I even saw it. I fetched DD and showed her and she all but came out of her skin. We went back inside and pulled out all the pillar supplies from the basement, grabbed a pair of scissors and went to get our fella.

But... as always, DD has far sharped eyes than I do, and we came in with more than one "fella".

So, welcome to Pillar Place 2009:



We have NINE pillars currently, though I'm sure that number will grow as it always does. I'm thrilled to have them on rue, however, as it's the sturdiest of all the plants the pillars will eat, and easiest to handle.

I suggested naming them alphabetically this year, so we have: Abigail, Bugsy, Carole, Diana, Ethel, Fiona, Greg, Hannah, Ichabod and Jane (for my mom). We put masking tape behind each container in the box:



I'm telling you what, though... these critters are itty bitty. If they didn't hatch yesterday, then they are only a day or two old and I'm amazed they made it through that violent storm. Nature constantly amazes me.

Check it out:



What? You can't see him? Here's DD pointing to him -- see how big her fingertip looks next to him? Click on the pictures to make them MUCH bigger, and you'll see them.



And here is another:



Is it any wonder I didn't see all nine? LOL...

Funny thing was, DH saw us cutting the branches with the pillars and asked what we were doing.

We said, "There are swallowtail babies."

He said, "Why don't you leave them outside?"

We said, "We raise them every year -- it's fun, and they have a better chance of survival."

He said, "You do?"

Um... yeah... it's not like we've kept it hidden!! Observant much? Cracked me up.

DD is determined to look for more today. I need another Avon box... too bad I don't sell Avon anymore!

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You Are Medium Maintenance

Like everyone else, you have some things you are particular about. You're not too annoying about it, and you're able to go with the flow most of the time. You've learned to stand your ground on what matters but also make compromises from time to time. You have good taste. Too bad not everyone shares it.

Are You High Maintenance?

Okay.... I'm good with that.

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Of Releases (all types!)...

Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome. ~William Ewart Gladstone

I'm so excited! My friend, Allie's latest book was released today. "One Night In Memphis" promises to be a great read (I've read through some of it in it's pre-edited condition, and can't WAIT to get the whole enchilada!).

Check out her blog here (cuz, she's having a cool contest, too).

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Okay... a personal pet peeve when visiting author websites: no contact information. Lately, I've been notifying folks when we do their reviews (the ones my reviewers do without a request -- print books or eBooks they buy on their own), and more than once I've gone to a website and been unable to find contact information, or else it's so hidden or the navigation is so convoluted, that I waste time (my most precious commodity).

So, folks, if you have a site -- make your contact information easy to find. Please.

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I'm beginning to get the shakes -- I have NOTHING else submitted anywhere right now. That's bad. "Kitchen Matches" comes out next month and then... nada. **gulp**

That's really scary.

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We released another butterfly yesterday. DD named this one "Fire". His birth and release were without mishap for a change. It's odd, though, how blasé we've become about the whole thing.

"Hey, hon? Here's a butterfly." Hands flapping critter to daughter. "Would you put it outside?"

DD trots it outside, puts it on a flower and comes back in to continue whatever she was doing.

I've lost count, but I think we have about 15 more to go. I expect the monarch eggs to show up next week, however. Then the hunt will be on, because you really need to find them as eggs -- they commit hari kari when you find them as babies. Seriously. Or maybe it's bungee jumping. If you startle a little monarch pillar, they leap off of their leaf! It's a defense mechanism, but can make finding the little ones tough. And they are highly parasitized, so bringing them in when they are larger can lead to heartbreak when you hatch a wasp instead of a butterfly...

Ah... the joy and heartbreak of Pillar Place 2008.

EDITED TO ADD: I just checked the pillar boxes, and we hatched THREE more this morning! The must have hatched fairly early, too, since two of them were already ready to fly. That leaves five more chrysalis' in the parsley box, and eight more in the dill box -- cool. We're almost done!

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