Pondered In My Heart

Monarch Day!

We've been all about monarchs the past few weeks here, ever since we found caterpillars on my one lone milkweed plant that I grew from seed. (remember those seeds? ) We had our first butterfly eclose on Sunday while we were at Mass - lovely to come home to but we were naturally hoping to be able to watch some emerge. Today was clearly the day for two more.


The bottom of the lovely chrysalis splits open and

slowly yet quickly and smoothly

out slides the new butterfly. It just takes a minute or so.

You can see the great abdomen swollen with liquid and the small crumpled wings. So tiny and fragile.

As the butterfly pumps up its wings the abdomen shrinks. You can watch the wings grow slowly larger.


The new monarch undergoes this transformation all while hanging on with its four main legs, clinging with its tiny 'toes'. One of ours actually seemed to have a little trouble getting a hold on the slippery chrysalis and it repeatedly slid down. The butterfly sits very still as it waits for its wings to enlarge and dry.

 While the first one was resting the next one emerged a short time later -


This one moved quickly over to the leaves which seemed much easier to get a grip on.

Here you can see the size difference of the wings. The monarch on the left emerged 27 minutes ahead of the one on the right. The left one has full sized wings while the other is still small and crumpled.

After about half an hour the monarch does a little preliminary fluttering, just moving the wings open a tiny bit. It was so curious to watch as it turned its head from side to side, moving its various new anatomical structures and repeatedly uncurling and curling its long proboscis.

And then a couple of hours later we finally got to see the wings in all their splendor! The vivid coloring of a brand new monarch has an unusual depth and richness to it. So perfect.

We named this guy Wenceslaus after the feast celebrated today.



It takes about six hours before a monarch is ready to fly. When he got a little active and crawling around a bit we took him outside.

He took a short little test flight over to Lydia's bright shirt.

Next he tried out

a little longer sail over to the laundry -

Meanwhile back inside we had this little lady whom Kateri named Margaret -

Can you 'spot' the difference between her and Wencey?

Margaret has taken off on her long journey to Mexico whilst Wenceslaus is still waiting for the perfect moment to depart off into the wild blue yonder.

I'm not sure which is more mind boggling - the metamorphosis into a butterfly or the thought of these little ones flying all the way to Mexico. So much wonder and beauty in such a little creature.

Needle & thRead: The Black Linen

I'm joining Elizabeth and friends again for her weekly online sewing circle.

Back to that black linen I mentioned in my last post...Lydia had a music performance coming up and I actually realized ahead of time that she didn't have anything to wear. She was to play a piece her brother composed for harp, performing at the college in his composition recital. As musicians customarily wear black, and finding a suitable dress to purchase was so unlikely I wouldn't even try, I got it into my head to make her a dress. And as Lydia is not a synthetic fabric kind of girl, I knew at once it had to be linen. Classic black 100% linen.

Finding a pattern was a bit of a challenge. Lydia's sense of style required something simple and modest yet elegant and including these once popular but now obscure arm covering devices called sleeves. We liked the style of this dress I found on Etsy, although its slim sleeves and close fitting bodice wouldn't do for comfortably playing musical instruments. We settled on Vogue 8555 which has a similar cummerbund waist with flared skirt, and it just needed some slight modifications (such as longer sleeves as Lydia requested) to make it work.

I first made a 'muslin' out of some cotton floral fabric I had on hand. I was pressed for time so I made only the bodice (with nobbut one sleeve!); someday soon I'll finish it into a nice little summer frock.

As you can see, I raised the neckline of both the front and the back of the bodice by quite a bit:

And here we have the finished dress:

Would you believe I don't have a single picture of Lydia wearing it that night?! Next recital I'll get a photo, for sure.

As for reading, I never did get anywhere in Tolkien's letters that I mentioned last time; my library request became available and you know how you have to read your holds first. So Lydia, Anna and I are all reading The Bluebird Effect, with a most grateful hat tip to Tonya at Plain and Joyful Living who recommended it. We were going to take turns but the allure of this treasure of a book took over and we all dived in at once. It is such a delightful read and spring is the perfect time to indulge in these wonderful stories of 'uncommon bonds with common birds'. Julie Zickefoose is a naturalist and rehabilitator whose love, knowledge and intimacy with birds shine through on every page. She is also an artist and her own illustrations, from field sketches to watercolor paintings, make the book lovely to look at as well. It's filled with the kind of stories that are so endearing to birders - the little daily encounters and rare opportunities when one gets to connect with and sometimes influence the lives of our feathered friends. Zickefoose clearly loves birds, yet she doesn't succumb to excessive sentimentalism or worse, anthropomorphism. And her knowledge of the natural world remains willing to admit that in nature absolutes can be rare and surprises frequent. We have the book from the library but I surely think we need our own copy.

(watercolors in above picture are by Lydia)

Thank you again to Elizabeth for hosting!

Wordless Wednesday: Birder Girl

(psst! Lydia has pictures from inside the box over at her blog)

Wordless Wednesday: Flutterbyes

 

Wordless Wednesday: Lovely Luna

 

The Eagle has Landed

 
 

And two eaglets have hatched! One to go! Are you watching the web cams on the Decorah, Iowa eagles nest?

Because watching barn owls is just so last year.

Just kidding. We've actually been watching barn owls Mel and Sydney and their six owlets for the last couple of months. Now we have the eagles on as well. It is so fascinating to watch these big, bold, beautiful birds! The first eaglet hatched yesterday and the second one today, with one egg still remaining. The eagles keep a nice pantry with rabbit, crow and fish for variety. Their gigantic nest is amazing. Lydia keeps the netbook at her school spot, but we are all enthralled with getting such an up close view on these fabulous nesting birds. Nature study 24/7!

In Like a Lamb

Welcome, March. We'd been waiting for you, and you did not disappoint.

 

a little deck dancing

pussy willows just starting to peek out against an impossibly blue sky

three red-tails, a sharp-shinned, four robins, one black and two turkey vultures, red-winged blackbird, juncos, bluebirds, mourning doves, cardinals, song sparrows...

usually birders like quiet, but we're flexible

two of the three red-tails playing together

happy, slidey girls
 

stoking the cabbages (and I don't know why she was cooking cabbages)
 

hope and joy and trust and beauty and faith and patience all conjured up in little green sprouts
 

balm

lemon to rub on the skin, inhale deeply and perk up the senses, just like sun

Seeds of Love

I have nothing against roses or anything, but a husband who pulls over into a gas station on a busy road at night and gets out in the rain to get me these-

 
that's my kinda guy.

Preening Hummer

I had never seen a hummingbird preen before, but this sweet little hummer is suddenly fond of performing her ablutions several times a day on our deck.  

She favors my potted fig tree's post to primp and fluff and preen her wee feathers. It's quite a silly show as she contorts herself for all those hard to reach spots.
 

I'm very pleased I caught this shot - check out that tongue!
 
 

Sunday Nature Hike

 

Michael usually takes the big kids out on a nature hike on Sunday afternoons, but this week we all headed to a state conservation area together.

The big trees kept most of the occasional rain showers from even reaching us, and we enjoyed a lovely quiet time in the woods.

We saw millipedes plain
 

and fancy.
 

The children are very observant, and notice even the smallest specimens of plant or in this case

 a couple of red spotted newts. I was rather amazed they found these little guys, as they are so small and hide under the leaves.

I am able to discover large things, like this mushroom.
 

They pointed out this squaw root to me.
 
We heard pileated woodpeckers as soon as we entered the forest, but it took a long time to find the elusive chattering birds. Lydia told me last Sunday they sound like monkeys, and I think that's an apt comparison. I also saw a scarlet tanager - I think I even saw it before Lydia, as she was distracted watching the pileated. She also spotted a red eyed vireo and a flycatcher.

But I admit my favorite sightings are of my children making their quiet observations, like this.