After the rain...

The rain barrels and pond are full again!  The garden looks so lush after the rain...with gorgeous perfect droplets left on leaves, flowers and stems.  Here is what our garden looked like yesterday.  Yes, that's the black swallowtail caterpillar too (discovered just after the rain on our dill patch).

This Moment

{This moment} - This moment - an end of week ritual, no words, just a special photo to remember, savour, enjoy.

Summer solstice monarch hatches!

Our monarch butterfly hatched just in time to see the sun rise on the first day of summer.  We had noticed over the previous days that the chrysalis was changing from bright green to darker green and almost black, and then the monarch wing pattern started to be visible inside (the chrysalis was actually transparent when the butterfly emerged).  On solstice we spent the early morning hours hardly leaving our back porch as we watched the monarch emerge from its chrysalis, unfurl and exercise its new wings, clamber from branch to branch on the milkweed and sticks we had provided nearby, then climb briefly onto our hands for a goodbye, try a small test flight upto our apple tree and then fly off with the breeze. This whole process took about 3 hours.  Beautiful, awe-inspiring, and a wee bit sad to see our friend go.  We learned that it takes monarchs four generations to make the entire flight to Mexico where many will overwinter.  What an epic relay-race that butterfly journey is.  So we needed to explain to our daughter that although this monarch will never return, we look forward to hosting it's great-great-great-great....grandchildren next summer.

This Moment

{This moment} - This moment - an end of week ritual, no words, just a special photo to remember, savour, enjoy.  (playing ukelele to the monarch butterfly)

Monarch caterpillar arrives

This past weekend we had a thoughtful and surprising gift dropped off at our house - a monarch caterpillar nearly ready to pupate, which neighbours could not keep as they were going on holiday.  We've watched caterpillars transform into butterflies here before (a black swallowtail last year), but were more than happy to host this monarch and watch it's process.  It ate milkweed for two days (you need to feed it fresh plants every day and clean out the frass, aka poo), then started to climb the stick we had left in the large jar, and today formed it's chrysalis.  Now we wait 7-10 days to see it hatch into a monach butterfly.  Good instructions for caring for various butterflies are here at Butterfly School

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Swallowtail butterfly

After 12 days in it's chrysalis, little stripey caterpillar nibbled a wee hole, and out came the most lovely black swallowtail butterfly.  We watched it stretch it's wings, and then we gently tipped our glass jar to the side and let it fly out with it's new shaky wings.  It rested for one brief moment on Maya's shoulder, then up on a nearby branch in a tamarack tree, and finally made it's way into the sky.

Fresh peas, and garden butterflies

It's nearing the summer solstice and we've had our first harvest of snow peas!  The plants are so pretty with their delicate blossoms and twirling vines climbing the fence.  Lots of butterflies have been around the property this week, including monarchs and a swallowtail.  Beautiful - resting on the flowering oregano, milkweed, and other native plants in our front yard.