Spring Not Far Off

As the month clicks away on the calendar, I am still up to my eyeballs in Monarchs.  Making sure there is food enough to feed them is a daily ritual.  Cleaning the terrarium with this much usage also becomes a necessary chore.  Its good I have that distraction to take my mind off one of the worst months I have ever had in business here, as I am still wondering when we'll bring in enough proceeds from the hordes of folks in town to cover extravagances like rent.  Hordes? -LOL, as they say on Facebook.  Or, and "damhikt", perhaps the throngs are just carying out their innocent "ifuee", (Don't worry those are not off-color, you just have to know your web lingo!

Thanks to the History Museum's offer of a small supply of Butterfly Weed from their Butterfly Garden, I have been provided with enough food to feed them.  Cleaning is done depending on the condition of the container. The lid has to be carefully lifted off as now Caterpillars are attaching their Chrysalis to that section also.  Bruce has to assist.  I lift all the plants out with their Caterpillars still clinging to them, remove dead leaf debris and bare stems, wash the containers, refilling with fresh water, then replace the plants with the still eating caterpillars.  I remove the paper towel flooring, clean that area, and replace.  I reassemble as quickly as possible (it all takes about 5 minutes) because Bruce is standing in the wings holding onto the precious cargo.  But the reward is to sit at my desk and watch this kind of miracle unfold right before my eyes.  This one's image was captured just seconds after bursting out of its Chrysalis; it now waits on that big fat body to pump the fluid inside into the wings to inflate them.  A lot like pumping up a bicycle tire.
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The wings quickly expand, in a matter of minutes.  Then it hangs in place for a couple of hours, I let them decide when they are ready by watching to see when they start moving away from the empty Chrysalis.  When that happens I carefully put my finger in front of them and they climb on board and are ready for transporting outside.  Usually they will just hang on their new plant perch for a while before heading up into the sky and away.


I have had one Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar and he seems to have done alright except that it seems it has taken a very long time for him to grow into any size.  I am not sure if this is normal or something lacking in his food source that may have interfered with his development.  I have kept it in a separate holding tank.  It only eats Passion Flower.


Even though the Monarch does not change colors it does shed all or parts of its skin during growing.  It then eats the skin as this fellow is doing.  Because I wasn't seeing the skin fall away I wasn't aware of this changing until Lisa pointed it out to me.  I keep learning things as I go along, as with all of life.


Looking like a brilliant stained glass window, this one catches the backlight from the morning sun.  They seem to like the small trumpet-like blossoms of the Rosemary plants, so I usually set them on it; so if they want a snack before hitting the road it is readily available.


Another girl's day out with Adrian catching her first big fish.  I have learned from her also that it is better to handle the inside of that mouth with a rag to prevent the blood loss I was having from each fishing trip as I reached in to remove the hooks.  The smell of human blood on the bait may have been more enticing to the fish in the creek but the sore fingers for days afterward was something it will be nice to avoid.  An artist must protect the tools of her trade.


Its twins!!!  It was fun to get up to check the terrarium, and see that we had two, a boy and a girl.  This gives a good chance to show the difference in the sexes.  The top one is a male with the thin black lines and the black dot on the back wing which interrupts the middle line.  It looks like someone tried to erase a spot on the hard black like with a dirty eraser.  The bottom is a female, with her thicker black lines and NO thick spot on her back wing lines.  Next time you can tell the difference too.  In the beginning we had mostly males but now the numbers have shifted and it seems that most are females.


The twins I freed by setting them on the New Zealand Tea Tree which is one of my favorite plants.  It blooms all winter.  They are difficult to get to grow but once established are very hardy.  Very pretty small blossoms which can vary with the different plants from a softer pink to a dark burgundy bloom.


I told you that the color would dramatically change on my Sumac.  I just love the brilliance and the way the low winter sun makes it glow as it changes from yellow green to vibrant orange-red.


As I sit at my desk this is the view, and the bright spots of color give me a nice break in the dark greens of the Oaks and brighter green of my shrubbery and the hanging gray Spanish Moss.  It does literally glow when the sun gets on the other side of it just like the butterflies wings did.


Another evening when I take the time to catch the Marsh sunset.  The colors are possibly slightly exaggerated by the camera in the intensity of the blue in the sky but doesn't it give a great contrast to the yellow and orange of the sunset itself?


It's hard to decide in such a scene whether it needs a tighter view, giving the pretty cloud effect, or the wider angled total picture.  I thought I'd just give you both and you can chose your favorite.  It seems like the "Mare's Tail" formations have been most prevalent lately, probably because we have not had the big rain containing clouds, which we need.


One of my overnighters had made it to the window and seemed to be gazing longingly at the world outside.  Her daydreams were soon fulfilled as the sun quickly warmed that outside world up enough for me to feel better about turning her loose.


I took the opportunity to take one of the not so clear photos of this scene and play with it with the new tools on my Picassa.  Usually I don't do that but this can give me some good ideas for a painting as my mind is shifting to wanting to do a big butterfly painting.


Well it looks like our thorny looking Gulf Fritillary is entering another stage in the transforming life of a butterfly.


On Sunday morning I had another set of twins waiting.  One a few minutes ahead of the other.  That is fun, and since I have the day off to fool with them, I can move them outside and keep an eye on them.  Its a drizzly cool day outside so I will not be tempted by the sun magnet in my posterior to be drawn outdoors for any significant amount of time.


When the rain started I moved the first that one I had taken out to the flower bed, and the second one, when it was ready, to a Mexican Petunia plant just outside my back door but underneath the eave in the dry.  They hung out there all day.  As the day wore on, I was in for more surprises as two more emerged.


WOW!! What was two is now four, and I decide that with the weather so damp and chilly I would just let them overnight on the dining room table since I had seen in them no interest in flying, such as exhibited by the outdoors couple.


Playing with my new toys I take this butterfly photo and turn it into a monochromatic concept for painting.


This female latched onto the one male in the group and was really going after him.  He was smaller than she was so I was afraid she would hurt him.  I moved her 3 different times to another part of the plant but she would always go back to him.  Bruce said "they are too young" and I say "when life is as short as theirs you are probably just born ready".


Outside, with our wonderfully warm winter, I find the signs of awakening and hormones starting to get ready for nesting season as Monday was a wonderful sun-shiny day.  It was evident in the love song of our little Carolina Wren as he sang for his soul mate.  Lets hope they once again nest in the birdhouse that was their home last year.


What I thought was a leaf stuck on my outside screen was instead this very amorous set of unusual moths involved in what must be construed as a lover's embrace.  There is probably a lot going on underneath that spread open wing that might be too risque for polite company.


The Florida Green Anoles are awaking from their winter slumber.  This one seemed to be wondering about the origin of this evidence of the passing-by, pardon the expression, of one of his own kind (the black spot with its white tip which has dropped off).  You can always tell Anole droppings by the white dot on the end.  This one was still in a slow mode as he sat in this one spot even when I put my finger toward his head all he did was open his mouth.  If I had only had a dead fly it would have been a first step in reinforced training to eat flies from my hand, but you can't find a dead fly when you need one.  I was even pretty sure I saw Lewis Lizzard, since he was not fearful of me, but was more grown up and a beautiful bright green color.  Good old Lewis, he was fun to keep for a while.  I would hate to think of him being kept captive forever though.  He seemed to be having a good time running around the front porch where I first found him lying, that cold day, when he was still in hibernation mode.  I had thought him dead but after a few days he revived.  But that's another story already in the archives; if you want to do the research and find it.

Lets hope that winter has gone, at least for the time my mom, Aunt Helen, brother Mike and Sister-in-law Denise are visiting me, till the end of the week.  The Northwest has been cold, damp and snowy for my brother, so they are certainly ready for warmer weather.  Here's to fun, family and Spring.

Work is beginning on two more commissions, one which will not be so difficult (I hope) and another undersea one which will be large and a challenge.

Into the New Year

What was a warm weather passion with the Sea Turtles has switched over to more beautiful and equally interesting creatures.  The Sea Turtles I have loved because of the ancientness, if that is a word, of the species.  They are one of the only species which was around to see the extinction of the dinosaurs and yet have flourished until recent times, each might live a century.  With the butterflies, they live such brief but beautiful lives, with just the process of change so fascinating to watch. They contribute to the workings of our natural world as they flit from flower to flower sipping nectar and spreading the pollen so necessary for all life, without which it would be a world without flowers, fruits, even coffee; and worse yet, -no chocolate.

This moment, as I type this, in the terrarium beside me part of the miraculous transformation begins to take place.  The caterpillar which had been hanging from his bottom end for a couple of days seems to be limp and I think, oh dear, it's dead.  Then I see the pale lime green start to show as his skin literally splits apart.  In a matter of minutes the skin is a crinkled black wad hanging by the  thread which holds the new chrysalis to the top.  Now the green form starts its dance, twisting, wiggling, gyrating and turning until the black old skin is shed dropping to bottom of the terrarium.  After two weeks this will be the result.  One of our releases just before Christmas.  Such color, such patterns, and such grace as they float with the greatest of ease, going from flower to flower to feed and lay eggs, starting the cycle all over again.  How can an artist not want to paint with such inspiration.

Sometimes we overnight them on the dining room table if it is a very cold night or if they hatch out too late in the day to take wing before dark.  This one was with us for dinner while Bruce's mom was here.  I bring inside whatever we have blooming outside and put it on the table in case they need a snack.  Sometimes if they are acting slow, we can trick them into sipping sugar water from a syringe.  This is a sticky wicket in itself.  Not aways are we successful, but sometimes it works.

Often they just hang around for a while looking like a Tree Ornament, then they will just be gone.  The ones I have watched fly away just seem to catch the wind and float effortlessly high above the big Oak Trees in my back yard and out of sight.  They don't seem to fly much in the morning or after the sun gets low.  I have found them sitting overnight in one spot clinging tightly to a plant not moving until midmorning.  We have only temporarily lost a couple in the house.  We don't know where they disappeared to, but eventually each reappeared on the dining room curtain sitting in the sunlight coming through the window.

Christmas dinner came and went as we all gathered at my nephew Chris's home south of Jacksonville.  Lots to eat and a nice visit.  A place with a child in the house although she made herself scarce playing with her friend, another Reagan from across the street.


Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" was what this Little Snowy Egret seemed to be saying.  It was after Christmas and a little time to relax.  After all the hustle of getting ready for the big day it was nice to have some down time to just show Bruce's mom around.  Unfortunately she thought it  was " very cold for Florida" even when we thought it was very warm for North Florida in winter, but  this day a cold front did come in.  Although I didn't think it very cold she was freezing.  I had hoped to take her to walk on the beach  for a little while so we headed on to the park.

Inside the park I spot some of our Christmas Fall Color in this Hickory Tree just as we make the turn toward the beach.  Our Fall is late as I told someone today we have Fall this week and next week we will have Spring.

On the beach I find my own forest in the beach trees left by the outgoing tide.  I sure do miss my time here.  Unlike last winter when I kept going, watching the turtle nest that never hatched, this year I have been too busy to make the time.  Instead my fishing trips have taken me to the marsh, which has been great fun also, but I do miss the beach.

I hope to make it over there (the two blocks) this next weekend to take in all the migrating birds who are visiting with us now.  Many species we don't have other times in the year.  In this group was a flock of some sort of tern that was larger than our Least Terns and were not our regulars at all.

Oh yes, then Lisa came to visit the island just after Christmas.  Of course I took her fishing, and we all gathered to eat our wonderful catch.  Keep in mind Lisa's stature and the angle of the photo when you think this might be over the size limit.  I can assure you it was legal.  It was a great catch and Lisa was soooo excited.  She even had enough meat left over to take to cook for her Grandfather, who has, along with her grandmother, mostly raised her.  Grandfather is in Hospice care right now, separated from his wife of so many years because they cannot afford a place for jointly living together in assisted living with his health issues and hers these last few months.

Monarch season is in the Fall in the South.  Just when I thought I was just about at the end as I only had about 5 Cats left, a friend brought at least 20 more to my door and left them with Bruce because of the cold front headed our way.  It took a lot of Butterfly Weed to feed that many hungry mouths and I had been begging, borrowing and stealing Butterfly Weed from everyone I knew who had any left.  I tried to be careful to not take it where there were still caterpillars eating on it.  Inadvertently, I managed to add to the stash of caterpillars even more by finding eggs and tiny caterpillars on the plants once I got them home.  New resolve:  Next year I will have plants galore for them to eat.  I have found out one good thing.  Once you cut the sprouts off to feed they will put out roots from the cuttings if left in the water.  If these all live, then I should be well supplied next year.

Enjoying a bit of time in my backyard one day, I heard this tap, tap, tapping.   I knew the sound, but now to find the source.  Looks like Woody himself is visiting.  This  branch was getting thinner and thinner as he sat on the big end and pecked on the top part where it was hooked into the tree.  Better watch out!  I have seen tree cutters make that mistake, but they didn't have wings, so I guess its not quite the same kind of mishap in the making.  I have new binoculars (Christmas present); the better to see them with.

On New Year's Day, niece Julie came for a visit.  She brought a good friend Steven and a youngster from their area, (Steven is his court advocate), that they were befriending.  We toured the park and found our kite-flying friends again, then we were off to fish.  We did catch some good ones, catching our limit, then bringing them home to deep fry once again. Deep fried fish and hush puppies, hard to beat.   I will start cooking them to be a little bit more healthy, once the "new" of actually coming home with a meal-sized quantity of fish wears off.  I need one of those enclosed grilles to contain fish while on the main grille, made like a basket so that you can flip the whole thing over without the fish falling through the wires; otherwise, I am going to look like one of those big round Puffer Fish pretty soon.

Frost was forecast, so I take a longing look at what might not make it through.  My Sky Vine was at its prettiest.

A close up of the blooms tells the story of why I like them so much.  They are very orchid like, and although the bloom does not last long, each is replenished by a new one, waiting to take its place as they make their way down the stem.  They bloom best for me in the winter but are not frost tolerant.  They were not destroyed, but they were "bit" back with many of the leaves turning brown, and the flowering has slowed with the frost bite.

I should have thought to cover these all up but it was dark when I went out to do it, and I forgot these pretty things further out in the yard.  One made it and one didn't, attesting to the spottiness of the freeze.  Of course the one which was sadly all limp the next day was the big beautiful one, while the smaller one is still fine.  The yellow flowers which the butterflies like so much were also causalities of the cold.

One nice shot of the beautiful blossom.  Yes, I know, these are not really the blossom, but leaves and the bloom is the part in the center.

Outside my front window, the sun always hits this Sumac, and it just glows as it is starting its "Fall" color transition.  Yes, I know it is almost Spring but the tree doesn't.   Wait until you see this week's change in it.

One of my Chrysalis is doing its change-over, as one next to it failed to fully shake off his skin; but you can see how shriveled that which what once was a caterpillar is now.  It was all for show.  The Green inner self is the true being...or maybe not.  They seem to change clothes as often as a teenager.  The terrarium has become a film of webs from all the caterpillar tracks on it, as they roam around hunting the perfect spot to hang around on and also when they hang themselves they spread a wide circle of web.  We are not sure how that happens.  Do they spray the webbing around or do they spread it around with their feet before hanging?  We haven't seen any such action going on.  It just magically appears.  If you try to move one when it is crawling around you will feel them sticking the webby stuff to the surface and you almost have to pry them off.

Here is our menagerie of Chrysalis' at this point. This continues to change as new ones come up top side and others emerge and get taken outside.  What causes them to all cluster on this end of the tank?  Is it the sunlight through the window?  The slick surface as opposed to the screen on the other end.  We don't know exactly.  Now we do have 3 which have attached themselves to the screened area today probably because it is just too crowded on the other end.  This has been better for us as I have to clean and feed through the other end.

A beautiful sunset was happening as I drove home a few days a go.  I was not alone in wanting to capture it.  I pulled into the property where Ten Acres' Kraft Athletic Club is located because it is one of the few places you can get an unobstructed view in my neighborhood.

The sun was sinking fast over the calm river and marsh area.  With a water sunset you get a double whammy with the sun's reflection almost stealing the show.

A wide view is not always as impressive as you just cannot take it all in with my camera.  A wider angled lens than mine would be necessary.

As I walk away I look back for the long view, which I love too, with the trees all siloutted against the pastel colors going from lavender to orange to yellow and pink to blue.  Such beauty; it is hard to image it can be real, but the camera does not lie...well not much.

Thanksgiving Eve

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Fran and I finally found some time which included fishing.  One of my nice customers was in the gallery checking out the commission Koi painting before it left for its new home.  I was commenting that I was definitely going fishing as a reward to myself for finishing the painting after working 12 straight days on it without a full day off.

She very generously offered us access to her dock to fish and some advice on when the best fishing time was.  We showed up bright and early to catch the low tide and the best estimated fishing time.  As in love, gambling and fishing, we caught some and lost some, but in the end we wound up with our limit of two, with Fran catching the prize.  It was a beautiful day, warm, sunny, and a bit buggy but still that is part of fishing in the marsh when the weather is warm.

There are lots of restrictions on the catching Red Fish, such as this one, as to size limitations, both how small and how big.  We caught our limit of two and one just reached minimum and second one was solidly in middle ground at 23-25" I can't remember which.  We felt like we had a good day and promptly went home cleaned them, fried them up with hushpuppies, and enjoyed a great pre-Thanksgiving feast together.

Looks like I am back into the Caterpillar/Butterfly business.  I found this fellow out in my flower garden.  For its safety I brought it inside.  It quickly grew and I was kept busy supplying him with more leaves.  However, the one quickly became 3 as I found others munching away on the Butterfly Weed left over from last years bout of raising 10 Monarchs.

Since I was finding Caterpillars in my small garden I decided to stop in and check on the Butterfly garden at the History Museum just down the street from the gallery.  A beautiful Passion Flower was one of the plants which had been planted and it was doing exceptionally well, except that the Fritillaries like the "Blue" Passion Flower instead of the "Red".  The blooms were very beautiful anyway.  This is a mistake often made by people who read that Fritillaries like Passion Flowers, but they are a bit more specific than that.

During the day of Thanksgiving Eve, as I was sitting in my gallery with not a soul in town coming to see me, a good friend and fellow artist, Sandra Hunter, one of my jewelry designers, called to see if I wanted to join her on the River Cruise. With 30 minutes to departure time I told her I had to work.  After a few minutes of pondering the situation I reconsidered.  I had made one little sale all day, and doubted that there would be any more folks passing my threshold.  I say, "What the heck", called back and said, "Hold the boat, I'm on my way!!!"  Bruce happened to be close by, and was also able to sit the gallery.  I have always taken the Amelia River Cruise's Sunset cruise so this mid afternoon one would be a new experience.

I noticed that we had some new Shrimpboats in town.  I asked about them and was told that they were from Georgia.  I am not sure what shrimping season is exactly, and how it differs from Georgia, but I do know that after reading "Last Light Over Carolina" that shrimpers from Georgia often come South in winter to try to get a longer season in to help the bottom line.  It is hard though because of the fuel and travel expenses for the whole crew and the toll it takes on family relationships the long separations causes.  A big ship was also in port waiting to be loaded.  It is taking steel to the Panama Canal for work that is being done there to expand the size of the canal.

It was not a good time of day for shooting reflections in the water but I thought the ships anchor was a nice composition in itself with the telltale signs of the many trips the anchor has made, left recorded on the side of the ship.

The railroad cars lined up at the Paper mill and Port area are a roving art gallery in themselves.  I just wonder about the artists who create them; who they are and what kind of lives they lead.

Something I had not noticed before was pointed out by Kevin (yes, we were fortunate to have the Grand Poobah himself as our captain that day, Kevin McCarthy, owner of the boat), -the device for lifting up the big eighteen wheelers to shake every last chip out of the trucks so that nothing is lost.

The Double Crested Cormorants were just taking it all in as they also enjoyed the warm Florida sunshine.  I see a nice painting composition here.  Look at the warm greens in the pilings, the coloring in the heads of the birds, yes, it could be very nice...

Kevin pushed the speed of the boat to get us on out as far as we were permitted to enter and watch this "small" Submarine head out.  He thought it was a British Sub.  Another first for me, and as Kevin, who knows all, told us what was about to happen.  The tug which had been coming toward the sub, turned so that it was now moving parallel to the submarine.

A ship, or in this case a Sub, leaving or entering our port must have a local pilot, the Harbor Pilot, on board who knows the channel to guide the vessel.  In this case the Tug has a boardwalk mounted on its side which is lowered at just the right moment to allow the Harbor Pilot to exit the Sub onto the Tug so that he can return to his home port.

It only takes a few seconds for this to happen so I barely and not very clearly recorded the Harbor Pilot's quick dash across the boardwalk to the tug, his job finished.  Submarines like our big Nuclear subs cannot submerge until about 60 miles off shore and the continental shelf drops off to allow them proper clearance.

Kevin says I bring him good luck because we always see interesting things when I am on board.  I think he exaggerates because I think there are always interesting things to be seen.  I do know that we saw at least 3 bands of horses that day, more than I have ever seen on the evening cruises.  Lots of oyster beds were above the surface with the low tide.

The horses live in bands with one stallion and his harem and all the kids, at least until the young males get to be about 3 years old, then they have to go out and find their own girls and start their own band.  A male will eventually get too old to keep defend his position and keep his band together and will be challenged by a younger male.  Once he is beaten he goes away to live a solitary life until he finally dies of loneliness.

They all seem to be peacefully enjoying this beautiful Thanksgiving Eve munching on the tender young marsh grasses.

Sandy and her family were enjoying the day as they prepared to spend a family holiday together.  If you have not met Sandy Hunter, and are wearing some of her beautiful jewelry, here she is for you to put a face to the creator of your treasure.

As you scan your eyes over the patterns of the Palmettos, even in a photograph, it almost makes your eyes feel like one of those optical illusions of dizzying motion.

We were also blessed with a pod of Bottle Nosed Dolphins as we headed up Beach Creek at the bottom of Cumberland Island.  They had been up in the creek fishing.  A trick they have is that they work in a group and corral the fish, herding them toward the bank, literally chasing them out of the water.  They then slide up on the bank and grab the fish.

Getting ready to enjoy the rewards of the Dolphin's leavings is Henry the Heron here as he patiently watches and waits for some of the fish to be left on the beach by the Dolphins for his enjoyment and an easy lunch.

We were able to get close enough to see the ruins of the old Dungeness mansion.  The illusion of the flat ground does not do justice to the actual perspective of the spacious lawns stretched between us and the mansion.  It looks as if the house is sitting on the edge of the marsh when in reality there is a low retaining wall which separated what was, once up on a time, the lower vegetable gardens from the wide expanse of lawn, and then the walls of the lower structure of the house rise beyond that.

The Dolphins worked their way around the boat and now led the way out of the creek.  A Cormorant which was also fishing in the creek when we entered it is still holding his low spot in the water in the distance.  Another band of horses were on the bank nearby so it was difficult to decide where to focus the camera, on the horses or try for the illusive Dolphin shot.  The horses lifted their heads from their almost constant position of heads down eating to give me a chance to get a picture of them just walking away in a group.  I guess our presence caused them to want to move further away.

The Dolphins lift their eyes above water to keep watch on us.  Once they got us out in the channel they watched until we were for sure headed away then went back toward the creek for more fishing.

A perfect day.  Before the Thanksgiving pre-cooking began, I closed down the gallery and headed to the Ritz for the Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony.  There was a huge crowd of people already there, and if I write about it maybe next year I will remember NOT to go to this side of the viewing area.  I was thinking Santa was entering from this side and I could get a good shot of him.  However, there was a huge, tightly packed crowd and the Ritz had more of "their people" than usual making sure you did not get outside the ropes they had erected to protect us from the stampeding hoofs of Santa's reindeer, actually a one horse drawn carriage.  But anyway, the grounds guards would not let me cross the lawn behind the tree, and it was impossible and too late to retrace my path to the other side.

Here is your shot of Santa as in a blur the carriage passed me by, too close and too fast to focus on anything.

You can vaguely see Mr. and Mrs. Claus from their hindsides and to create the right atmosphere for making a big splash with the tree lights it was a bit too dark to see the performers or Santa.

But then Santa led the countdown and we finally had some light as the beautiful tree shined with its thousands of multicolored lights and then the fireworks started.  Oh, and did you ever wonder what sometimes happens, re: hungry/thirsty insects, on a calm warm night at the beach?  Well, when the wind abates, the bugs can be vicious, and this was just such a night.  I wore a jacket because I thought it might be cool.  I told friends I ran into in the beginning, that I needed to take my jacket off because it was too hot, and they said don't do it, you'll need it for bug protection.  Since it had been a balmy day I still had on my Capri's which left about 15 inches or more of bare skin.  I, at this point, could have cared less about the lights as my legs were being torn to shreds by the thousands of insects having a great Thanksgiving pre-meal out of me.

Even though Santa had cleared the area, the yard police would still not allow me to cross the lawn, so the choice to shoot the fireworks was through the palm fronds, which nicely blocked my view, or the street light buzzing with a cloud of mosquitoes.  I was very happy to return to the sanctuary of my house shortly afterward, free of bugs and crowds, with just the quiet of the evening and the cooking smells that were starting to tell me that tomorrow was going to be a good day.

I awoke Thanksgiving morning to see that the caterpillars had already been feasting all night long.  Since my one had now become three ravenous yellow, white and black Monarch Caterpillars, I could barely keep enough food supplied to last them through the night.  If you look at them closely, you will notice that each is slightly different with the various striped patterns varying with each cat, just like your fingerprints vary from one another.  The youngest one was noticeably darker than the other two.

I stopped by once again to check out the History Museum's Butterfly garden to see if there were Caterpillars on their plants too.  Yes, they also had several about the size of mine and more Monarchs fluttering in and around the plants so it looks like we will be having some more butterflies about the time it starts to turn cold.  I'm not sure how cold tolerant they are.  Does anyone know?  I don't plan on taking another trip to the Magic Kingdom this year to release butterflies in warmer weather.

I was able to briefly catch one as she was sipping nectar and possibly depositing more eggs.

This is the beginning of a painting which will, like the butterfly caterpillars, metamorphize into something beautiful when it is finished; but for now it is in its very early not so beautiful, rough stage.

Our three fellows are about a day apart with one already turned into the Chrysalis, the second in its "J" position a day away from the Chrysalis and the other one, the dark one, on the prowl trying to find the perfect spot to suspend himself.  "Blacky" actually had a bit of a misadventure before he started his changing lifestyle.  I left the lid slightly cracked because he had his feet along the edge, as you can see, and I didn't want to pinch his little toes.  Next morning he had disappeared, escaping through the small crack I left.  Finding a wandering caterpillar in my office, well, finding anything there is a challenge, but finding a caterpillar who may have already attached himself to the underside of something was a bit daunting.  I was afraid he might be where the computer keyboard drawer would squish him or heaven forbid inside the printer, that could be fatally messy.  Miraculously I finally located him, not yet attached, inside an open box, underneath its topside, and the box inside the bottom shelf of the bookcase on which the terrarium sits.  Thank goodness!!!    Now, all three are happily sitting inside their lime green Chrysalises doing whatever developing butterflies do.  However, the stems of Butterfly Weed which I brought in to feed the others had no less than 5 teeny, tiny little caterpillars on them so we now have two more age groups of caterpillars coming on after these guys.