Free at Last

After so many years stuck at home I was so happy to have a wheelchair van and be able to go wherever I want to but life and luck being what the are for me. You had to laugh that the van came just before the restaurants closed down for the Covid 19 epidemic.

It feels so nice to go down the road.

Lucky for us some of the restaurants are open for take out and this one has the staff in masks and gloves so it feels a bit safer.

It's amazing what we'll risk for food, isn't it?

Lucky for me I live near a park with a lake which you may recognize from some of my paintings and drawings.

Here I go!

As you can see here people are going to the park even though the playground is closed. Most are keeping an appropriate distance and some wearing masks too. 

What's great for me about this park is that there are lots of sidewalks around and through it that are fun to run my chair on just a bit faster than I should. 

Having the breeze in my face makes me smile and I laugh a bit as I swerve between people or around them and get an astonishing array of expressions or comments from people.

 I know, I'm bad but how much fun it is after being stuck at home for 7 years. I hope people forgive my evil but I must confess that I don't much care. I'm having much too fun.

Another thing I've been noticing in the park is that people have been leaving painted rocks around with encouraging messages on them. Each time I come I see one somewhere else.

It took me a minute to notice that it's supposed to be a character is a face mask. Considering the virus pandemic we're going to be seeing masks everywhere.

Back out in the Garden w/Photos

Of course I've got some lettuce growing indoors year around but it won't be long before I've got lots going on outdoors.

Here's how it looked on the 26th where it came in handy as we made tacos. I've got to say there is something attractive about being to harvest things right where you're making a meal.

Back outside more of the daffodils are blooming and we're really enjoying the pops of color in the middle of so much brown and the start of greening up.

The tiny strawberry plants from last year are reviving and recovering nicely.

This year we're making the best of the sun that we get here by building a planter box in an old greenhouse wagon that we can pull to wherever it's needed. We plan to finish off the outside by covering it with vinyl siding so that it will look nice with the house no matter where we put it.

Other plants are in between. These are waiting  to go out to the garden to become their very best selves and feed body and soul.

So far all I've got are these daffodils. This was the earliest photo. as you can see by the other photo in this blog they got better and better as the season went by.

And these strawberries from last year.

Today I had some company out there.

I'm not sure who enjoyed things most, the butterflies or the humans.

This Years Butterflies

In these days when so many of us are stuck at home it's nice to notice changes day to day so imagine my surprise this morning to see how much the caterpillars have grown.

Here's how they looked when I checked on April 8 th:

And here they are just this morning!

If you need a reminder that life goes on even in these days of the Covid 19 Pandemic what a great and positive example for you and your family. 

Even better than watching the caterpillars grow is the fact that eventually you'll have butterflies that you can watch fly around the screened grow enclosure (available where you order the caterpillars) in your home for a few days before you release them outdoors.

How great is it that something in this crazy world can fly free and go wherever it wants to.

For those of you who can't do this themselves, stay posted and watch these grow.

Saturday Afternoon

It's amazing how much difference there can be in just a day. You can see more of the markings on the bodies, more of the legs and they're moving around quite a lot as they eat their way through the food on the bottom of the container...and of course leave quite a bit of waste behind

April 11 th

 

I didn't get any photos on the 12th because they were moving around so much and so active getting ready to spin their chrysilis

April 13

Here you can see that one of them has already finished.

 April 14

The rest of them are working on theirs too.

It won't be long before they're ready to be moved into the screen habitat to finish the transformation.

April 16th was moving day. The most important thing here is to very gently remove extra threads and debris so that there is nothing in the way of the butterflies being able to work themselves out of the chrysilis

Sometimes it's a bit of a mess. They can get agitated and start shaking on you. Don't let it scare you. It's just a reflex.

Here they are for the next week or so until they are ready to emerge as butterflies. I can hardy wait!

April 20,2020

I didn't have to wait long. When I woke up this morning I found 2 butterflies out of their chrysalis
and just stretching and drying their wings.

Later on they were flying a bit and feeding on orange slices ad a bit of sugar water.

 Just as I was getting ready to call it a night one more had come out and was hanging off the end of the chrysalis it had come out of. I'm sorry the netting makes this photo a bit hard to see.

I should be able to get better pictures tomorrow. It also looks like one more of the butterflies will be out by then.

It wasn't long before they were all out and this time I thought you might like to see what's left behind once they come out:

Are there any questions that you have?

I've got lot of photos but am not sure if you'd like them all here so I'll just enclose a selection:

What you're seeing in the bottom of the habitat is paper towels soaked in sugar water and next to that cut up oranges for them to feed on.

Happy, hungry butterflies.

The can't be released until the temps are above 50 degrees F. all the time. The night temps are sometimes in the 30's so we brought them out with us this afternoon because it was 60 degrees F. As you can see they stretched their wings out and were really enjoying it.

Hopefully it won't be long before they can be safely released to enjoy the rest of their lives flying free. In the meantime I'm really enjoying watching them and they seen quite happy.

 They aren't flying much yet and I wait a few days until they're strong, flying and getting ready to go. Eventually they'll get restless and head for the opening to let me know that they're ready to move on.

We take them outside days and they're flying more, getting stronger and eating better. I just hope the nigh time temps come up enough that they'll be able to fly all of the places that we can't and take our dreams along with them.

It won't be long my fly babies, I'll miss your but I rejoice in your freedom.

We stat over coffee quite a while as we watched and waited for the butterflies to take flight. As you can imagine it was a very pleasant and rewarding afternoon.