taz_39 | Entries tagged with butterflies

Thursday night we went out to see one of Jameson's friends perform his original music (classic rock style.)

It was at this dive bar/club, but it wasn't too crowded and the drinks were good.
Enjoyed listening to the band and catching up with an assortment of Jameson's buddies between sets.

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Friday I woke up too early, used the time to research what should come next for my firefly petunia.
I am very pleased with how it's bounced back from shipping. It's only been a month and it's twice as big and looks much improved.

However there are some dangly limbs with top-heavy new growth at the tips, which makes me think it might be time to try some cuttings. Here is one of the dangly limbs in question. Someone also suggested that I could bury the plant's main stem, bringing that limb down so it touches the soil and could produce roots there.

I also noticed that this week is scheduled to be slightly cooler, and heat indexes are below 100°F for several days in a row, so I am thinking to start acclimating the plant to live outside. This would free up the grow lights for use with cuttings.

In addition to all of that, I have a developing seed pod!

The pod could take months to develop, and once it does there is no guarantee that the seeds will produce bioluminescent plants. Something about which genes get passed down or whatever; it's like a 50/50 chance of getting glowing babies. So I will probably just harvest the seeds for now and sort that out at a later date.

While Jameson went for a walk I practiced, packed food for work, made a grocery list, researched petunia stuff, and went to Target for some stuff. Oh, and sent my order for my custom Kathy Jeanne hat, making sure to get my boss in the loop and also suggest to the milliner that she experiment with attachment designs so we can do this proposal for an interchangeable trims product line. My boss wrote back today and said he's pitching the idea to corporate and the owner, so I'll be interested A) to see if they accept it and B) to see if he gives me any credit at all or takes it all himself. To be fair it IS his idea, he does deserve the credit, but I'm just hoping he'll throw me a bone for my part in laying groundwork for this discussion to even happen.

I decided that today was Fedora Friday, and wore this white fedora with all-black. Fedoras don't look good on me but oh well.

And all of my coworkers were wearing graphic tees, despite them being outlawed in the employee handbook, so I will wear one on Sunday in solidarity.

The shift was fine, it wasn't as crazy as last Friday so maybe there are fewer people willing to stay out late now that school has started again? I somehow managed to sell THREE Tilley hats! They're $100 each and have a lifetime warranty, but they are HIDEOUS. I don't know who is wearing these or why. Unless you're about to spend a month in the jungle or something I can't see a need for 'em. Well...three people out there are now ready for a jungle safari :p

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Saturday, I'd had stress-dreams about the petunia, limbs snapping off or the plant dying :(
If this one dies, it's not like I can just go out and get another. It's a special plant...and it was expensive!
It will make me feel a lot better to get a successful cutting.

I mixed up it's fertilizer and had breakfast, then went for a walk before the heat got too oppressive.
On my walk I saw a beautiful clearwing sphinx moth, and found a beautiful dead butterfly.

(CLICK HERE to see the sphinx moth)

Back home I did laundry, then drove to Whole Paycheck for salmon filets and a few other things.
Jameson spent the afternoon watching scary movies while I prepped dinner stuff and repotted the petunia.
Original pot:

Post-potting. I did take it inside before repotting to see if the roots glow, but if they did I couldn't see it at all. The roots were very thin and sparse. I'm hoping that burying the main stem will allow more roots to grow. I do think the plant looks more comfortable, closer to the soil like this.

Also, not sure if you can tell but that flower in the middle has a slight pink tinge to it! Perhaps the plant has a pink variety in its ancestry.

I made sous vide salmon with lemon dill sauce, lemon orzo, and roasted broccoli for dinner. Fancy for no reason.
Put the petunia out at night to acclimate to the humidity. It'll be out there until afternoon tomorrow.

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Sunday, I hadn't slept well but that's ok. I didn't work until evening so had a generally chill day.

Coffee and breakfast. Checked on the petunia and it was fine. It started wilting closer to lunchtime when the heat index got above 90°F, so I brought it inside and it perked up almost immediately. Practiced the trombone.

Partway through the day I got two exciting Papa Pal visits!

The hat shop has only been giving me about 18 hours per week so far, so I've decided to supplement by doing Papa Pal on some of my off days. Today I noticed that there were two upcoming visits only five minutes apart. Turns out one is at a memory care facility and the other is at a hospice, and both of them are "companionship visits," meaning instead of scrubbing toilets or mopping floors I'll be spending the time engaging someone in conversation, playing games or doing arts and crafts, and generally just chilling with a new senior friend :)

THIS is why I signed up to do Papa Pals; because it seemed like an opportunity to provide social and emotional aid. Not only that, these two visits are through actual medical facilities and I'll have to check in with a social services agent once I get there, which frankly makes me feel a whole lot safer than just showing up at a random stranger's house and hoping they're not a weirdo.

I know that the visits might not go all hunky-dory, especially the hospice visit. But I'm happy for the opportunity...and maybe this is strange, but I'm excited for them. I'm not a very emotional person, but listening to nursing home interviews as a TSOLife employee for the past several years really has touched me (see THIS entry.)

Anyway, I really hope both visits go well.

A few hours after lunch Jameson left to meet some friends for a movie. The theater is at Disney Springs so they're going to swing by and visit during my shift! I'm weirdly nervous about it but it'll be fine. After he left I took a quick trip to Walmart for a tiny orchid flower (for the person in hospice) and a cup of Mexican rice pudding (for the person with dementia.) Back home a quick shower and typing up this blog...dinner, and then off to work.

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You'll have to wait for the next post for Today's Hat photo. I'm wearing my pink graphic tee with a banana and a strawberry on it, and grey dress slacks. I'm thinking a pale green hat would be nice, or maybe I'll get REALLY crazy and try a tan cowboy hat!

Monday: Visiting my two Papa Pals, rest of the day is free. I may take cuttings from the petunia, we will see how it's doing.

Tuesday: Working the mid-day shift at the hat shop.

Wednesday: A day off, I'll practice because I've been granted a rehearsal with the Main Street Philharmonic on Thursday! I hope we play through the Halloween stuff!

Thursday, a chill morning and an afternoon matinee.

Paul (our drummer) had his sister in the pit with us, so that was cool!
This is making me want to have guests in the pit as well!

Unfortunately our Ableton crashed near the end of the show, but we made it through and I don't think the audience was aware that anything had happened.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, just dinner and the evening show.
Paul's mom sat in on the second show, and seemed to have a good time :)

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Friday, we had most of the day free so I thought it would be nice to walk to Schenectady's Rose Garden.

( CLICK HERE for a walk )
To save time and energy I Ubered back home, as it was now mid-80s and I felt tired and thirsty.

Lunch, and the rest of the afternoon was finishing Dallas Foodie Finds, which is two pages long and just would not seem to END.
Just when I thought I was finished with it, in the process of researching points of interest for our day off I stumbled upon an Eataly at NorthPark Center Mall!

If you have never heard of Eataly before: picture in your mind a Whole Foods.
Shiny, modern, high ceilings. Extensive deli and meat and seafood and cheese offerings.
Upscale, snooty-booty products on the shelves.

Now imagine that it's ALL ITALIAN.
Italian Whole Foods! That's Eataly.

There are only seven Eataly stores in the US.
I've been to the one in Chicago, and had some of the best pasta of my life there, and saw mozzarella being made in-house.
The store contains three restaurants, an Italian coffee bistro, a pastry/cake cafe, and an Italian candy section.
The deli areas have pasta, doughs, cured meats, cheeses, seafood, etc.
There's produce, and of course Italian imports and wine and all the things you'd expect to see in an Italian store.

In other words, I gotta go! Because who knows if I'll ever get to go again.
Here's a 2-minute walkthrough video that some kind soul made, if you're interested to see the store.
CLICK HERE to watch

Anyway. The evening show went well.

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On Saturday I got up early to have breakfast with my friend Kriste.
She took me to a great local diner, where I ordered a veggie Benedict and received a veggie omelette instead, but I didn't say a word.
Because either way it's delicious, and still technically what I ordered ("veggies and eggs") so win-win! Haha.

We were able to chat and catch up a bit, which was really nice.
Kriste and I worked together in New Jersey at an editing/writer's submission firm, way back in 2008ish.
Since then we have both moved around and changed a lot. But it was good to see that she's still the kind, funny, awesome person that she was all those years ago :)

After breakfast we went to a co-op (because foodie adventures!) where Kriste wanted to get bulk ingredients to make cookies for her vegan boyfriend. Because if you're not vegan you don't need a 1lb bag of vegan flour, you know?

We found everything that we needed and then some; we each got a pastry and a beverage to enjoy later.
I saw lots of things that I wanted but couldn't get because travel. That's ok, the fun is in the looking!

We hugged and parted ways, then I relaxed until it was time for the first show.

Both shows were fine, we had good audiences :)
We had another guest in the pit, one of Kevin's friends this time (Kevin = Reed 1).

Also, Kriste sent me a picture of her vegan lemon cookies, which I think turned out very nicely.

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Sunday I was happy to "sleep in" which was only until 8am haha.

Then breakfast during which I tried the last of my Schenectady co-op foods:

- Ginger Sheep Milk Yogurt from Old Chatham Creamery: Very good! I've now had both sheep and goat milk yogurt, and in my opinion sheep's milk yogurt is far superior. It's smooth and rich, the flavor is gently earthy, and it goes so well with granola or fruit or even toast. I will say that I wish there had been instructions to stir on the cup, because all the ginger was in the bottom and I didn't realize that until halfway through. Otherwise though, it was very good and I'd definitely buy it again.

- Vanilla Cacao Water from Blue Stripe: This was "ok" in the way that coconut water is "ok", haha. It tasted like someone melted part of a Lik-a-Stix in some water. Not terrible but would I pay $$ for it again? Nah.

The usual Sunday packing and food prepping for the travel day (we are leaving around 10am and should have time for lunch at the airport too, yay!) and soon enough it was time for our last show. We had a good audience, and load out went normally.

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It's Monday and it's raining steadily. Hopefully our flights won't be delayed.

In about two hours we load onto the bus. We won't get to Dallas until after 6pm Central Time.

Schenectady was nice, but I can't help but look forward to two weeks in one place, and time to explore.

I have been to Fair Park and the Dallas Farmers Market.
This time I'd like to visit the Arboretum, possibly the art museum, some thrift stores, and of course my list of foodie spots including Eataly.

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Other Stuff:

An update on the banana tree.
Jameson says it rained last night, actual rain not just a drizzle, which is wonderful.
So far the bananas still look good to me, no obvious rot or issues. Keep growing little guys!

Monarch caterpillar --> chrysalis --> butterfly mural on a building in Schenectady.

Someone wrote this on our dressing room directional arrows. Fake news :p

My Year In 2021:

- Grew 33 types of plants in my garden.

- Baked 24 types of bread.

- Made lots of new meals and foods including shrimp and grits, Scotch eggs, gnocchi from scratch, salmon cakes, collard greens, banana pudding, and the best lemon bars

- My first-ever attempt at macarons was a moderate success.

- Ate frog legs, butterbeer, "yakiniku", beef on weck, pavlova, muffuletta, turtle soup, and white sapote for the first time.

- Transferred to another steno school, then quit steno school in October.

- Watched Biden's inauguration.

- Sold my bass trombone.

- Raised eight monarch butterflies from eggs, and watched them all fly away

- Got cross-trained to be a Supervisor and Training Assistant at CapTel.

- Got Employee of the Month at CapTel.

- Experienced working from home 1-2x per week.

- Interviewed for, was offered, and declined a position in HR at CapTel.

- Got vaccinated in April and on May the 4th!

- Got a booster shot over Thanksgiving.

- Got covid tested over 30 times, both PCR and rapid tests.

- Got my first leather jacket.

- Feld Entertainment announced that Ringling Bros Circus would resume in 2023.

- Played in VR on the Oculus (and it was amazing!)

- Had a tire blow out on the highway.

- Visited my parents in June, which was the last time I would see my Dad.

- Found out that my grandfather was a radar technician in the Army Air Force (AAF).

- One of my sisters had her first baby!!

- Got invited to go on tour with Tootsie the Musical.

- Jameson got kidney stones.

- Jameson directed a production of Head Over Heels.

- Jameson directed a production of RENT.

- Celebrated eight years with my Jameson!!

- Went to Universal's Haunted Horror Nights for the first time.

- Parents contracted covid.

- Dad passed away of covid-related complications.

- Helped plan a funeral for the first time.

- Signed the wall at the Dr. Phillips Center after performing there.

- Started a TikTok.

- First full-time work as a musician since before the pandemic started.

- Met lots of amazing people on tour and in life

These are just some of the things that I experienced for better or worse.
A sample of 1/37th of my time on earth so far.
All I can say is, yes there were certain things that made this a terrible year.
But there were other things that were good, and should be appreciated.

(Also, can you see why I choose not to have kids?? Could I have done ANY of the good stuff if I'd had children??)

For 2022, in addtion to doing my best to "just get through it", I will try to keep my chin up for myself and the people around me.
I'll try to be less negative, and more empathetic.
But I AM still going to be pretty selfish.
Because life is very, very short.

I mean, I haven't even tried BLACK sapote yet.

Some random nature from the past few days.

I saw something moving in the grass near my workplace, and when I went to investigate, found this adorable gopher tortoise chomping on some grass!

Of course as soon as I got close he scurried away. I followed and got to see his cute scaly butt blocking the entrance to his burrow.

Finally getting some visitors to my pollinator garden! I think everything is just blooming and growing at different rates this year, so the butterflies have not been around as often. But it's still the same two species frequenting my garden, the pipevine and the spicebush.

This pipevine was stunning. His wings were shining in the morning light. It amazes me how metallic they look, and the beautiful shades of blue and purple that are subtle and prominent in his wings.

Then there was this very old, tattered, faded spicebush. In many ways, this butterfly is even more beautiful. You can see that she has been through a lot, yet she was still energetic, dive-bombing the pipevine to compete for the best nectar. I was so happy to get such good footage of both butterflies, but this particular butterfly seemed very special indeed.

This next one is not nature, but I had wanted to share it and forgot.

Here is a picture of one of the first whole wheat loaves I made.
You can see how it's more dense near the bottom, with larger air bubbles near the top.
It was also kind of dry and crumbly (though perfectly edible).

Now here is the whole wheat that I made last week.
Very similar recipe, the main difference being using the tangzhong method.
You can see how much tighter the crumb is, how much more uniform.

I'm just very happy to have evidence that my loaves are improving! Very cool.

Thursday, I woke up earlier than usual because Jameson had to be up early for a rehearsal.
That's ok, I also went to bed earlier than usual so still got decent sleep.

I put a load of laundry in, then went out to look at the garden.

The basil is back to being insane. There will definitely be one more round of caprese sandwiches and pesto pasta before I leave.

I keep wanting to pull these cowpeas up, but they just keep producing beans, so...ok! I'll pull them up once I have enough beans for a meal.

A branch of the finger lime tree. There's a big painful thorn at the base of each leaf.

My passion vine is officially dead. You can see how the grass is brown next to the fence...we think that the HOA's lawn people sprayed something, because all of the grass is dead for the entire length of the fence.

Well you know what, f*ckers, I planted a BACKUP passion vine on the OTHER side of the fence. So SUCK IT :p

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Weekeeeeeeeend

Had some nice coffee, got this week's bread started (a raisin walnut loaf) and went outside to check on the garden things.

So in my last post (yesterday) my chrysalides looked like this:

And this is how they were Wednesday morning:

AAAAAAAAH!!! They're ready!

I tried not to freak out and went about my day as usual, but checked on them frequently to see if I could catch the emergence when it happened (it's called "eclosing", but that word is weird so I'm not much using it). I got the bread on its 3-hour rise, then went out to the garden to plant my milkweed and finish checking on stuffs. The bananas really are getting bigger!

Look at the weird flower bud of the black sapote.

A recent storm ripped out part of the screen in our lanai, so the creatures can get in.
My boyfriend came out to check out the chrysalides and found a banded sphinx moth in a corner of the pool deck!

I fished her out with the pool net and took her to a shady tree, where I hope she'll be more comfortable.

I planted three milkweed and the roselle plant in the pollinator garden. Hopefully no one else will lay eggs for a while so the milkweed can recover from being eaten. After finishing that project I wanted to wash my hands and prepare to interact with the bread again. As I was walking past the butterfly enclosure, I saw that one of the black chrysalides was cracking open!!

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Friday, a pleasant surprise...I'm going to get to work from home two days a week again!!!

Wow, I was not expecting that. But apparently the company had ordered us a bunch of brand new Dell computers, and with the delays in the supply chain the plan to send us back home has been on hold for months. The computers finally arrived while I was out for the weekend. I went to the office to get my computer and find out what days will be my Work From Home (WFH) days. Friday and Monday! Last time it was Friday and Tuesday, which was nice because it felt like a long weekend. But actually WFH on Monday is WAY better because now I will be on time for my Monday steno classes!! Yay!

It's a lot of work to make up the class, so I'm very excited that for three weeks of each month I'll be able to attend. (The fourth week I have to work on-site, that's part of our rotation so that we can all enjoy WFH).

Work itself was fine, nothing to report. I got a rejection letter for one of the internal job openings I applied to, no surprise as it's an HR position and I have zero HR experience.

Back home I ate dinner then checked out my new work-toy. I won't take pictures because my company is suuuuper all about confidentiality, proprietary information, etc etc, so suffice to say it's a Dell All-in-1 with a touchscreen and an external FCC sound card. This is the same equipment that captionists use onsite, which means that if we need to caption from home, we will be able to (not right now but at some point). I'm really glad, this was one function we'd all really wanted last year because sometimes there are outages or we get shorthanded, and the more people can caption the better.

Anyway, when that was set up I did my steno homework and shopped for bras. I HATE shopping for bras online! I've got tiny, limp boobs, and it's not easy to find something comfortable + the right shape for me, even in a physical store much less online. So I pretty much just used Poshmark and Ebay to find bras that I know will fit, and ordered them. Hopefully they don't arrive with sweatstains on them or something. Sigh.

Saturday was pretty slow, it was hot and humid outside, but like an icebox at work. I felt tired and droopy, but did my best.
Got home, checked on the chrysalides, everyone looks fine. There are now four chrysalides in my pollinator garden.
20+ eggs, 12 caterpillars, down to 6 caterpillars, and now 4 chrysalides. I'm sure there are more hiding somewhere, but dang, survivability is poor.

After dinner we had an exciting Actual Social Event, a band with a lot of Jameson's friends in it was playing over at Margaritaville, outdoors, socially distanced. We sat down at a table full of former Disney performers, all fully vaccinated except for me and like one other chick. It felt very "Before-fore Times". And it was nice. I got to hug people. No, I'm not fully vaccinated. But also, no one around me has gotten sick. Ok?

Some idiot at the table was buying WAY too many shots, so we ended up with at least two free drinks which was two more than I'd intended to have. But hey, it felt good in the moment. It was a nice moment of socialization, and pretending things are normal again.

https://instagram.com/p/CN0ygj2H7IL

Sunday, work again. It was a slow day, I was glad because I wanted to wrap up as much as possible before working from home on Monday.
At home we had BBQ from a new place we'd found, it was ok but overpriced so it probably won't be a regular stop for us.
After dinner I quick-pickled the jalapenos from my garden because five of them were ready to use. I added a thinly-sliced carrot as well. Boiled with equal parts vinegar and water, and salt and sugar for a few seconds, then left it to brine and cool with crushed garlic. Should be really nice on eggs or with cold cuts.

Then I cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, and did not-enough-steno-practice before getting tired and going to bed.

Monday, my first day of working from home! It was nice to have the extra hour of sleep, and to drink coffee from a mug instead of a lockable thermos. It was nice to be able to go to the bathroom when I needed to, and to break my work into manageable chunks without interruption. Some things did need a litte extra work, like downloading all my spreadsheets and figuring out how they want us to use Zoom now, but overall it was a more relaxing way to work and I'm very grateful for it. Saving four hours of driving, two hours of sleep, and a thimble of sanity. Worth it.

During breaks I checked on my chrysalides (no change) and spent time with Jameson, who was doing classwork in the bedroom. After work we had pizza, then I had steno class while Jameson relaxed, then he had some theatre meetings while I relaxed. Then we rejoined again for Spring Baking Championship before going to bed.

Tuesday, very stressful. I notice that Tuesdays usually are stressful, no idea why, but it's very annoying.
I can basically assume that we'll "somehow" be shorthanded and I'll have to cover more work than usual.
I can assume that something unusual will happen during the day that will prevent me from completing my usual tasks, so that I feel frustrated and fed up at the end of the day.
And of course, I can assume that whatever-it-is will happen right before my shift ends so that I'll be desperately rushing to finish my tasks and finally leave much later than usual.

Because Tuesday!!

I escaped work nearly 10 minutes late (doesn't seem like a big deal until you try to drive past Disney World at 4:55 instead of 4:45, give it a go if you don't believe me) and stopped at the grocery for dinner ingredients. Back home, said hello to Jameson, ate dinner, checked the chrysalides. There was a big storm in the afternoon and one of them had fallen down.

It didn't seem damaged, so I did what Google said and carefully tied a bit of string to the torn caterpillar silk, then re-hung it in the enclosure with a safety pin. Lookin' good.

While poking around in there I noticed that one chrysalis is darkening, and the wings are starting to form. Very cool to see!

The four chrysalides in my pollinator garden all seem fine too. The one who pupated on the fence was kind of glowing in the setting sun, looked very pretty.

There you have it, my week.
This weekend I'm baking raising walnut bread per my breaducation, and might crack into the apple butter I made over Christmas to enjoy on top. I've also got to put all of the milkweed into the garden, the pool deck is getting cluttered with all my potted plants. And I'm making steak for dinner on Thursday, and steno class in on Wednesday night, and somewhere in there I hope to finally attempt to make macarons.

Thanks to Unexpected Moderna Vaccine Shot Number One followed by Unexpected Side Effects Part One, all of my plans for Thursday were shattered.

I got the shot Tuesday afternoon, and started having side effects Wednesday night. I was trapped in a series of fever dreams involving filling some sort of spreadsheet, which I couldn't understand why it was so necessary to fill it out, because I was SLEEPING, wasn't I? But it had to be done or else I couldn't sleep, even though I technically WAS asleep. And then my stomach started cramping and felt like it was full of acid, but I didn't want to get up for fear of worrying my boyfriend, but eventually it became too painful and my heart was beating too fast from anxiety. I got up and made it to the kitchen before having to sit down so I wouldn't pass right out (probably just because I had worked myself up). Had some water and a Tums, tried to eat a piece of bread but my mouth refused to produce saliva and my stomach churned just from smelling it, and that's about when I knew this was more than a panic attack.

The next day Jameson found me curled up in the recliner, moaning over a handful of strawberries and a few crackers.
I forced myself to sip coffee throughout the day because the last thing I needed on top of everything was a blistering caffeine headache. The only food my body appreciated was half a frozen banana I found in the fridge, everything else I had to choke down (mostly simple carbs as you can imagine). I also had body aches, my guts kept cramping, and I felt exhausted.

Now to be fair, I haven't been sick in a very long time, I'm talking years. Not even a sore throat or a sniffle since 2018. So although I probably make this sound awful, it wasn't that bad. I have been sick WAY worse than this. Being mildly nauseous, uncomfortable, and overheated for a day is nothing compared to some flus I've had. So yes, I crawled around like a slug all day and felt miserable, but it probably just felt worse because it's been so long since I've felt those things.

I called work to warn them that I may not be in the next day, but I did sleep well and then woke the next day with no aches or elevated temperature, just a feeling of exhaustion and residual nausea. I went through the day in a fog, but fortunately it was a slow day. By the time I got home I was feeling about 80% better. I checked on the caterpillars and found three of them preparing to pupate! The time has finally come!!

See the cottony-looking stuff around his head? That's a "silk button" that they make, and then hang from in a J-shape to start making their chrysalis.

The next morning, like an idiot, I woke up and checked my phone for the time and saw ??:45 and somehow my brain just assumed it was time to get up and get ready for work. So I didn't question it, I got up and had my coffee and got all my stuff together, then snuck out back with a flashlight to check on the caterpillars since they're so close to pupating. I started to carefully unzip the side access panel, and stopped cold. A fourth caterpillar had decided that the best place to form a chrysalis would be ON THE ZIPPER. Like, directly on the moving part. Little dumbass!!!

I had already moved him a few inches without realizing it, and there was nothing I could do...I had to be able to open the side to continue caring for everyone. I moved so slowly and carefully, but despite my care he fell as the zipper reached the bottom, rolling gently across the floor, curled up protectively. Time to panic. Did I just kill him?? I had disrupted his pupation and broken his J-hang. Would he die an awful death if he couldn't re-hang himself?? I frantically searched Google for what I could do. The Googs suggested finding a Q-tip or cotton ball and touching the caterpillar with it. If the caterpillar was not too far along in the process, he might be able to grab the cotton and use it to resume his J-hang. I did as instructed with a cotton ball, and he did grab on, although in doing so a little dark green fluid came out of his nethers :( He wasn't hurt but I know that caterpillars go semi-liquid inside during their metamorphosis so it terrified me to see this.

Anyway, I was able to tuck the cotton ball into a crack in the edge of a milkweed pot so that he was hanging upside down again. Then I really had to get to work (or so I thought) so I cleaned up as best I could and hit the road.

About 15 minutes later I noticed that my car clock was reading 6:00am. Well that can't be right. I left at 6:40, didn't I?
Wait...isn't it unusually dark...?

For some reason, my brain had me out the door at 5:40. Which is when I'm usually waking up to get ready for work.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Guess my covid mind control microchip is working.

I drove to a Panera near work and took a nap in the back of my car. Got a breakfast sandwich and a salad for lunch. Sulked to work feeling like an absolute moron.

Spent all day worrying about my little caterpillar, dreading the possibility of coming home to find him dead on the bottom of the enclosure. Couldn't drive home fast enough, took toll roads even. Ran outside to see what had happened.

He was still there. To my surprise, he had left his cotton pad and climbed all the way back up the mesh to re-hang himself.
STILL ON TOP OF THE ZIPPER. DUMB LITTLE SH*T! Going to give me an aneurism, I swear!
Although I was not awake enough to realize what time I had left that morning, I somehow did have the wherewithal to have the zippers meet at the bottom of the enclosure where a caterpillar would be less likely to attempt a J-hang. So even though this little idiot insists on the zipper, I can still at least unzip enough to lift the plants and replace the paper towels under them. Phew.

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Three day weekend yaaaaay!

On Tuesday I got up at the usual time, it felt great to sleep in.
After breakfast the plumber came right on time and was finished in like 20 minutes. Expensive! But the toilet isn't constantly draining now so there's that.

Then I did some yard work, it was Fertilizer Day which happens every two weeks. Everyone gets watered plus an infusion of fish/seaweed micronutrients and epsom salts. In addition, the container garden gets "Edibles" fertilizer from Miracle Gro; the citrus plants get a 6-4-6 citrus fertilizer; the banana trees get an 8-10-8 fertilizer; and the orchid gets its own special fertilizer as well. Not sure how much it helps, but the majority of plants seem happy so that says something.

While I was doing that I brought the caterpillars out in the sun with me.

They were very distracting and cute. I also couldn't help but be worried, as it's unclear whether my darker caterpillars are infected with some sort of virus. There's a particular disease called Black Death that this coloration might signify...specifically, the "dirty"-looking white stripes. For all my worrying, though, there's nothing I can do for them except euthanize them if necessary. It's unlikely that anything I did or didn't do caused them to get the disease, it just happens sometimes. This is going to suck, though, if they die without ever getting to be butterflies.

After I finished up in the garden Jameson came out to tell me his friend had just gone to a vaccination site in Winter Garden, and had experienced zero wait. The site was open until 6pm, and here it was about noon. I was shocked. I had kind of assumed, with Florida having just opened vaccination to adults 18+ literally yesterday, that there would be huge lines and booked appointments everywhere. Well OK! Let me eat lunch and head over there!

I'm apprehensive about shots, sometimes I have a fight-or-flight reaction that involves feeling faint and/or actually fainting, but I still always get my shots and blood draws because I know even though it's scary and feels awful, nothing bad is ACTUALLY happening, it's just my body's reaction. I can't help what my body does, but the part of me that is logical can still operate regardless of instinctive hang-ups. So I ate lunch, screwed up my courage, and drove 30 minutes to the site, which turned out to be a walk-in clinic.

I was amazed that there really was no line. A woman standing next to a table full of clipboards asked if I was there for a vaccine, yes ma'am, ok here's some paperwork, go to that window to show your documentation. I handed over my ID and insurance card and filled out the paperwork while she got me in the system. We finished at about the same time, and I returned to the table to give my paperwork, then was led to a hallway and told to wait. But right as I started to sit down a gentleman stepped into the hall and said, we can take you in right now if you like, and I DID like, so in we went.

I was shown to a small table with a smiling nurse, who asked me a few questions about allergic reactions and confirmed that this was my first covid shot, etc. She handed me my vaccination card, explained that it was the Moderna shot and I'd be coming back in May for the second shot, asked which arm, and boom, that was it.

I think from the moment I stepped inside to the administration of the shot wasn't even five minutes.

She handed me a little timer thingee and told me to hang out for 15, so I did. Of course I took pictures like an idiot, isn't that the thing?

Then I drove home. Yay! I finally got the covid vaccine!!
I kind of was in shock. I wasn't expecting to get it until June or later. Just wow.

My next vaccination date is on a Tuesday as well, maybe I'll be able to use my covid sick leave for it. I hope so. I'd love another three day weekend boiiiiii

After that I made a butterfly puddler, something I've been wanting to do but it took me a little while to gather the materials. Flat rock, little rocks, sand, drip tray. A little epsom salt in the water. Boom.

Pretty, right? This will be pretty impractical once monsoon season starts, but right now it's hot and unseasonably dry so It'll be a good experiment. I want to see of course if butterflies will use it, but I also intentionally left a puddle to see how quickly it evaporates (ironically there aren't supposed to be puddles in a puddler). Having an idea of how fast it evaporates on hot dry days will be helpful with refilling it in a timely manner.

Then I went inside and we ordered pizza, I made wings and practiced my steno while Jameson played video games with a friend. My arm felt pretty sore, but that's a small price to pay. I mean come on, our parents have permanent scars from some of their vaccinations.

Wednesday, my arm felt sore. I thought nothing of it and went about my day, but around the middle of the day felt unusually tired and achy, nothing debilitating, just uncomfortable. From what I've read, your body starts attacking the covid "spikes" at the injection site, and this is why you have the symptoms similar to when you get sick. I'm a little surprised to be feeling symptoms enough to be noticeable with just the first shot, but maybe that shouldn't be surprising. It's also been a hell of a stressful week, so I'm sure that doesn't help.

I made myself some fancy coffee in the siphon, had breakfast, checked on my caterpillars.
I brought the plants out into the sunlight so the 'pillars could enjoy the warmth while I cleaned their enclosure, and was pleasantly surprised at how active and ravenous they were. Nobody is getting skinnier, or puking, or having loose poops, so I think for now they are actually OK, darkish coloring aside.

Also, the rate at which they devour their plant is quite impressive. (there are four videos, use the arrows to scroll)

https://instagram.com/p/CNXu8_js-yV

With the caterpillars happy and not looking very diseased, I felt cheered and went inside to start this week's Bread Baking for Beginners loaf: wheat batard. "Batard" is just a different shape, kind of a football. And it's not nearly whole wheat, just a fraction of the flour is wheat, but I guess the goal is to get you used to working with whole grain flours. I got the dough started and while it was resting, ran to the grocery for dinner ingredients. Absolutely HAD to get creamsicles for some reason, maybe that's a side effect of the vaccine? ;)

Back home I kind of created a clusterf*ck of poor time management. I had planned ot make dinner, like I always do on Wednesdays, but now my steno class is on Wednesday at 5:30pm...so you can see how that creates a problem. Plus I had already started the bread and couldn't stop that process. I started making dinner too late, I messed up the mac and cheese and it came out all grainy, I had to email my teacher to say I'd be late to class, ate scalding hot chicken right out of the air fryer, then ran to class shouting directions at Jameson for the bread because it would be done in 15 minutes. He popped in to my class with the bread and it looked...wrong. Super pale. I continued with class, all the while thinking wtf happened to my bread...then it hit me. I had forgotten to change the oven temp after baking the mac and cheese. It was set to 375F. The bread was supposed to cook at 475.

ARRRRGH.

Well, lesson learned. I took on too much. Ya can't do that, or things will suffer.
Caterpillars, or loaves of bread. Or you.

I finished class. I threw out the bread, and thanked Jameson for his help. I cleaned up the kitchen. I fixed myself a drink.
I uploaded more pictures of caterpillars. Look how cute.

Thursday, well, Thursday night,
I woke up sweating, shaking, thinking I was having a panic attack.
But my guts were twisting and painful, and I felt nauseous.
It was a long awful night of fever dreams. In the morning I dragged myself to the bathroom to check my temperature: 99.6.
Not a "fever", but that's quite high for me, I run cold at 97.1.

I had aches, nausea, cramping guts, exhaustion. No idea if this is a reaction to the vaccine, or maybe getting the vaccine popped the balloon that was containing all of the stress and overwork and vitriol of the past week, and now it's all exploded out in the form of feeling absolutely awful. I wouldn't put it past stress and overwork to cause a fever and cramping guts. Or the vaccine, what do I know.

Scrapped my plans for breadmaking and macaron experiments, and just clung to the day barely functioning.
Around 4pm I called work to let them know I may not be in tomorrow if this doesn't improve (this after taking my temperature and getting 100.2). We get a pretty big bonus for perfect attendance after six months, and this would ruin my streak, but I'm going to be no use to anyone doubled over with abdominal cramps, running to the bathroom at random, and generally looking like someone you don't want to interact with.

Jameson was very sweet all day and looked out for me. I ate what I could, and tried to rest.
Now I'm going to lie down at 7:30pm. If this is a side effect of the vaccine maybe it'll be reduced by tomorrow. If it's not, guess I'll have another day off from work. Yay? Ugh.

I just want to remind everyone that EVERY TIME I take a three-day weekend, something like this happens to ruin it. Literally every single time.

Thursday:

Woke up earlier than I wanted to, but all I could think about was getting that dang giant milkweed into the ground already.
I'm glad I waited an extra day to do the major gardening, because it was about 20 degrees cooler out. A nice cold front passing through. It made gardening pleasant. Well aware that I might not see weather like this again for there rest of the year, I not only planted the milkweed but also moved a lot of soil (i.e. SAND) to fill in the pollinator garden. It's on a slight slope, so the torrential rains wash a lot of stuff away and it creates channels that pull water away from the plants. So I dumped sand and my leftover garden soil around the plants, then stole mulch from the neighbor's edging to top it all off. Don't feel bad for the neighbors, it's a vacation rental. No one comes to Florida on vacation looking at the mulch.

Here's the giant milkweed, next to the regular milkweed that has all the fungus spores or whatever.
(the plant should survive the spores, just the caterpillars prefer uninfected leaves as you can well imagine)

To top off my work, I added a butterfly puddler that I'd bought on Etsy (for far too much, but it's handmade and all).
Supposedly this is a high-fired mineral clay that will exude minerals when wet by summer rains and then left to dry.
I kind of don't believe it'll work that way, especially since I soaked it for about an hour and it dried out in seconds. I'm wondering if I should have it sitting in a tray of water or something. Whatever, it looks pretty anyway. We'll see how functional it is.

I checked on the caterpillars, and there was a lot more poop, which is great, they're eating and growing.
In fact, I caught this guy eating his molted skin, meaning he';s probably on the fourth instar. Damn! Just one more until he's ready to try to become a butterfly! It's only been a week!! (Click the little right arrow to see a few more pics)

https://instagram.com/p/CNIiaGAgan6

I feel an overwhelming urge to buy a GoPro so I can document the whole chrysalis thing while away at work.
I have a Hero 4, but I think it's bricked. I haven't been able to get it to work or hold a charge, and the latest update I can find is from 2016.
Hmm.

After lunch I boiled some eggs for deviled eggs for Easter Sunday, then Jameson asked for potato Chicago dogs (it's the start of baseball season!) so I hit Publix for potatoes and hot dogs. It's pretty much the same as a Chicago dog but on a potato instead of a bun.

After dinner I surprised myself by actually practicing steno while Jameson played games, and then we watched Top Chef together.

Tomorrow (Friday) I have an interview for another internal job opening. Then I pick up some ham for Easter from HoneyBaked Ham. Then I've promised to bring a roselle seedling to someone "on the way" home from work, which is actually 30 minutes out of the way, but whatever. She will give me a white milkweed in exchange.

Lots of plant stuff this week, huh. Lots going on. Next weekend I've got three days off.

The saga continues!

Tuesday:

The best work day yet. My job interview at 9:30am took an hour and made the day seem nice and short.
No idea how I did, on Tuesdays my brain is absolute mush after a week of little sleep, and this week it was even less than the usual five hours per night because every time Jameson got home from his gig at 1am I'd wake up and we'd share details about our day, then I'd have to work to get back to sleep again. I answered the interview questions as best I could, but I got the impression that it was a formality and they weren't really considering me for this role. I'm not upset, I kind of figured going into this one. My odds are better with the Floor Ops position, which I'll interview for on Friday (after two days of real sleep, so that should go better).

Jameson got his second shot today!

I'm very happy for him! He is taking it easy both because we're not sure if he'll have side effects, and also because it's his spring break. Mine too technically, although I'm still going to practice steno. I like taking it easy. We ordered pizza, then Jameson wanted to see the caterpillars as he's been too busy lately to have a look. You might remember that in the last post I was panicking because I could only find five-ish caterpillars when there had been nine-ish on the plants the day before. Well this time, with Jameson there to help me count, we found eight of them for sure. So they are just really, really small and really, really good at hiding. Those little shits.

There are still some caterpillars in the pollinator garden as well, but I definitely did not see as many. It's just as well, I don't think there's enough milkweed to support loads of them. I saw a large assassin bug sitting on top of a milkweed stalk too, so I'm sure it's making a nice meal out of any caterpillars it sees. This little guy was chewing on some flower buds. I hope he makes it. But if not...nature.

https://instagram.com/p/CND3GSLs7X9

Wednesday:

Jameson had a rough night with vaccine side effects. Apparently it gave him violent chills...he even had to put a quilt on, which is very unusual for him as he overheats easily. The next morning he felt better, but decided to take it easy for the day. That was fine with me. As always, I'm so, so happy for the weekend. I truly need an actual vacation. Never gonna happen. And that's why I make things as pleasant as possible on they days I do get.

I woke up late. I made slow-brewed, fancy coffee with the coffee siphon. I enjoyed warm oatmeal with fruit and maple syrup and spices, topped with Greek yogurt. Then I went out to the garden.

Last week everything still looked kinda sad. This week, things are coming alive.
I was thrilled to see flower buds on my finger lime! Flowers eventually = fruit!!

Equally thrilled that the little Meyer lemon is finally starting to set some fruit! It looks like we'll get five lemons again, although they're going to be ready probably in February of next year.

Even the black sapote has what looks like flower buds. I wasn't expecting it to bloom so soon, it's such a little tree.

The Jamaican sorrel (i.e. roselle) that I'm growing from seed has doubled in height. I'm considering putting one in the yard before full summer hits to see how it does.

New growth on the vanilla is now starting to take off again. I'm excited to see how much it will grow this year!

The passion fruit vine is absolutely DOMINATING everything right now. It is growing so quickly that I can no longer track how many flower buds are on it. Every day I have to tie a piece of new growth to the fence, and pollinate anywhere from 2-5 flowers. There's even a tendril growing along the ground, heading off into the woods. This plant is psychotic. However that does mean a VERY good harvest for me this year! As of today I count a little over twenty fruit in various stages of development, and many, many more buds forming...and summer hasn't even started yet. I'll definitely have to come up with some recipes up in here. Or start selling them...they're $2 a pop at the grocery after all.

Even my half-dead trumpet pitcher plant has created some kind of growth, thing.
I'm not sure what it is, but since the plant is obviously stressed I'm going to assume a seed pot or flower of some kind before it kicks the bucket. If it's seeds I'll try to grow another (expectations are low).

While I was admiring the passion vine, a monarch butterfly came swooping in!
This one was a male (you can tell by two black spots on the lines on his dorsal wings) so no more eggs, thankfully.
He just wanted a snack. He stuck around for quite a while, so I was able to get some great footage.
(There are multiple videos here so be sure to click the little arrow on the right to see more)

https://instagram.com/p/CNFnGSkMIpC

( Read more... )

A lot happened this week, so I figured I'd better split the post.

On Friday:

Work sucked again. It was basically Tuesday Part Two. I couldn't get a damn thing done all morning because I kept having to handle stuff from last week. Someone in Scheduling was like, could you send that thing from the 21st again with different information? My boss was like, why did you delegate some of your tasks at the end of the day, did you wait until the last minute to do them? Then when I looked into that, there were emails I had written up on Tuesday but hadn't sent. There were captionists that I needed to have meetings with because they hadn't been there last week. And then for whatever reason people are calling in absent AGAIN, so AGAIN there was an impossible amount of stuff to do. I didn't even get started on my tasks for the actual day until after noon. So dumb.

Under all this was running an underlying current of worry about the monarch eggs. Did I close the lid too tight on that tupperware? Was it too moist in there, would mold grow? It was nearly 90F outside, would they cook in there?! I couldn't stop fretting over it.

Right after work I drove out to Lukas Butterfly Encounter, a plant nursery kind-of close to my work. I had hoped to be able to ask about monarch care, but on a Friday evening a week before Easter they were HOPPING and I didn't want to pester them with questions not involving purchases. Instead I found the milkweed and grabbed two that looked especially bushy but not especially tall. They were labeled "scarlet milkweed" so they're probably the tropical variety.

Back home Jameson had already left for his Epcot gig (woot, good for him!) so I ran out to see how the caterpillars were doing.
And this is what I found.

https://instagram.com/p/CM5nUo7sJVW

They're here. Already. OMG! Two of the six eggs had hatched.
I counted my lucky stars that I had bought a mesh enclosure immediately after deciding to raise monarchs. It had arrived in the mail and was sitting right there on the porch. I quickly set it up (it's just like a mesh laundry hamper only with a side zipper) and gave the milkweed a good rinsing. Lukas Nursery doesn't use pesticides, but you never know what's riding on plants. Plus the caterpillars can enjoy the water too.

I lined the bottom of the enclosure with paper towels to help catch any poop, put the plants inside, and gently set the caterpillars and remaining eggs on the plants. Now they have a safe, ventilated enclosure and two whole milkweed plants all to themselves. I won't have to worry about feeding them for a while, just checking on them every day to clean the enclosure and provide water. Supposedly they'll be ready to become butterflies in only a few weeks. Wild!

Newly hatched caterpillar with my index finger for scale.

The enclosure. These guys get a luxury suite.

Like an idiot, I joined a facebook group centered around raising monarchs and posted there to show my setup. It always amazes me what snooty prudes people are. Advice is always great, I love to hear from people who know what they're doing, but there are always those who just cannot scroll by without dropping a "you're doing it wrong" or "I'm doing it better". Didn't realize this was a competition, folks. I'm doing this because I give a damn and because it's fun, not for your pleasure. People are no fun. I can't wait to be a hermit.

Anyway, I finished my evening with a quick plant check and found one more caterpillar in the actual pollinator garden, which to me is a minor miracle. Few of the eggs seem to be left and they probably didn't hatch, but were eaten before getting that chance. I scooped up the lone survivor (there could have been more but I only saw one) and put him in the enclosure too. Why not? What if my other four eggs don't hatch? At least I've definitely got three, for now.

Saturday:

Another stressful workday, although less stressful overall because I managed to find my Give A Shit button and switch it OFF. I did what I could do. I'm sorry the workload is so crazy right now, but I can't make up for the fact that more than half the supervisors chose to unprofessionally call in absent this month because it's spring break and they couldn't get the vacation time they wanted. I put my stupid head down and did what I could do, and didn't stress about it. And that's how I'd like the rest of the week to go, too.

Of course I was worrying half the day about whether the caterpillars are all right. Today's big fear was whether I had accidentally sprayed my milkweed seedlings with spinosad at some point. It's something I would do...armyworm caterpillars piss me off so much that I spray like crazy whenever I do spray, sometimes not thinking about WHY I'm growing the milkweed, and how close it is to my vegetables. I definitely need to take more care with that from now on.

When I got out to my car to head home from work, this was on the windshield:

Good lord.
Look, I'm all about unions. I was in the musician's union, and it wasn't so bad. I've got a lot of thoughts about this, but the main one is, if employees can't be bothered to put a question mark at the end of a sentence while captioning, how TF do they figure they get to make demands? Also, do they realize we're partially funded by the FCC? What makes anyone think the FCC is going to be transparent with a high-turnover lot of teenagers? Finally, I want to say to them: you DO realize that our job right now is essentially to train an AI to replace us in a decade or less, right? smh. No, I will not be joining this "union".

On the way home I got a weird urge to buy another milkweed. Don't ask why, I've no idea. So I swung by Lowe's and got a nice-looking one before picking up dinner.

At the house I immediately wanted to see the caterpillars. After several minutes of desperately straining my eyes and worrying that they were dead somewhere in the dirt at the bottom of the plant, I finally found two of them. One was actively nomming on a leaf, the other was cuddled up among the new growth at the heart of a milkweed stalk.

https://instagram.com/p/CM8MSH1Mqf3

They are already significantly larger, and the stripes are more prominent.
I didn't see the third one, but I'm trying not to worry about it :/
I did find a new hatchling though, so there are still at least three, maybe four now. Some of the other eggs seem like they're not going to hatch and the leaves they were laid on are getting gross, so I took them out. Not all eggs that are laid are fertilized, so this is normal.

In the yard, I was amazed and surprised to see a lot of my milkweed leaves looking like this:

More caterpillars survived than I thought! I turned a leaf over and found these two, and decided to add them to my enclosure. Why not.

Looking over the plants, I found at least four more caterpillars and some eggs that could still hatch. Crazy. I'm so glad they survived after all! And also patting myself on the back for separating this project into hand-raised and wild-raised, so that the milkweed wouldn't be compromised. Also maybe this is why I wanted that extra milkweed plant. I stuck it in the ground and went back inside to eat dinner, practice steno, and go to bed early since all these caterpillar worries have me up at night :p

Sunday:

It was a little more chill at work. There was still a lot to do, but at least enough people showed up that the workload could be addressed. Apparently it was my day to be clumsy, because I cut my hand on a bottle cap and spilled scalding coffee over my hand. Sigh.

After work I managed to see Jameson for a few minutes (I tend to get home a little earlier on Sundays, lighter traffic) before he left for his gig. Since we're eating dinner separately this week I treated myself to Chinese takeout, something he avoids due to his Meniere's Disease.
After dinner I checked on the caterpillars and was surprised to find that they were all on one of the milkweed plants, and not the other. Uh oh. Suddenly I realized that the other milkweed plant was covered in brown dots. WTF! Google was not very helpful, but I think it's some type of spore or fungus. If the caterpillars won't eat it it doesn't matter what it is, it's got to go. I did keep the plant, but put it in the yard away from the rest of the milkweed to see what happens with it. Then I made an emergency run to Lowe's for a new plant.

Look, I know Lowe's is supposedly some evil corporation that sprays pesticides on everything and murders poor innocent butterflies, etc etc. That may be true. But it's also true that Lowe's agreed to stop using neonic pesticides by 2019. And they're the closest to my house with loads of milkweed. And the milkweed in my yard was bought from them, and I see caterpillars out there eating it. So I'm going to give them a chance. I bought a milkweed that I carefully inspected for signs of disease and hitchhiking predators, and when I got it home I rinsed it pretty roughly with the garden hose in an attempt to remove anything bad. This is the best I can do for now. I transferred four caterpillars onto the new plant (there are now NINE(?) crawling around) and will hope for the best. Steno, an hour of goofing off online, bed.

Monday:

There was an armadillo digging in the dirt outside my office, I couldn't resist sneaking up on him. He didn't seem to mind actually, so I got some great video of his doings.

https://instagram.com/p/CNAbPhlHAW8

Work felt normal for once. I came in to find that some angel had done a lot of tasks in the early hours, leaving me time to play catch-up with my own stuff. It was still busy enough that the day went by quickly. During lunch I was browsing a Raising Monarchs facebook group and someone metioned "giant milkweed". I was like...what??? Apparently it's milkweed that grows 10 feet tall and has huge leaves! I was like, wow, that's insane. People were saying, if you can find it in Florida, get it, it'll be a great supplemental feed because of the huge leaves. Out of curiosity I searched facebook marketplace. And someone was actually selling some! Eight bucks a pop!

The catch was that they're located in Lakeland, an hour and a half away from me.
OH WELL GUESS I'M DRIVING 1.5 HOURS AFTER WORK FOR AN $8 PLANT!
Yes, I'm absolutely insane. But come on. I can't eat out. I can't spend time with friends in person. I can't go to the gym. I can't travel.
Life is short, and so what if it's a long drive. So what if people think I'm crazy. I'm caring less and less about that lately.

I got the plant and met a really nice lady in the process, she was very knowledgeable about all kinds of plants.
The giant milkweed is absolutely massive, I can tell already. Right now it's only as tall as a young tropical milkweed, but it's way WAY thiccer with much larger leaves and will clearly get pretty big. Now I need to find a place to put it.

When I finally got home I checked on the caterpillars and had a small heart attack because I could only find five (wasn't it nine yesterday??). After searching exhaustively for nearly an hour and digging frantically through the plant dirt to hunt for potential predators, I gave up. Either they've hidden themselves well, or they were eaten by something. I still have five for sure, and two of those had molted. They're now in what's called the "second instar" and have some more prominent features.

I was supposed to do some chores before going to bed early tonight, but going to get the giant milkweed was unplanned and so was a panic-stricken hunt for caterpillars the size of an eyelash. I'm typing this up, then ACTUALLY going to bed, because tomorrow I have an internal job interview and I want to at least be able to form comprehensive thoughts.

So I leave you in suspense until part two.
How many caterpillars will survive?
Will Megan get a new job?
What other adventures await? Stay tuned!

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goofball on a train

(adventures of a touring musician)

Entries tagged with butterflies

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NYE 2021 --> 2022

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The Last Caterpillar

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Raising Gazorpazorp Part 3

Raising Gazorpazorp Part 2

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