A Silent Forest.

Monarch Caterpillars

Monarch condo.

Monarch egg and itty bitty caterpillar

Bigger caterpillars.  We are going to have a lot of butterflies this year.

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On the training front: Seem to be doing a lot of solo training runs, bike rides and strength exercises. I think I am working hard in a symbolic way....to make up for being too late for the J. Life is painful and happy and sentimental and crushing.

Radishes are Ready

Looking forward to radish sandwiches. Buttered toast with thinly sliced radishes, lettuce and sea salt/pepper. I'm even going to have this for breakfast. Mmmmmm.

Oh, and the monarchs are back. In the last 3 days quite a few have flown right into or brushed by me. I like to fancy this is some of kind of outerworldy sign. Wouldn't that be nice.

Collecting Seeds from the Milkweed Plant

This is the beautiful milkweed plant that brought all the monarchs to the yard. This year I decided to collect the seed. Maybe I will drop the seeds when I go for trail runs as they will have a better chance of growing there than blowing all over our suburban yards and getting mowed.



When the flowers die off they will be replaced by pods. The lighter one on the right is about to crack open. When that happens the little seeds which are attached to fluff will float away . It is nearly impossible to collect the seeds in that state so you should try to get them when they crack open but haven't gotten to the fluffy stage yet.
They are easy to collect when they look like this. Just run your finger down the side and they will come off the base easily. Slide them into a container. Ignore the white beans in the background.


They will initially be attached to the softest fluff you have ever felt and the goal is to separate the seed from the fluff. I put a few coins in the container and shook it gently. This seemed to work very well. You can easily remove the fluff which collects at the top. The fluff is actually water repellant silk and was once used to insulate moccasins. They were also used to stuff life jackets for the military.

The seeds will be left out to dry completely and then put into an envelope.

Birth of a Butterfly

August 1/10. This was just outside our front door. we left the house 2 hours prior and it was a caterpillar in a J shape. This is what it looked like only a few hours later.

23 days later the crysalis turns into this colour. This means it will hatch the next morning when the sun is shining.


I read that it takes 10 minutes to hatch but the ones in my yard take longer.


The Monarch will sit beside its old casing for about 20 minutes to dry off and stretch its wings. Initially the wings appear to be stuck together.


flying away to a new life.


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Monarch

Monarch eating off the swamp milkweed in the front yard.