Metamorphasis

There's been some excitement lately in the flower bed in front of the house. 

A butterfly milkweed plant was host to some bugs with striped pajamas, 

specifically the kind that turn into monarch butterflies. 

With their voracious appetites, they ate the plant right down to the stems. 

When they were quite full, 

they wandered off in search of a perfect place to spin a cocoon.

The little things looked quite helpless, flailing away at the edge of a stem, 

before turning back to find a better place.

Ahhh...  This might do.

On the day most of them moved off to find a sheltering place for their cocoon, the skies opened and rain fell in torrents. In the past, we've had less than desirable results with cocoons and moisture, so Don stretched a rope from a couple of places on the front of the house to the light pole, and draped a camouflage tarp over it, to serve as a tent for the small creatures. It looked like something right out of Duck Dynasty, but it worked. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that one should never underestimate a good man with rope and a camouflage tarp. The hummingbirds were happy with the arrangement, too, and quickly took to their new perches.

One by one, the caterpillars found their places.  

Most of them attached to a stem or the underside of a leaf, 

but there was one on the light pole, one on the side of the birdbath, 

and one on the overhang above the garage door.  

They hung there limp and lifeless...

...until, awakened by some inner compulsion, they wiggled into a soft green cocoon.

Over the next few days, their metamorphosis continued.

Stay tuned...


For the emergence, click here.




Linking with Saturday's Critters

Milkweed Binge

Bees in the flowerbed usually seem quite industrious, 

but yesterday, in the heat of the late afternoon, 

this bumblebee was napping on top of the butterfly milkweed, 

as if intoxicated by the nectar.  

He snoozed there for a few minutes, then gave himself a little shake, 

lifted off and flew away.

Bon Voyage!

Linking with this or that thursday

and Your Sunday Best

Bloom Where You Are Planted

Beauty sometimes shows up in the strangest places.  

Butterfly milkweed just started blooming here, 

and there's one place I look for it every year.

Sure enough, it showed up again this year in this hostile environment,

growing right out of the rock at the side of the highway.

It probably doesn't long for another place of existence, 

as we humans often do,

but contents itself with bringing beauty to the place it was assigned.

The God who gives us life, 

and orchestrates such things as the time and place of our birth,

does so for a specific purpose:

And to those who seek Him, He gives a promise:

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Jeremiah 29:13

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For my Original Bloom Where You are Planted post,
click here.


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Thanks to Kim for the use of her textures,
Let Go and Phoebe.


Linking with Imperfect Prose
and Texture Tuesday

Bloom Where You Are Planted

A stretch of highway in Theodosia between the lake and the business district is bordered by by high rock walls, close to 30 feet high in places.  About this time each year, I scan the rock face on the north side of the highway for a tenacious butterfly milkweed plant. Sure enough, this year, in that hostile environment, it was thriving once again.

Centuries ago, a prophet in Israel blossomed in such an atmosphere.  I like to think of Habakkuk as a sort of Butterfly Milkweed Prophet, because in the midst of deprivation, he wrote this:

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

He enables me to tread on the heights.

Habukkuk 3:17-19

Monarch Caterpillar on Butterfly Milkweed