Transformation

Sunday night:

A cute little fellow hanging from a leaf. We don't know how quickly he will begin to change, or how quickly the change will be completed.








Monday morning:

My Girl cleaned the frass from the cage and I decided I would de-aphid the milkweed after my visit to the dentist.








I peeked in on the caterpillar before heading out the door and saw him hanging in his J, and My Girl pointed out that he was looking a bit more wrinkled and rough than we recalled him being last night. "Today's the day," was my thought as I walked the three blocks to the dentist.

I returned home less than an hour later and found this:

In less time than it takes to have a routine checkup at the dentist, the caterpillar had shed its exoskeleton and its new one had begun to shrink and harden into a chrysalis! We were floored! It happened so quickly and none of us had seen it!

Maybe when caterpillar #2 is ready we'll be there to watch. Sure hope so.

Monarch Butterfly Tracking Begins

Our insect focus for Nature Study seemed to find a perfect companion in the Monarch Tracking program we found out about through the "Wings of Paradise" butterfly conservatory. Purchase of a tracking kit included the following items:

• tropical milkweed plant
• 5 caterpillars at various stages of molting
• 1 chrysalis
• a butterfly rearing cage
• packet of common milkweed seeds
• raising monarchs instruction manual
• admission for 4 to the butterfly conservatory
• a poster of the life cycle of the monarch

So, here we are at the end of our first week of school and we've just had our second field trip for the year!

My Girl set up the cage as soon as we returned home, moved in the potted plant, and carefully transferred the caterpillars from the disposable transporting container onto the base of the plant. Within minutes the largest caterpillar had begun to climb the stem, then leaves of the milkweed. We've decided to set up on our enclosed front porch - the little fellows need natural light and I'm sure they'll benefit from not being in a major traffic area.

The cage is enclosed on all sides, top, and bottom, all with a very fine mesh except for one side, which is of clear plastic, allowing for better viewing. One of the mesh sides zips open and closed to allow us to remove aphids from the plant (my job) and clean out the frass (caterpillar waste) daily (My Girl's job).

In the picture to the left, you can see one of the caterpillars hanging from a leaf just below the handle on this side of the cage. Unfortunately he fell from the leaf twice - once My Girl put him back in, once Dear Man came to the rescue after finding him three-quarters of the way up the mesh wall. Since then, My Girl has attached sticks to the side of the pot so that if any others fall they have a way of climbing back up.

Since beginning to read about the caterpillars (that's only since Saturday afternoon) I've learned that once hatched, they will molt 5 times, and that the periods between moltings are called instars. The caterpillars we got were probably representatives of at least 3 instars. The one you see here on the left is our largest friend. He is the one we expect to go through the last molting into chrysalis state first. In this picture he is sitting on one of the loose leaves that travelled with him in his transportation container. We'll remove that one shortly as they only like fresh milkweed.

The conservatory included a chrysalis in the kit. It is from a caterpillar farm (as are the caterpillars we have received) and has been pinned to the leaf of our milkweed since we picked it up. I have never seen such a wondrous thing. It is a gorgeous jade green with a strip of fabulous gold dots about 1/3 of the way down. We can see the creases of wings tightly folded within the chrysalis and are waiting eagerly for emergence of the butterfly, although, to be honest, right now I can't imagine being any more awed by the butterfly than I already am by this lovely jewel-like pod!

Would you believe that this is the first time in my life that I have ever seen this happen? I've lived in Canada all my life (well, almost all) and have seen many caterpillars. But I don't recall ever witnessing milkweed caterpillars transform into monarch butterflies. I'm not sure I've even seen a milkweed caterpillar before!

You can be sure we'll keep you up to date on this adventure!

Butterfly Conservatory

Photos from our visit to "Wings of Paradise" where we were scheduled to pick up our Monarch Rearing Kit this morning. Amazing things, butterflies. (I'll update later with actual names of the varieties you see here. First I have to check my newly-purchased butterfly field guide. )

Within less than 30 seconds of being in the conservatory, My Dear Man had a monarch butterfly perched on his cap.

We saw many of these butterflies. They were all over the walkways and seemed to really love the fruit trays.

This one was one the path and didn't move at all when approached. Closer looks showed that it was injured and unable to fly. My Dear Man carefully moved it to the garden where it was less likely to be trod upon.

This butterfly is actually the same variety as the 3 above it! The underside of the wings are the fabulous camouflage, but the tops of the wings are a brilliant blue. You can just barely see the blue portion in this shot.

We stood transfixed at the display of chrysalises. The colours and shapes were fascinating, ranging from plain brown - the colour of a paper bag, to green, and metallic gold!

Of particular interest were the monarch chrysalises, as they were what we'd come to take home with us. At the display we saw several stages of chrysalis development, from the bright green with golden dots (really gold, like precious metal melted and dripped in tiny dots on the hard green surface), to ones which were more transparent, the walls of which we could see through and make out the lines and colours of the soon to emerge butterfly, to ones which were opening and new adults were pushing their way out of.

Unfortunately, my photos of these do not do justice to the chrysalis stage. They are beautiful, amazing artistry, each one of them.

I came across this information about the word chrysalis in the Merriam Webster online dictionary:

Etymology: Latin chrysallid-, chrysallis gold-colored pupa of butterflies, from Greek, from 'chrysos' - gold, of Semitic origin; akin to Hebrew 'harus' - gold.

1 a: a pupa of a butterfly;

Interesting, considering that we saw truly gold chrysalises there. I wouldn't
have believed the colour was possible.

While we stood at the chrysalis display, a newly-emerged butterfly took flight and landed on the Brown-Eyed Boy's shoe! And, while I tried to get a photo of that, another landed on his shirt. What fun!

All in all, a lovely trip. I'll post about our Monarch Rearing and Tracking later.

Cosmos Bipinnatus

1. Cosmos bipinnatus - a semi-hardy annual that often reappears by way of self-sowing for several years.

Colour range: shades of pink, purple, and white

Leaves are finely segmented, delicate

This is a flower we have in our butterfly garden. We have seen it in other gardens around our neighbourhood. It seems to be a flower of choice for many types of gardens, from the highly structured to the more carefree.

This tall flower is a favourite in our garden. It's delicate colour and tall slender stem make a pretty sight.

Here's an article about the two most common species of cosmos. You might like to scroll down to read the top ten reasons everyone should be growing cosmos (in Texas, true, but much applies to this northern land, too!).

100 Species Challenge

We've decided to join the 100 Species Challenge as part of our Nature Study for this year. So, in addition to keeping our eyes open for insects, we're going to try to accumulate a list of 100 species of plants that grow within walking distance of our home. That we can recognize. I'll put my first identified plant up soon, but for now, can anyone tell me about this one?

It has small blossoms that remind me of apple blossoms (but remember, I'm new to this!), 5 pale pink, almost white, near-circular petals with a yellow centre. The leaves are slender, slightly rounded rather than pointed at the tips. The plant itself was like a bushy flower or small shrub, about 2 feet high. Very delicate-looking flowers. So now I'm curious.

If you're interested in joining the 100 Species Challenge, here is the link to where we first found it, and here are the rules:

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge.

2. Participants should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the participant’s home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.

3. Participants are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can name in the first post in which that plant appears.

4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts.

5. Participants may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants that have different common names should be a bare minimum.

6. Different varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries (e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate entries); however, different species which share a common name be separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two–"camillia" if not).

7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge. You can make it as quick or as detailed a project as you like.

I'd love to hear from you if you plan to join, and even if you're not doing it on a blog, but maybe in a Nature Journal, I'd enjoy hearing about your specimens.

I'm a little obsessive about the formatting on this type of thing, and for some reason I can't get the spacing to work properly in my numbered section. I've tried everything that I can think of to correct it, but it's beyond my http abilities, so aside from completely redoing the post, I'm stuck with the funny spacing. I know, it probably isn't bothering anyone but me, but I had to let you know that I noticed it!! :)

Romeo and Juliet

A contemporary setting for first and last scenes. A period setting for all in between. Powerful tools for communicating the truth that personal animosities, hatreds even, consume and destroy today as much as in the past.

::

An expectant mother, pushing a baby in a perambulator, pauses at a cafe table in a 20th century piazza in Italy, which is furnished with lightweight chairs and tables, awnings, and a red stone-paved surface. She silently orders a coffee and a pastry to go, which are delivered in a white ceramic cup and saucer and a brown paper take-out bag. But as she sits to enjoy her beverage, the chaos erupts around her. Here, swords and rapiers are replaced with knives and guns as representatives from the houses of Capulet and Montague exchange insults, blows, and finally gunshots.

::

The action was more striking to me in this modern setting than had it been depicted with sword-play. This could be any modern city; it could be Toronto. Vancouver. Moscow. It could be here.

I found the immediacy of the violence alarming as I subconsciously relived, in a brief moment, places where I have seen similar aggressive movements, heard similar threats and shouts, felt similar fears. This was no artistic look at a culture long gone, but a comment on humanity as it is today.

It was powerful.

This production, seen with My Girl and a group of 18 others, home educating families, mostly, was a gift. We were so blessed to have been able to see it, to absorb the action, the drama, the atmosphere. People in our group drove as much as almost 3 hours one way in order to participate in the experience! Grandmothers came with grandchildren, friends from 'regular school' took an afternoon away from the halls and classrooms to join us in the dark theatre. The living ideas that flowed through the centuries from Shakespeare, through the players, to us as hearers, are innumerable. Now, this is education!

First Day of School

Routine is hard to find after a summer of winding one's own way through the day. Three small bodies trying to re-adjust themselves to a pattern of planned minutes, required activities, and self-denial result in an atmosphere that is an odd mix of eagerness and resistance. They will not always be smooth, these days of bringing a feast of living ideas to hungry minds. Interruptions will come. Accidents will happen. Sin will rear its ugly head.

But for today we coast on energy accumulated from days of seeing exciting library books sitting on our shelves, waiting for the honour of beginning Grade One, anticipating a school and life schedule that is more comfortable, more grace filled.

It's been a good day.

Together:
Prayer and Parable Recitation: currently reading parables prior to choosing one for memorization
Creation: Nature Journal watercolour (pictures to follow)
:: My Girl: cucumber leaf
:: Little Man: green pepper leaf
:: Brown-Eyed Boy: cucumber leaf
Geography - A Child's Geography: Explore the Holy Land (Egypt Chapter 1 part 1)

Little Man:
Math: Adding on Numberlines - Jump Grade 1
Poetry: Milne - When We Were Very Young

My Girl:
Dictation - Spelling Wisdom
Mental Math: Fast Adding - Jump Grade 7
Number Patterns - Jump Grade 7
History - TruthQuest Ancient Egypt - Growing up in Ancient Egypt (Rosalie David), Ancient Egypt (Sightseers), and Story of the World Volume 1 chapter 2a