Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Be Free

Our first monarch emerged just before the holiday weekend. What a magical, mystical, marvelous thing to witness. How lucky we were to sit and have our breakfast while watching nature do her thing.

Zach was thrilled to release Shark's Tooth (very fitting butterfly name, n'est-ce pas?) in to the marina garden. We could tell it was a he by the dots on his lower wings and the thin black lines.

And remember Captain Courageous? He was the caterpillar that somehow made his way out of the habitat, across the cockpit, and up to the helm to form his chrysalis? And we needed to do something with him before casting off for the weekend.

Monarch Marie advised us to gently pull the chrysalis off the steering wheel, getting as much of the "thread" as possible. Then she said to SEW it into the netting of the habitat. Yes, with a needle and thread sew. Me. Sewing. (pause for shock and laughter to subside).

So as my sewing debut I clumsily stitched a living thing into a cage just before setting sail.


Well all that rocking and rolling of 3 days of sailing must have put him in his happy place because he decided to emerge this morning, also over breakfast.

True to her name (this one was a girl, no dots and thick black lines) Captain Courageous swooped off on the west wind and made a fast flight towards the open water. We wondered just where she thought she was going since we tried to bring her to a perfectly suitable flower garden. We never got a photo and the last we saw was a brilliant orange dot flitting between the masts and out over the Bay. I guess she really had salt in her veins.

I completely understand.

p.s. I just started playing with Picnik photo editor today. This is my first foray into photo editing and OH MY WORD, this could get addicting. Be warned, I am armed and dangerous now, things might get a little crazy around here!

9 comments:

Joy said...

I think I would have been a bit nervous about sewing a living thing to the netting too! I'm glad all went well and you were able to watch 2 new butterflies emerge this week. How exciting!

I can't wait to see the craziness. ;)

Little Lovables said...

What a lovely post! "salt in her veins", how sweet!

and isn't picnik fun~ it's the first program I've ever paid for to get the extra effects! your first photo edit with zach is perfect

s/v Seven C's said...

Amazing! That's all I can say! We have not even found a caterpillar this year - let alone hatch them! That is just too cool!
The kids must have been thrilled!

Erin J said...

How exciting! I love the pics of Zach with the butterfly on his finger. We've gone to the woods and watched the butterflies and looked up their names but I have never seen one hatching.

Have fun with Picnik... I'm anticipating all sorts of artistic effects.

christine ~ ourdayourjourney said...

Imagine the new projects you could do know that you are sewing:)

gardenmama said...

now how many experienced sewers can say that they have sewn a chrysalis onto a net and then watched as the monarch butterfly emerged huh!? now there is something to pull out in crafty conversation if you ever need to!; )
I like this Monarch Marie, that is some good info. to know!
Very nice first photo, bring on the craziness mama we are ready!

wholarmor said...

Very cool! I was wondering what happened to the chrysalis on the wheel. Glad to hear you were successful in transfer!

I like the selective coloring. I just found out that you can do it in Photobucket, and you can paint the exact area so it doesn't spill out over the parts that you want to leave black and white. You can also do it with the other effects like sepia and even pop art. Let me know if you are interested in learning how to do it.

Kimberly said...

Beautiful photos, so you made the switch! Our winged beauty was completely dry and itching to fly at release time because the kids wanted to share the experience with some friends. The release was exhilarating, but not a photo opportunity.

Masasa said...

AMAZING.

And I really love how Captain Courageous had a mind of her own from the get go.

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