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!