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Progress Report
We’ve found just 4 monarch caterpillars this year. Two have successfully metamorphosed into butterflies; two are still chrysalises in our aquarium.
Here are some glimpses of the process.
Emerging Monarch
Prepping for Takeoff
The Great Outdoors
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Monarch Season
We’re going to look for some monarchs to see through the caterpillar –> chrysalis –> butterfly cycle again this year. I’ve seen several articles recently about the butterflies being classed as officially endangered. It’s been a number of years since I did this, and I’d like to help make sure at least a few make it through the earthbound phase of their lives.
This video is from 2012. Before that year, when my daughters and I were immersed in nature study, I assumed caterpillars always formed the chrysalis from outside; in truth it’s a much more uncomfortable looking process of enduring its emergence from within. It’s a good metaphor for other kinds of important change — and one I hope to be able to observe again this year. Maybe I can make another video… though I treasure this one, with its shifting reflections of young faces in the aquarium glass.
Music: Liz Story, “Welcome Home”
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Elizabethan Gardens
My daughter and I recently visited the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo, NC. Meant to commemorate the lost colony established by Sir Walter Raleigh 400+ years ago, the gardens are an elaborate feast for the eye that conjure up memories of The Secret Garden, the discussion of walled gardens in C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength, and the continual emphasis in Wendell Berry’s writings on a cooperative relationship between human stewardship and ecological/agricultural health.
Lush colors, bees and butterflies and squirrels and lizards, symmetry and diversity were everywhere. But I didn’t photograph everything. One tree, an oak thought to have been growing since the colonists’ residence in the 16th century, was so striking to me that I forgot to take its picture. There were plenty of other alcoves and sculptures and flowers that escaped my camera, too.
All the more reason to return.
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Scenes from the Outer Banks
We visited several highlights at the Outer Banks, in North Carolina. This black bear was in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. It was our second time visiting, and we still haven’t seen any alligators — but the bears are certainly impressive. They can be observed from the car as you travel the roads of the preserve.
We also took a dolphin watching cruise one evening. Though we saw a dolphin or two, the most striking natural phenomenon was the rapid incursion of a cold front that blasted us with wind and a major temperature drop shortly after the cruise began. The sky stole the show.
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Visiting Chincoteague
Despite being a diehard Marguerite Henry fan as a child, and revisiting the books and movie with my daughters as an adult, I’ve never been to Chincoteague. Till last week, that is. We stopped on our way back north from a vacation further south, spending a night in “America’s happiest seaside town.”
While there, we had an absolutely stellar experience touring the waters around Chincoteague and Assateague by boat. Our guide, a lifelong Chincoteague resident, shared a wealth of knowledge and keen observation that gave us a sense of the local and natural history of the place, the ponies, the diverse coastal birds and other wildlife, and the way the community has evolved into a primarily tourist economy. These pictures capture only a small part of what we were able to observe.
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Winter Dead
Robin’s song is crystal clear
“Robin’s Song,” E.L.M. King
Cold as an icicle,
Sharp as a spear.
I have seen Spring lift her head,
Snowdrops a-shivering,
Winter dead.
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Out the Window
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Sapsucker Spring
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Morning
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Crocuses!
