This Never Gets Old: Hello Brand New Butterfly!

I awoke in the morning to overcast skies, with rain - some heavy - expected in the forecast. Of course, my first thought was for our butterflies! The chrysalis that we had been watching darkened on Tuesday, and T. Tiger kept an eye on it and whispered encouraging words to it. (Yes, a Tiger CAN be a butterfly whisperer too!) On this morning, the chrysalis was nearly completely black: "Today will be the day!" I announced to my husband.

I didn't want the new butterfly to struggle to eclose in the heavy rain (though I'm sure butterflies do this sort of thing all the time without our help). So - like before, during the hurricane - I moved my Mexican sunflowers in their pots up close to the windows on the deck, under the eaves. You may see the Mexican sunflower part of our butterfly nursery in the extras, and my very own self reflected in the window, holding my pink umbrella in the rain.

I carefully carried the chrysalis - still on its small shepherd's hook, and with my other hand beneath it in case it should fall - around the house and through the yard up onto the deck, and placed it in one of the plant pots. Then I went for my walk. By the time I got back, around 9:15 a.m., this gorgeous male butterfly had already eclosed! You may meet him in the photo above. He ended up spending the day (and overnight) resting among the sunflowers.

He has been a L-O-N-G time in coming! He went into a J on 9/3, and wiggled and squirmed until he became a green chrysalis that same day. The leaf his chrysalis was on fell, and I hung it on binder clips from a small shepherd's hook on 9/11. He finally eclosed on 9/22. Whew!

The beautiful female from yesterday afternoon was still sitting on the jewelweed in the rain. I picked her up and walked her back through the yard and moved her onto the Mexican sunflowers on the deck, not far from the other butterfly. She flapped her wings the whole way. What a strong butterfly! I came back a few minutes later to check on her, but she was gone! Fly fly, my beautiful girl!

And then, as I was taking one long, last look at the hedge and jewelweed where all the butterflies have been coming from, I found yet ANOTHER brand new butterfly! A male! I picked him up to move him to the flowers on the deck, but he was so ready to fly that when I touched him, he lifted up and flew - all the way into the sky! Up up up up up!

Across the road he went and into a huge tree in the neighbors' yard. WOW!!! My husband and I were standing there cheering! What a beautiful and amazing first flight; such a beautiful, strong boy! HOORAY HOORAY!!! We're running a butterfly nursery here!

As I looked at my own reflection with my pink umbrella in the deck door windows, I wondered:
Will the butterflies remember me as the pink angel watching over them?
As they make their long, long migration, will they dream of home?

My husband is now calling me The Queen of Bugs. One of my online friends has christened me Queen Lepidoptera, Holder of the Sacred Wings. I think I like that even better.  ;-)

Here is a song for a rainy day on which still more butterflies were born: Jane Siberry, with It Can't Rain All the Time, from the soundtrack to the film The Crow.