Saturday, August 11, 2007

Butterflies, again!

It would appear that, unbeknownst to me until a few days ago, our garden is hosting a second brood of Black Swallowtails! This just makes me so happy. There for a while, they seemed to have just disappeared. And being rather new to this wonderful world of butterflies, I feared that we had, without realizing it, seen the last of them back in June. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when, on Wednesday, I saw the familiar flash of black swoop gracefully past our bay window as I was setting the table for lunch. With camera in hand, I tiptoed outside and found, much to my delight, one beautiful adult Swallowtail lingering near our parsley, where I also discovered several tiny eggs and two caterpillars in varying stages of larval development. Yay! For the most part, these beautiful subjects were highly cooperative with my impromptu little photo shoot...but wouldn't you know, the best I could get of that gorgeous adult was of it flying right out of the picture? At any rate:

And now I'm totally rethinking how I want to go about the start of our school year. I was all set to begin with a unit on apples and pumpkins and seeds, which I still really want to do because of how nicely our planned activities for Labor Day weekend lend themselves to these topics, but now, with these butterflies...maybe I can do the apples and pumpkins and seeds and butterflies, all at once, while the season is right. Is that too much? I hope not. And I hope it's not too late to seriously be considering placing an order for this Kid's Backyard Bugs Kit. Or this Backyard Naturalist's Backpack Kit. Aren't these great?! And, oh!, you've just got to see these others. I think I want all of them. Not necessarily for this year, but they are definitely an incentive to continue homeschooling! (I would so love for my rock hound hubby to have the opportunity to enjoy this one with Dylan, for example.)

Completely off topic here, I do have one other sort of selfish request: Darren's going to be out of town for several days and I'd like to go rent a few good "chick flicks" to enjoy after the kids are in bed while he's gone. Of course, I also have multiple school planning calendars stacked on my bedroom dresser that are just begging for my attention, and several books I'd like to read, but sometimes, when Darren's gone, I like the sound of distraction to fill the too quiet house. So...any good recommendations?

6 comments:

Ann Y said...

It was a while ago, but as I recall Geisha or Geisha Girl generated conversation among myself and three sister in laws.

Jill said...

Aslynn would love to come for a visit. All she wants to do this summer is catch a butterfly. She chases them everywhere, but has had no luck. She said she would like one for a pet. :) I'll have to show her all of you photos.

Crafty Mom said...

I highly recommend Shall We Dance and Runaway Bride. Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are classic.

And if you want to feel childish watch High School Musical. It is really a good film, and all the moms around here have watched it and liked it too.

Anonymous said...

I love the butterfly stage photos - you are so lucky to have those visitors.

And for flicks - I highly recommend Miss Potter.

Celeste Creates said...

Enchanted April!

Jane Ramsey said...

Those sciene kits do look cool, Melissa. I just signed up to receive their catalog...great, just what I need--another homeschooling catalog tempting me to spend more than I should! :-)
And I'm too late to offer my chick flick recommendations, which is probably good b/c the only ones I've really enjoyed are all the Jane Austen movies, which you've probably seen already!