Ping Pong Hatched

New butterfly hatched today. Always a miracle. I love when the chrysalis turns black. You can see through it--the butterfly markings are clearly visible.


After hatching, this one fell to the bottom of our little "cage." It landed feet up, wriggling like crazy, trying to grab onto something so that it could hang and dry its wings. I had to quick run outside and get a stick. Held it ever so carefully by the flailing legs, let it grab on. Here's a photo of me holding the stick, trying to figure out how the heck to get the little guy back into the cage so it could hang properly. You can also see the empty chrysalis, now clear.


Success! The wings look perfect. Once they open, we will be able to tell if it's a girl or a boy butterfly. Hatching anew is very tiring. The butterfly is hanging now, motionless, and will do so for hours.

(I shot this photo through the netting. With flash, you can't even tell!)

Butterfly Pics of the Day

Yes, we are hatching butterflies again this summer! Here are a couple recent photos of different stages.
Cute, fat caterpillar. "J" stage. New in chrysalis.


The chrysalis photo--this was an interesting process. When it is ready, it goes from the "J" on the left, to the chrysalis on the right. The yellow parts of the caterpillar stripes slowly morph into green and then merge together. On the right, you can still kind of see the stripe markings of the caterpillar. The process takes oh about a 1/2 hour. It was pretty cool to watch.

We now have 3 in chrysalis, 5 caterpillars or various sizes, and one teeny one that just hatched. We should have a couple new butterflies in the next few days!

Royal Old Friend

Every year this clematis breaks forth into bloom. It is amazing! It must be over 30 years old. It flows over the top part of the trellis, no matter how much I try to train it.

Often we take special photos by it.
Like this.
Or this.
Or just by itself.

This year is no exception. It is in fine form!!


Take a look at the very base of the clematis. See a little purple flower? It's a morning glory! Go figure. About 4" off the ground. I planted about half dozen from seed, with the idea that they will climb up the trellis and bloom later in the summer. Ah, well..


Dear Kate--Will you come have another photo op with our Royal Old Friend?? :D

The Pink Team

Thursday was a beautiful day for a ball game! This was a rain makeup game from a few weeks ago. I always have a conflict on her regular game nights, so I was happy to be able to see this game!!

They won--and had fun doing it!!

This is S. and her good friend A. They've known each other since S. was really little-and they enjoy going to our church camp together, etc.

Twins Game in May!!

Wow, I am so far behind in posting! Guess you have to start somewhere!!

In late May, we were guests in the skybox for a Twins game, against the Yankees. It was really a nice evening. There were hot dogs, chips, cookies etc. We could see everything!! S. and G. really enjoyed the game, cheering for the Twins. Here are a couple photos.














Thanks, John, for inviting us!! John is one of the Radio sales people that I work with. :)

H1N1 Virus

Here is a nifty map, showing cases of the H1N1 Virus, swine flu.


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More About Spring

The daffodils burst into bloom overnight. I can hardly believe it, but it is supposed to be close to 80 today.

Long time comin'!!