I guess it is technically not a BIRTHday, but today the second chrysalis sprang to life quite unexpectedly... speaking of unexpected, read on for the surprise twist in this story!
Back in April, the first butterfly emerged from its chrysalis on a warm spring day. It happened at Alli's preschool. Alli's teacher sent the second chrysalis home with us so we could watch the other butterfly come out. We waited and waited and waited. Finally, I put the chrysalis out in the shed because I thought it was a dud.
Today I was doing some gardening, and I opened the shed door to retrieve some tools and there up on the shelf in the plastic container was a butterfly! First of all, I felt awful not knowing how long it had been out of its chrysalis stuck in the plastic container all alone in the dark shed. I was afraid it would be all starved and weak. Luckily, this was not the case.
We gathered everyone around and opened the container. The butterfly crawled around for a while stretching its wings and practicing its flutters. Alli named it "Butterfly Princess." It eventually flew up onto the building wall and then flew away.
I took a million-bazillion pictures... and you will see none of those because the memory card was not in the camera. I found out moments after the butterfly flew away, when I tried to review all the wonderful images I had just captured.
I was moping a bit about that when we discovered a second-chance butterfly in the garden. It must have been in a hidden chrysalis. It had just emerged and was still working on uncurling and stretching its wings.
Hallelujah! (Seriously, this was a miracle for me.)
Alli and Ruby enjoyed observing this butterfly for quite a while. Ruby gave it a little tough love which slowed down its escape from our patio. Alli named this one "Queen of The Mall." I asked why and she said "like the queen in Snow White"...ah yes... the Queen of them all. This butterfly generously posed for several pictures (after I checked and double checked the camera card). Alli went on a walk with it perched on her shoulder. It finally recovered from Ruby's tough love and flew up and away.
I am relieved that those caterpillars from so long ago finally made it as butterflies. Way to go guys!
We hope those black swallowtail butterflies will come back sometime soon and lay some eggs on our parsley plant.
2 comments:
Very cool story! What fun to watch those butterflies! I hope we get the chance to watch one. I'll have to research what flowers they like and see if we can get a chrysalis going next year! Very fun!
That haircut on Alli is too cute!
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