Three of the five caterpillars have began the next stage in their growth to becoming butterflies. I recently discovered the name of this stage, Chrysalis. This is when the caterpillars embody themselves in a protective shell as they hang upside down for a number of days, in which they will emerge as beautiful butterflies. You can only see two caterpillars in this picture and they haven't yet created the prective shell around them yet. The third caterpillar was hanging, but fell. She is in her protective shell already. I'm just waiting for all five of them to begin their Chrysalis stage so I can take them out of the cup so they can emerge into their beautiful garden.
I tried to focus on the caterpillar that is already in her Chrysalis stage. It's hard to get a good, clear shot because these little caterpillars have made quite the mess on the sides of the container.
One night I fell asleep to having no growth of these flowers (Scarlet Rose) to waking up and to see four sprouted seeds that were at least one and a half inches tall!
After two days these four Scarlet Roses are nearly to the top of the tank! I think if I sat in front of these flowers long enough I could see them literally growing, that's how fast they grow. Incredible!
These flowers have finally made their way out of the ground. These are the hollyhocks and Asters. They were a little slow, but they are definitely catching up to the rest.
For some reason the two different types of Cosmos that I planted on the right side of my tank have decided to stay low to the ground. Their growth speed has reduced also. I think they may be leaning forward because they are trying to reach for the sun that comes in through my window on the other side of the room. I placed the fish aquarium light on top of the tank this morning; we'll see if they begin to stand upright again.
These are the other Cosmos. They are still standing strong. Their growth speed has also reduced, but they're still growin'!
I have run into a problem with my Beautiful Butterfly Garden. It's kind of a big problem. As I have seen the rapid growth of these flowers I began to wonder, "how tall are they going to get?" I looked at the packages of all these flowers and they range from 3' to 8' tall! None of them will fit in my tank once they reach full maturity or even before then! Gah! Wish I would of thought of that before! My goal in planting these specific flowers was that my butterflies will lay eggs on them because they are the flowers they are most attracted to. Others have suggested that I just take the lid off the top of my tank and let the flowers grow out and over the tank. But with an 8' tall flower plant!?! I don't know if that'll work. I have looked into getting a greenhouse type structure to transplant my plants into as well as the butterflies and putting it in the patio area of the house. I found a 7'x7'x7' greenhouse that would work perfect, but is quite the pretty penny to purchase. This idea is a possible solution, but it kind of defeats the purpose of having a Beautiful Butterfly Garden in my bedroom. Hmmmm. Any suggestions? Mom? Any from anybody would be great!
My trip to Idaho Falls yesterday to walk around the Greenbelt was a success; and quite enjoyable. We arrived right at noon and began our stroll around the water and falls. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. We reached a high of 72˚ - just enough warmth to walk around in a t-shirt and just enough sunlight to begin my chaco tan - because chacos make the world go 'round! I wore my favorite HUG A TREE t-shirt as well as my Desert Rose Chacos. Sad to say, Cooper didn't have any cool clothes to wear, except for his stylish green color with his name tag on it that jingled with every step he took and his matching leash. What can I say? We were both pretty stylish. ;o)
This is Cooper sitting in the passenger seat of my truck on our drive up to Idaho Falls. He isn't afraid to be in cars like I had suspected, but tried quite a number of times to crawl over the console onto my lap while I was driving. He's just a little dog, but big enough to interfear with my driving. He had to stay in his seat; you can kind of tell from his facial expression that he didn't like that. Sorry Cooper!
This picture almost looks like a painting when seen if full size. It was such a gorgeous day yesterday and I was so grateful to have been able to make the trip to the greenbelt and be out in it. This was actually the first time I have walked around the greenbelt. I have walked/biked small sections of it before, but had never done a full loop before. It was wonderful to be able to take it all in as I walked around. I loved getting as close as I could to the waterfalls and hearing the peaceful sound of running water.
There was a park bench that was directly across from the Idaho Falls Temple. I sat down to enjoy the scenery, take in the rays of the sun, and allow time for my chaco tan to start. Cooper wrapped his leash around my legs a number of times and then tried to jump at the people walking by while barking. To say the least, his attempts were pretty futile as he choked himself from wrapped the leash around my legs so many times. Dogs.......
The greenbelt is a 3 miles loop. We made it back to my truck shortly before 2:00P. Cooper looked pretty wiped out. I don't think he walks that far in a whole week always being cooped up in the house and in his pen. I set out his food and water on the ground for him to replenish his tired little body. He took a few sips of water, barked at some passerbys and then stretched himself out on the warm ground.
We rolled out of the temple parking lot and began our way back to Rexburg at the strike of 2:00P. Cooper slept the entire way home. He was pretty tuckered out. I was a bit tired myself too. I got a little bit of sun on my face and arms; I'm excited for it to turn into a tan!
I had a few things to do at my house before heading back over to D&N's for the night. Once those were finished I picked up a few groceries (since I practically have no food at my house or at D&N's house) and a Jamba Juice for dinner on my way over to the house. It wasn't until I had let the dog and cats out and began to prepare myself to go to bed that I realized I had forgotten my pajamas. I have only brought the essentials over to the house - scriptures, journal, and a book - because I get ready for the day at my house, so my pj's don't ever stay over at D&N's house.
Not wanting to round up the animals - that being quite the task - and going back to my house to get my pj's I decided to explore my options and see what D&N had as far as pj's. It didn't take too long to find and I didn't have too much trouble picking out some pj's. Of course, they were like three times my size, but that just brought added comfort and freedom to me. They were quite comfortable to sleep in actually and have decided to wear them every night instead of having to remember to bring my own over. Thanks D&N!
I have had some interesting dreams lately. Some of them have been so weird that I don't understand them and kind of brush them aside. I always remember my dreams and a lot of the time I can figure them out. I had a very interesting dreams last night about bears. I actually have had a couple about bears recently. Odd. I also had an interesting experience while sleeping last night too. For some reason I haven't been able to sleep well for a period of time now. I often wake up several times throughout the night and every morning my body wakes up at 6:00A on the dot for some reason, no matter how tired I am and no matter how late I went to bed.
I was pretty tired last night and fell asleep just shortly after 10:00P. I woke at 1:10A, but rolled over and went back to sleep. Then I had an interesting experience. I dreamt that I received a phone call on my cell phone. Instead of a name or number showing up to indicate who was calling me a yellow triangle with an ! icon came up. In my dream that made sense - it was somebody calling me that had a blocked number. Usually I don't answer unidentified callers, but for some reason I did this time. I answered, "Hello?" The voice on the other end was a familiar voice that I recognized immediately, "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!" The voice was so audible to me, like that person was standing next to my bed greeting me to this new day with an ethusiastic "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!" Because it was so real and because my excitement was so great when hearing this voice it woke me up. The clock read 4:01A. I was wide awake.
When I woke up I looked around the room to see if anybody else was in there because I could have sworn that the voice I heard was real and wasn't just in my dreams; like I had one of those experiences where the noises surrounding you as you slept became apart of your dream - the noises were real and the dream only gave place to those sounds. But I didn't find anybody in my bedroom greeting me. I laid there and pondered about what had just happened and then wondered what to do since I was wide awake at 4:00A. I was eventually able to fall back asleep for a few more hours.
My plans were to again go to Idaho Falls to hit up some back roads on my bike, but the weather has turned a little icky. I thought about challenging myself against the wind on a bike ride out to the sand dunes, but when I looked up the weather and saw the wind blowing at about 20mph I decided my attempts would be in vain. My average speed on my bike is anywhere between 18-24mph. I don't think I'd get very far in a good amount of time if I were to attempt my battle against the wind. Some days you just have to acknowledge that Mother Nature is more powerful.
So, plan B: Relax with a book and maybe run a few laps around a nearby park.
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