For Clay

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? 

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered? 

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. 

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. 

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance. 

-Excerpted from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

And if you feel that you can't go on...

In the light you will find the road.

Metamorphosizing

I purchased this planter for the patio table at Pigeon River Pottery in Pigeon Forge. I brought it home and finally found some hen and chicks and a few sprigs of parsley to put in it. A few days later, I noticed an Eastern Swallowtail butterfly laying it's eggs right on those tiny parsley shoots.

I had to save them. Our front porch moth caterpillars did not survive so I felt I had to intervene this time. I plucked them from the parsley carnage and placed them in the habitat. Then I went to buy some parsley and dill. I wound up buying a great deal of parsley over the coming weeks!

And they did what caterpillars do. They ate, pooped, grew, molted and ate some more.

As more and more formed their chrysalides, I removed them and fixed them in the kitchen window sill.

Unfortunately, I lost track of the time and came home one day to find our first newly emerged butterfly drowned in a bit of dishwater.

To avoid any further guilt, I placed the skewers back into the planter on the patio table.
The butterflies have been able to fly away at will since. Here is a little video of one of our new friends spreading his wings!

Caterpillar Chronicles: The White Marked Tussock Moth

I never know what I'll find on my front porch. It's small but attractive. Everything seems drawn to it. We even found a horse there eating the flowers once. The goats don't count because a goat will crawl up your nostril to gnaw on your brain; a goat anywhere eating anything is not a stretch but a horse wedged onto a little slate porch is impressive.

Finding this little guy (girl, actually) a few weeks ago was even cooler than the horse! My photos don't do it justice. I'd never seen one and thought it was especially rare so I rushed to identify it. Turned out to be the caterpillar of the very common White Marked Tussock Moth. It crawled over the two little rockers all day before it came to rest in the crevice on the back of one of the chairs. We could sit by the living room window and see all that transpired. By noon the next day, it was completely cocooned. The fine black hairs that once occupied the caterpillar were now embedded in the webbing. Neato Mosquito!



Soon after vacation, I went out to check the cocoon and found a small, round and furry creature on the outside. It looked like some of it's body was missing and when I saw what looked like styrofoam, I thought the poor creature was diseased and deformed. I poked it with some pine straw and it moved! I went in to look up more info and as fate would have it, it was a female and they're wingless. What looked wrong was oh so right! (Don't take that to heart pregnant blogfriends. Moths are different than women.) That crunchy white stuff is the egg sack! I was so excited to learn we'd be able to see the process through! We were expecting!


And now, just look! BABIES! We have baby worms (caterpillars)! Click on the photo to experience it somewhat larger. (Do it now.) It's all too exciting or I'm just all too weird. One or the other, the kids have been able to watch the whole process which has been wonderful. The cycle of life and all that jazz, you know.


I'm going to transfer the little guys to our habitat and see if we can't once again witness the wonder of nature. The kids' teachers have requested caterpillars. This may be my golden (only) opportunity!

You can find lovely photos of the caterpillar and male moth here. Plenty of information I did not impart through Google for those of you who may be interested.