An adult Monarch on a Swamp Milkweed blossom.

A perfect garden is not just made up of flowers. It should also be the home of many flying flowers - mainly our beautiful native butterflies. Each summer I look forward to seeing how many different types I can spot drifting  among my flowers and shrubs. If you are planning to entertain special guests - you usually plan a lovely meal. If you are planning to entertain butterflies, you need a special feast as well!  I try to plant as many host plants as possible,  in order to encourage a wide variety of these butterflies.

The life cycle of a butterfly is also very interesting.  As a young child, I have fond memories of collecting a Monarch caterpillar, feeding it milkweed leaves, and watching it change to a pupa, before it  finally emerged as a beautiful butterfly. It was a science lesson that was never equaled in any indoor classroom. Possibly, this is why I have such a fondness for the Monarchs in my garden. Now, instead of collecting them and giving them a home in a butterfly terrarium, I can watch them in the outdoor classroom of my own garden.

In order to understand the Monarch butterfly’s life cycle better, I found myself reading butterfly books. I also found many excellent articles on the Internet.  A Monarch life cycle is 4 stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa, and adult. The Monarchs overwinter in the warmer climate of Mexico. This means that they have a very long migration, while experiencing many hardships and dangers. (It would be an amazing journey for me to do the same trip by car!)  You may have guessed by now that in order to have Monarchs, you need a feast of milkweed available. The caterpillars only eat leaves from the milkweed plant. The bitter milkweed sap, creates a poison in their bodies which discourages birds from eating them. It doesn’t matter whether it is wild or cultivated, milkweed is important to the Monarch’s life cycle.

The life cycle of the Monarch is short. Thus there are several generations each summer. The final generation leaves my garden in late August or early September to begin the long migration flight. One article that I read  claimed that a Monarch can fly about 50 miles in a day, and they have been clocked at 12 miles per hour. They have a journey of over 2000 miles. The Monarch’s migration story makes very interesting reading, if you want to learn more. While in Mexico, they continue the life cycle.  It is a whole new generation which leaves in March to start the long flight back. They lay eggs on milkweed along the way. Those new butterflies follow their parents when they reach the adult stage.

A female Monarch lays about 500 eggs on the underside of a milkweed leaf. Of those, probably less than 10 will survive, in the wild,  to reach the adult stage.  In a matter of days, the eggs begin to hatch into a tiny grey larva, about a millimeter in length. In just a few days, it will have eaten it’s way out of it’s skin. The old skin splits and is shed, then eaten. By this time, the larva has it’s characteristic yellow/black/white bands. The caterpillar continues to increase in size as it eats it’s favourite milkweed leaves. It will shed it’s skin three more times before finding a secure spot to hang and change into a pupa. From hatching to pupation is almost 2 weeks. An adult butterfly in captivity will live 2 to 6 weeks. This is much less in the wild.

After doing all my research, I am even more in awe of the beautiful Monarch butterfly and it’s various life cycle stages.  One article reported that studies have shown that one rarely finds more than one or two caterpillars on single milkweed plant. Life is too difficult and the hazards too great for more to survive. This made me realize how special this summer was for me. I grow the cultivated orange flowered milkweed and I also have the pink Swamp Milkweed growing in various spots in my gardens. I also live in the country, so wild milkweed is usually found in the surrounding ditches.  I have the best luck with the Swamp Milkweed - especially new seedlings that self seed near the edges of the garden. I usually let them grow, knowing that I can always give them away to fellow horticultural members.  However, no matter how good my intentions, the Monarchs almost always find them first. Below are a couple of pictures taken this summer when the caterpillars were at their busiest! At one time, I counted more than 9 caterpillers on one little plant. It was stripped within a couple of days! I loved sitting at the front of the garden just watching them. The best part was that about two weeks later, I truly did have flying flowers, as they all became adults.

Several caterpillars strip a Swamp Milkweed plant.

A Monarch larva or caterpillar stage.

A newly hatched adult. While drying it's wings, it will easily climb onto your finger.

If you wish more information on the Laval stage of the Monarch, I found this site excellent.                http://clayruth.com/larvae.html

This site contained some interesting information on Migration.                          http://butterflywebsite.com/Articles/uminn/monarchs.html

For information on other butterflies local to North America, I enjoyed reading “The Family Butterfly Book” by Rick Mikula   Published by Storey Publishing           I purchased it at Lee Valley. It has good information, lovely large coloured pictures and it is more local than some other books I have looked at.

The first year we visited, Bill talked us into walking to the park, assuring us that it was “just a short walk from the house to the park”.  Bill and Jim obviously don’t agree on the definition of “short” because by the time we arrived at the park, Jim had had enough walking for the day!  Those of you who know Jim, will realize how popular that idea was.  Now, Bill drops us off, we spend a couple of hours walking around the park and then we phone for our pick up. This plan works MUCH better and we have a lovely, peaceful morning.

This year, we were in Ottawa over the long weekend. We toured the tulips on the Friday and it turned out to be the only sunny, warm day of the weekend. Bill dropped us off and we began our stroll through the park.

The weather was cool but it soon warmed up enough to remove our jackets. There were only a few other visitors there when we started. This made it great for photographing the massive beds. As it got closer to noon, the crowds increased and it became  just as interesting to  “people watch” as it was to view the tulips!  I especially enjoyed watching the reaction of the children darting among the many gardens, stopping occasionally to pose for their parents who were intent on capturing the outing on their cameras. The laughter and antics of the children and their enthusiasm while trying to smell the tulips was humorous to watch.

The majority of the tulips were at their peak. There were a few beds that were finished and the bulbs had been dug out. The soil was ready for the planting of annuals, later in the spring. There were also a few beds of late tulips, still in tight bud, to be enjoyed in the following week.  Mid morning, we  stopped to try one of Ottawa’s famous “Beaver Tails” made right there on location. It was a wonderful, warm sugar treat.

By mid morning, we had reached the end of the park and the massive tulip beds. Jim sat on a bench and was quite contented to “people watch” while I photographed some of the more unusual tulips. We then crossed the road to the edge of Dow Lake, which is a part of the Rideau Canal. This location gave us an entirely different view of Ottawa in the Spring.  Right on cue, our taxi appeared and we headed for home.

I had had my  “tulip fix” for another year.  Spring was here!  All was well with the Universe.

This is how Jim likes to view the tulips.

Overlooking Dow Lake

Spring time along the Rideau Canal.

On Friday morning I went into school with Kate while Jim slept, read and played on Kate’s Wii. The school was a lovely bright building and Kate had a colourful classroom.

Kate's classroom as the children were arriving.

It was easy to see where the drama props were being stored! The evidence was all around the classroom. The kids were a little in awe of the fact that Miss Mitchell actually had a mother!! Since their big Drama Night was that evening, the kids were very excited and not in the least interested in working! They were a lively group of children! (Kate assured me that this continuous motion was normal and not just excitement.) In the afternoon, the group worked on getting everything set up for the evening performance. I did some last minute costume repairs and even made a set of ears for the fox. It was a very busy day. I talked to one of the custodians, who had a son in the play. She was SO excited, she was bubbling. She told me that the reason everyone was so excited was that this was the first time ever, in the history of the school that there had ever been a drama night for the children. Thumbs up to Kate for getting this special event off the ground, to the other 3 staff members that helped as directors and to the other staff for supervising and helping make this night such a success. It was quite an achievement!
Several of the staff met at the local restaurant for an early dinner before the performances. Several of the high school staff joined us for dinner and then came to the school to support the elementary panel. It was interesting to see such support and intermixing within the two panels.

The mouse gets his makeup.

The evening was a real success! The kids loved their time on the stage and the parents, grandparents and sibblings made for an enthusiastic audience. They loved seeing their children in the spotlight. The cute costumes and the huge enthusiasm made up for the slight lack of voice projection.

Drama Night

There was only one borrowed mike and the kids had never had a chance to practice with it ahead of time. No one cared. Everyone was having too much fun!
During the intermissions, the staff ran a silent auction which netted over $600 for the field trip fund. (The afghan and shawl that I made in the 4 colours of the medicine wheel, brought in $75.) They also had a concession stand which was very popular with the kids. By the end of the evening, there were some very tired kids and even more so - the teachers.

It's all over!

This is the look of relief. “Wow!  Ater all those weeks of planning and practise, it is over.” That relief is coupled with total exhaustion.

Kate & the Goose

You can view more picture from this unique experience at my photo gallery here:

Kate’s Goose Rally Photos

Jim and Smeagol having a nap after the surgery.

Having a shower proved to  be the next challenge!  The bandages couldn’t get wet and I sure didn’t want to attempt to unwrap them to make them smaller!  It is amazing what you can do with lots of Saran Wrap, a couple of small garbage bags, some wide sewing elastic and a roll of duct tape!!  Mission accomplished!  The bandage stayed dry and Jim smells much sweeter now!  Next challenge … keeping them white for 10 more days until he goes back for his check up!

Here are a few pictures of the very large and heavily padded bandage and two of the bandage ready for a shower!

Jim's very well padded arm following his surgery.

He could play football with this padding!

A close up of the waterproof masterpiece!

Is Valentine’s Day important?

I used to really enjoy Valentine’s Day when I was still teaching. There was something about the colours -red, white & pink all being so colourful and cheerful in a white snowy February.  The children used to get so excited about getting and giving the funny little cards! It was fun to watch. When I retired, I didn’t think I would miss all those sugar filled parties which although exciting, were also filled with hyper children, were exhausting for the teachers and the room  always ended up such a big mess!

Surprisingly enough, I did miss those parties. Besides all the previously mentioned disadvantages to Valentine’s Day, that day, like all the other holidays, served as a division of the year. In the schools, we seemed to gear the year around the various seasons and holidays. We sang appropriate songs, decorated our rooms to match the season, and always seemed to be preparing for the next special holiday. One knew that Thanksgiving meant harvest and coloured leaves, Hallowe’en meant the start of cold yard duty and dull days leading to snow, When Feb 14th rolled around, we were almost through with winter. The days were getting longer and the sunshine was wonderful! But without the hype of celebrating Valentine’s Day (and other holidays) with children, the days, weeks, & months just moved one to another and suddenly the seasons seemed to change without the holiday markers that made us tick off that part of the year.

Since retirement, Oct 31st came and went without me even knowing that it had happened (unless I went into the Dollar Stores and saw the displays!)  I had trouble convincing myself that I had to get my gardens closed up because in my mind, Halloween hadn’t come yet. ( I still have fall bulbs unplanted because the ground froze before my seasonal clock realized how late in the year it really was. In the past 2 years, with the warm fall and without much Nov snow, Christmas crept up just as quickly. The weather was still nice out, so no need to decorate yet. During my teaching days, I would have my house decorated in late November because that was when my class started getting excited about Christmas. My seasonal clock was in sync. So yes, I guess I really did miss those seasonal parties!

This Valentine’s Day was different. It started when our United Church Women’s group had their meeting in a home and with a “love” and Valentine’s Day theme.  Today Mom & I visited the “Sweetheart Bonspiel” which was actually on the 14th this year. Tomorrow, we are having a breakfast after church and it has a Valentine Theme. I even made some of my old Valentine Crafts for the tables. On Monday, we are celebrating the special day with Valentine snacks and decorations. I actually puled out my  red & white clothes and my Valentine pins and ear-rings!  So this year, for the first time since I stopped doing long term supply jobs in the winter months, I really feel as if February 14th is here!  I’m enjoying all the signs of an approaching spring and I actually feel that it is time to plant the seeds that I have always started the week after the 14th!  (They didn’t get done until mid March last year) No I didn’t go in and help out with a school party!  Maybe I don’t actually have to go to those drastic measures!!  My seasonal clock is where it should be. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Okay Kate!  Let’s hear about your morning of ice fishing!  Love Mom

I started my day off by taking Mom to her hair appointment.  Then Jim and I moved into our next phase of cleaning … our bedroom!!!  We have been cleaning one section of the house each day and naturally, left the worst ’till last!  With the exception of the garage and the basement, our bedroom is at the top of the list!! I still have stuff left over from Christmas that was in piles on the dresser, floor etc.  Of course, in order to put that stuff away, I had to clean some space in some of the already overflowing drawers.  I was doing SO well until I came to what I lovingly call my “memory drawer”.  This drawer contains all the cards, art projects, booklets and other memorable items saved over the last 30 or so years!  Kate and I don’t do many things the same way but I quickly found myself falling into  a pattern familiar to her cleaning style. When she was very young, I would send her to her room to clean. If she was picking up her books, she always took a clean start approach! She would remove every book (or at least the few still remaining on the shelves) and would then attempt to put them back in some order that only made sense in her mind. This usually meant reading every book before it was put back on the shelf. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long for her to forget about putting them back at all and she would simply lie down on any free space available and just read - cleaning was quickly forgotten!

Well, this is similar to what happened to me!  In order to clean the drawer, I had to sort,  and to sort I had to read.  I alternated between laughing over Kindergarten and Grade one stories; trying to remember children that I had taught as I read their end of the year letters; and smiling at many years’ worth of Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and birthday cards with signatures and spelling ranging from pre-school age scrawls through, phonetic spelling, into printing and then neat penmanship.  I even found a baby tooth sealed in an envelope marked in a child’s printing, ” 1 tooth” obviously left behind in my drawer by the tooth fairy. I was re-reading newspaper clippings from when Jamie worked with Mr Hughes on Environmental issues and from  when my class raised money for the children from the big ice storm in Quebec by holding a pancake lunch for donations. There were Brownie and Guide fly up pictures mounted in Popsicle stick frames and samples of projects that had obviously spent their day of fame hanging on the “refrigerator post it board” (one was even a university project 100% assignment) .  Then I came to some creative writing projects from Kate’s writing days!  I should have stopped right there!!!  Many wet tissues later, I left the drawer and moved on to the wrapping paper and gift bag drawer! Kate always delighted in seeing if she could make sentimental Mom tear up!  These articles about her memories growing up were obviously aimed in that direction! You would have been proud of me Kate!!   Just one thing though…also in that drawer I found an album empty except for the first page. It read: Pretend like this is my writing portfolio because that is what I’m giving you for Christmas but I don’t get it back until Jan 6th so you kind of have to wait. But please enjoy the first thing that I wrote that won me something.  Kate   I’m pretty sure that one of those articles that I had just read was that article.  My question is: ‘When do I get the rest of my Christmas present Kate???”

So Kate, the ball is now in your court and I’m off to clean another drawer.

My family is truly trying to make me into a geek in many fields. My first adventure of the new year, included learning how to use my iPod AGAIN, ( I seem to forget more quickly these days and need constant retraining!) and then I upped the skill level to include learning  how to hook it up to speakers in my kitchen for music, and in the car for entertainment while driving. (Making use of the Christmas and birthday gifts given to us in an attempt to bring “the parents” into the age of technology! Hurray for Jim & I. We mastered that challenge with only minor levels of frustration! ( and some phone calls to Jamie’s “Help line”) I just wanted a small CD player to play some of my CDs….alas, it seems that that technology has gone along the wayside, along with tape cassettes! So Jim & I have entered the age of iPOD technology!

Next Jamie upped my training to begin instruction in the use of my birthday Mac. Now that was another whole learning curve altogether!! I’ll leave the ups and downs of that adventure for another day!  I feel that I have already taken another step up my “learning curve” adventure by just getting started on this BLOG. I will admit, the whole experience is a little daunting but Kate told me that she wasn’t writing any more entries in her BLOG until I started mine. SO Kate … this entry is dedicted to you!!  And thank you Jamie for a “geek like” Christmas present that is challenging my writing skills as well as my bravery!!!