You take the best closeups Adrienne. I would say you have a great camera, but my niece who is also a photographer has informed me that is an unintended insult. So, instead I say you have a good eye and great soul. :)
Anonymous said…
Beautiful for a minute or two and then gone with the wind.
The butterflies that I raised - were not raised outside. Your comment about the dirt, lends me to believe that yours may be?
A friend from church and her daughter found the eggs on the milkweed plants. They plucked those leaves and wrapped the stem of the leaves with wet paper towel and foil to keep giving them moisture.
I kept them in a container - the first batch was in a plastic rectangle salad bar container from like the grocery store. I thought they needed more height, so with my second batch - I bought a taller plastic container and covered the top with cheese cloth and a rubber band (which once they formed the chrysalis - made it hard to see them change). I thought they needed more room - only because when they emerged from the chrysalis the wings were tiny - but as they hung upside down the wings get larger as they dry - and I opened up the container at that point.
As the caterpillars ate the leaves I supplied new fresh ones that I found outside in a local field. I washed the leaves first to remove any pesticides. I also always making sure they had a bit of moisture - but too much moisture did make one of the caterpillars die when really tiny.
I really had no idea what I was doing. Just kind of observing the process and was lucky that only one died.
I hope that was helpful. I hope you will post pictures of the process I had a great time watching and photographing - in fact the third grade classes at school are using my photo's in their unit on butterflies. Kind of neat!
Good Luck!
Here is a link to some collages I made of the process: http://valeriescollages.blogspot.com/2010/02/raising-monarch-butterflys-2009.html
I linked my name to the post I did on the process as well on August 24, 2009.
Comments
Enjoying the beach... Beautiful day today here!
Hugs,
Betsy
I would say you have a great camera, but my niece who is also a photographer has informed me that is an unintended insult.
So, instead I say you have a good eye and great soul. :)
Valerie - I did reduce the opacity just slightly to get this softer look. But no textures.
The butterflies that I raised - were not raised outside. Your comment about the dirt, lends me to believe that yours may be?
A friend from church and her daughter found the eggs on the milkweed plants. They plucked those leaves and wrapped the stem of the leaves with wet paper towel and foil to keep giving them moisture.
I kept them in a container - the first batch was in a plastic rectangle salad bar container from like the grocery store. I thought they needed more height, so with my second batch - I bought a taller plastic container and covered the top with cheese cloth and a rubber band (which once they formed the chrysalis - made it hard to see them change). I thought they needed more room - only because when they emerged from the chrysalis the wings were tiny - but as they hung upside down the wings get larger as they dry - and I opened up the container at that point.
As the caterpillars ate the leaves I supplied new fresh ones that I found outside in a local field. I washed the leaves first to remove any pesticides. I also always making sure they had a bit of moisture - but too much moisture did make one of the caterpillars die when really tiny.
I really had no idea what I was doing. Just kind of observing the process and was lucky that only one died.
I hope that was helpful. I hope you will post pictures of the process I had a great time watching and photographing - in fact the third grade classes at school are using my photo's in their unit on butterflies. Kind of neat!
Good Luck!
Here is a link to some collages I made of the process: http://valeriescollages.blogspot.com/2010/02/raising-monarch-butterflys-2009.html
I linked my name to the post I did on the process as well on August 24, 2009.