My daily ritual when I get up in the morning is to grab a cup of coffee and head outside onto my lanai. I love living here in Florida as most of the time it is warm and sunny. Besides I love the tropical feel of it. Palm trees , hibiscus, the wildlife and most of all the butterflies. Butterflies seem to be everywhere here. I think we have them here almost all year with the exception of a month or so. If we have a warm winter they seem like they are here all of the time. This past winter was pretty cold for here so most of their host plants completely died off for a couple of months. As soon as it warmed up though they grew back fast & furious!
I started raising them about 3 years ago. I was lookin for something to do with my son during the summer months while he was out of school. At first we collected small garden snails and we kept them in a small plastic cage. I figured my son would loose interest fast but he actually would clean their cage daily, mist them with water and give them fresh lettuce and greens. I was the one who finally said to him it was time to turn them out into the world lol I think they are just icky! LOL
My friend Vikki had told me how she raised butterflies. She told me what kind of plants I needed for their host plant (depending on what kind of butterfly I was interested in attracting) and also what to look for when I was looking for eggs. I actually already had a passion vine and had seen the caterpillars at one time on it so I was on my way. I knew this would be our next summer "science project"! I taught my son what to look for and he still goes out and checks for eggs and caterpillars. He also loves watching them develop and still gets excited when it is time to release one.
This morning when I went outside there they were! 2 of my Gulf Fritillary butterflies had hatched from their chrysalis's!!! I also have a bunch more Gulf Fritillary caterpillars in my cage so there will be more butterflies in the comming weeks. I am still waiting for the Eastern Black Swallowtails to find the fennel & parsley I have in my yard for them as well as for the Monarchs to find my milkweed plants. Once they do I will collect their eggs as well and place them in my cage .
As for stitching I have been working on exchanges and a small design for myself. My plan today is to do the finishing on them so I can mail them out this week. I will take some pics when I am done and post them.
Thank You all for visiting my blog! I really appreciate all of your wonderful comments :)
2 comments:
Glad you are raising butterflies instead of snails. I hate the snails as they are eating my hosta's and other plants. Great pictures of the butterflies but the last pic. gives me goosebumps though.
Beeutiful butterflies...I have been noticing more and more in my flower gardens :) We have 4 butterfly bushes and when they bloom we actually do soo more butterlies as well as the hummingbird moths :)
Have a GREAT day :)
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