How does your garden grow?

Petunia Love

Be still my heart...

I hope they survive while I neglect all the flowers and go on vacation.

Wordless Wednesday

Eagle Watching

UPDATE:
The first eaglet could hatch today!
Many are watching--notice the number of viewers.
Click the link at the bottom of this post.

Below is a link to a live webcam of an eagle's nest in Decorah, Iowa. I think it is amazing that we see eagles on a regular basis in Iowa now. My kids tire of hearing me talk about it--about how I never expected to see an eagle as a kid. About how I didn't see an eagle until I was an adult. About how amazing it is to see an eagle. About how awesome eagles are. The kids like eagles, but they think I'm little obsessed.

They told me it was a lie when I claimed to have a pet eagle. But there is a large eagle who hangs out about 3 miles from our house on a road I drive multiple times a day. I call him Baldy or Pate (short for Patriot). I feel a special attachment to him. He flew really low over the windshield of my car one day, when I scared him up off his road-kill deer. Sorry if that was offensive. I took his picture one day, but only with my phone so it's not that great.

Anyway, take a look at this awesome-ness.
  I wonder if she ever has a strange feeling of being watched...

Click on the link below:
Decorah, Iowa eagle nest-- live stream

Please Respect the Birds

We had a wonderful spring break last week. I will be writing about it soon.

Today I read this and it made me smile. And it made me think of spring...longingly. And I must say that I have no memory of ever reading this before. : )

Deuteronomy 22: 6-7

"If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life."

(FYI: I have instructed my children to leave the young birds and eggs alone, as well as the mother bird.)

Spring

Today is warm and sunny. The air smells like dirt. But it never feels like spring until I set out this picture:

Ryan -- age 8

Blooms

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope."

Lady Bird Johnson

Here's what's blooming in my garden...

Indian Summer Rudbekia:

Ornamental Kale and Impatiens:

Many varieties of day lilies:

Oak Leaf Hydrangea:

Victoria Blue Salvia:

Purple Cone Flower:

Profusion Zinnias (cherry):

and bee balm, feverfew, hollyhocks, petunias, and hostas.

The milkweed has monarchs flittering around it every day. We have been finding lots of eggs and some tiny caterpillars. 

Hatching Monarch Butterflies at Home

I spotted this beauty on my milkweed--the first one I've spotted this season.

 The spotting of the first monarch is a symbol of the beginning of summer at my house.  Much like spotting a robin signifies spring has arrived.  I will spend the next four months checking milkweed leaves for eggs...obsessively.  My oldest and youngest children, Brandon and Meggan, will do the same.  We have hatched monarch butterflies for over ten years, and never tire of the wonder of it.
You might remember this post from last fall about our butterflies.

If you are interested in hatching monarchs, here is the "need to know" list:

The life cycle is less than one month, which makes it a great short-term science project.

You will need a large pickle jar or something similar to create its habitat.  I have found plastic jars in the kitchen containers at Walmart/Target that work well.  I cover the opening with screen or netting and a rubber band sometimes.

Feed only milkweed--you will find it in lots of road ditches and open fields.  It is the only food the caterpillar eats, so you will need a supply of it--a fresh leaf daily, and 2-3 at the end when the caterpillar is huge.
Check the backs of milkweed leaves for tiny eggs or tiny caterpillars, typically only a few per milkweed plant.  Sometimes more, sometimes none. The eggs look exactly like a chicken egg--creamy white and oval, except tiny.  The caterpillars start so tiny that it's almost easier to see where they have eaten the leaf, rather than the caterpillar themselves; but they grow very quickly.  Pick the leaf with the egg or caterpillar.  You can put a stem of milkweed in a glass of water to have a supply for a day or two.  Very carefully transfer the caterpillar to the new leaf each day and throw out the old leaf--it will get moldy if left in the jar.

The eggs will usually hatch within 24 hours, assuming they are going to hatch.  The baby caterpillars will eat milkweed and double in size almost daily.  They will eat/grow for around 14 days.  When they are molting (shedding their skin) they will stop eating and not move very much.  This happens a few times during the 14 days.  By the end of the 14 days, the caterpillar will almost be as long as a child's pinky finger.

Sometime during the two weeks, put a stick into the jar for it to make the chrysalis on. The stick needs to have horizontal twigs.  Sometimes it makes the chrysalis on the lid or the side of the jar, even if there is a stick.  When it is done eating and ready to make the chrysalis, it will crawl all over the jar looking for the right spot.  Then it will attach itself  and hang upside down in a J.  Now you don't have to feed it anymore!

The chrysalis is amazing!  Watching the caterpillar change to a chrysalis is even more amazing, and we have only seen it happen a handful of times.

It will hang for approximately 12 days.  When it is almost ready to hatch, the chrysalis will become black and see-through.

Once the butterfly hatches, it will hang upside down and dry for several hours.  This is usually when we move it outside to the porch to watch.  You can see the liquid drip off the wings as they dry and the wings slowly uncurl.

After a while, it will begin fanning its wings.

  Then it will be ready to fly away!

Spring Beauty

This is such a beautiful time of year.  The beauty of spring causes me to pause and gaze out my windows and to linger in my yard to soak it up.  The trees are blooming in central Iowa and the lavender icing on the redbud branches takes my breath away. 
Of all this beauty, there is nothing that cheers my soul like daffodils.  Since I was a little girl, I have loved daffodils.  The vase on my table is like a bouquet of sunshine.  They call out HOPE!  I have always thought that the shape of their bloom looks like a trumpet or a sort-of mouth... it looks like something that sound could come out of.  I can't help but wonder what daffodils will be like in Heaven.  I know that Heaven will be an amazing place, and that I won't be disappointed with anything as I sit in the presence of Christ. I know that there will be surprises there--so, it would really trip my trigger if daffodils could burst into song and shout for joy! 

Isaiah 49: 13

"Shout for joy, O Heavens; rejoice, O Earth; burst into song, O mountains!"

Another snow day...

Outside my window this morning:

The stack of snow on the bench is all fresh snow.  We got hammered again.  School was dismissed at noon yesterday and cancelled today.  The temperature is below zero this morning and very high winds are expected by noon today.  We have kept most of the snow on the ground from all the previous snow storms of the winter, but the deck railings and bench had been blown clear of snow.  It is very still so far today, but I'm pretty sure this afternoon will look quite different.
This would have been a great winter to crawl in a cave and hibernate.  Wait...that's practically what I've done.  Stay home, make crafty things and bake fattening things. 
(I'm pretty sure we're not eating enough vegetables this winter.  I keep running out of flour, sugar and butter.)


Speaking of fattening things...
Here's my friend Kendra's recipe for baked french toast.  Yummy for lunch on a cold snowy day. 


Baked French Toast
12 slices bread
1 stick butter
1/2 - 2/3 c. brown sugar
8 eggs
1/2 c. milk
In a 9x13 inch pan, melt butter and brown sugar.  Layer bread on top of butter/sugar mixture.  Beat eggs and milk together. Pour over bread. Chill overnight and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

Too Late for Freedom

If you have been to my house in the summer, you have likely seen monarchs on my kitchen counter in one or more stages of the life cycle.  We have hatched many monarchs in our kitchen for the past 10 years.  We've witnessed the caterpillar hatching from the tiny egg, the making of the bright green chrysalis, and the hatching of the beautiful butterfly many times; but we have never ceased to be amazed by God's creativity with this creature.

Each time we've hatched a butterfly, we have released it outside the same day.  This year has been different.  In early October our weather turned cold--too cold for butterflies to survive.  We had four caterpillars left to hatch and weren't sure what we should do with them.  The butterfly specialist at Iowa State University's Rieman Gardens encouraged us to keep them in our home to enjoy for their short life, rather than send them outside to certain death.  We were able to release two of the monarchs during a stretch of warm days in mid-October.  We are hoping that they made tracks to Mexico and made it far enough south to escape the cold temperatures that came within a few days. The butterfly pictured here is the last one of the four.  He will likely die on our kitchen table.  He spends all day on the window screen, apparently longing to do what God intended him to do.  We would love to see him fly away, but he was born too late for freedom.