I pulled off the round, orange, vegetables that were supposed to be cucumbers, from the dead vines. Cucumbers just don’t seem to grow in my garden, it’s the second year I’ve tried.
I thought the donkeys and sheep might like the strange vegetable, so I gathered them in a bowl and as I fed them to the donkeys (each tried one then wouldn’t take another) I saw the chrysalis, like a bright green jewel with a tiny dot and long dash of gold leaf, hanging from the brown leaf.
Yesterday Jon and I witnessed a Monarch Butterfly, just emerged from a chrysalis, on a sunflower in front of George Forss’ Gallery.
This morning it was like going back in time.
I hung the brown leaf and chrysalis, well hidden, on the gourd vine in my Apple Branch Sculpture.
I’ve read that there are no indications of when the butterfly will emerge. But I’ll check the chrysalis twice a day, when I feed the animals, and maybe I’ll get lucky enough to see the Monarch Butterfly before she or he flies away.
Actually, if you watch the chrysalis daily, you will be able to tell when the butterfly is going to emerge. The chrysalis will become clear instead of green and you will see the butterfly within shortly before it emerges. If you are lucky, you will be able to watch it happen. It’s really exciting!
Thanks Tracey, I’d love to see that.
You’ll get some clues. So fun. The chrysalis starts to get more and more transparent for a couple of days. When it’s about to hatch, you’ll see the pattern of the monarch butterfly’s wings right through the thin wall of the chrysalis. You probably know this, but it’s really important not to “help” it emerge or nudge it to fly. It takes a longish while to split and shed the chrysalis, stretch its wings out (fluid has to pump into the veins of the wings), dry out, and then exercise its wings for a while before it flies. So hopefully somewhere in there you’ll get to see it in process.
I hope I get to see it Suzanne, your description is tantalizing.