- Barbara's Butterfly Chrysalises -

Description

When Barbara came home from vacationing in her hometown with old friends and their 50th high school reunion, she brought back two Monarch butterfly chrysalises. She created a butterfly nursery on her kitchen windowsill, covered it with netting, and watched for a few days.  (Aug. 22, 2011)

Today, the first butterfly began to emerge from its chrysalis. She called over to me and I came running with my camera. One of the two was out of its chrysalis, which had turned transparent. The other chrysalis, yesterday just green, has developed the rings of gold like this one had yesterday.

We carefully removed the netting then brought habitat pot outside to the Butterfly bush I gave her a few years ago as a small bush that has grown quickly. The monarch clung to one of the stems of the bush that Barbara had cut and put into the pot for about half an hour.  (Aug. 23, 2011)

Eventually it flitted up into the Butterfly bush, where it remained for about half an hour, then moved into more of the bush's center. This evening we could not find it.

One Monarch hatched, one to go.