Flying Away

On Estelle and Lena's last full day in VT, they came over to spend some time in the sun with Wayne, Cole, and Heather before flying back to France the next day.

There was some  blackberry picking in the corner of the hay field.

 They found a monarch caterpillar which we took inside and kept in a plastic container.

 There was some wiffle ball. Estelle has good form.

 There was lunch on the porch.

 And there was a little bit of gardening.

Now to show Estelle and Lena what happened with their caterpillar. We fed in lots of milkweed leaves for about a week. Then it made a cocoon. 

 After about 10 days, the cocoon becomes transparent - you can see the butterfly all scrunched up inside. This means it's almost ready to come out. We noticed this change on Tuesday evening...

 ...and on Wednesday morning, the butterfly emerged. Along with a friend we had found. (In all we have 4 cocoons). When they first come out, their wings are all crumpled and crooked. The butterfly has to be able to hang so its wings will straighten and dry and become strong for flying.

 After a few hours we took them out to the garden and let them fly away.