I Could've Been Cleaning

Here's a confession:  I really don't like the beach.  In theory, it's wonderful:  sun on the skin, sand in the toes, salt water's good for what ails ya, right?  In reality, it's hot.  With a crawling baby, it means sand in everything.  And salt water means everyone needs a shower (not such an easy task with 3 little squid along).

Fortunately, we have access to the same beach The Papa played on as a child.  So long as our timing is right for low tide, we can play in the sand and saltwater of the channel with enough boat wake to make it fun (and occasionally scary), a toilet just upstairs, and an outdoor shower with warm water.  I joke that it's our own private yacht club.  It's crazy to live so close to that and not take advantage of it, right?

I decided Monday evening that we were going to take advantage of it, and we were going to take advantage of it the very next morning.  I didn't, however, prepare very well the night before so I was a mess (to put it mildly) Tuesday morning trying to get everything together.  The whole time I was scurrying around, all I could think was, "I could just stay home and clean up this mess."

When we got to the sound, though, and got everything in the sand and the saltwater, all I could think was, "But I would've missed this."

Hard at work making a baby pool!

This little imp had just offered me a hug.  A wet, sandy hug.
Sweet, huh?

JayBird found 3 hermit crabs that day.  I scored a baby blue crab.

Strangely, we couldn't even get close to the schools of fish.

On the way home, we stopped by "Touch Tank Tuesday" at the NC Coastal Federation office.  It's always so interesting to see what the staff collected from the local waters.  This day's most interesting specimen was a pregnant blue crab.  Want to know how to tell if a crab is pregnant?  Check her belly.

This isn't the best photo, but the egg sack looked much like a sponge.  Reportedly, it also feels like a sponge.
That's about 2 milllllllllllion eggs.

And to think.....I could've been cleaning.

Out of the Chrysalis!

This post is really about a caterpillar, but it's an appropriate time and analogy for my getting back to recording our family's memories.  Much of what happens while a larva pupates is still a mystery, as is where the time has gone since my last post over at Memories on Maplechase.  At any rate, "Forward, March!"

Back in September (2015), I saw a post from an acquaintance offering Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars.  "How fun and educational it would be for the kids to see metamorphosis first-hand!" I thought.  And so one morning we became the proud keepers of two beautiful caterpillars.  We did a little research and made a cozy home for Winter and Hope.

That's just Winter.  We took Hope to school, but she "stopped eating" over the long Labor Day weekend.

Naturally, we had planned to spend the Labor Day weekend four hours away from home with friends.  I say "naturally" because that's the way things seem to go:  almost never at a convenient time.  See, caterpillars eat a lot.  And often.  They really can't be left in a gallon-sized glass jar for four days.  So, we either find a 'pillar-sitter, or we take her with us.  And since we didn't have time to properly screen a sitter, we had no choice but to take her with us.  It was ok since we still had six square inches of empty space in our van.

We arrived safely at our destination and situated Winter in the gazebo overlooking the lake.  It was a beautiful view for a caterpillar.  On our second day, The Mamas of the group went into the city for an over-night, and while we were away, The Papa got to witness Winter shedding her little legs and curling up into her chrysalis!  He said it happened very quickly.  We were very proud of her.

We brought her home, and a couple of weeks later while on the screened porch, I turned to notice something moving inside the jar.  It was.....startling, to say the least, to find such a beauty!

Thank heavens we had friends here to help us figure out what to do.  Seems simple, huh, just to let her out.  Well, it was very exciting, and sometimes emotions take over.

What could be better than this?

I was so happy that she crawled right onto The Girl's arm.  We couldn't have planned it any better than that.  She put her arm near a potted plant where the butterfly rested, and after a few minutes, Winter flew onto the roof of the neighbor's house.  Watching Winter was such a magical time, and she will hold a place in our hearts forever.

And, by the way, Winter was a male.  ;)