Hubby hatched a machine and I'm expecting butterflies

Something I slowly learn in life is that only you really know your own story. I jot mine down in my head quite frequently- the delights and adventures and ponderings, but not often do I sit down long enough to write and share them. And when I'm in person, I can't draw up the very stories I wished to tell. So you only get the skimmings and only the presentable, interesting ones at that. Oh well, right now I can't do any better than that.

So it's true. M hatched his machine. From brain child, to wooing a contract, to design drawings, to parts, to building, to livingroom, to kitchen, to deck,...to Richmond! The machine, which we call Alvin, is still under the warming lights, one could say (so the job's not over yet). But we take milestones when we can get them!

Here are a few pics of the night Alvin moved out of the house. Two friends came after their days of work and helped us move it out of the house, down off the deck and up onto a trailer where they built a crate around it. We estimate it weighs around 400+lbs.

There's Alvin

It's good that there are no hands on that machinery moving...

A boost of morale

Final touches

Yes, that's the moon. and that's a lamp he's holding.

And off he went the next day, over the foggy mountain, pulling the trailer with crate strapped on.

As for me, my local excitement is hosting chrysali on my kitchen counter. For some reason I never watched this process as a kid, and I'm acting much like one about it all.

Voracious caterpillar (now I believe that book!)

Monarch larvae, in prepupa stage- getting ready for skin to split and chrysalis to come out. 

Notice the gold embossed trim. It came out a few days after the chrysalis formed. Gorgeous!

On Sunday I noticed the tone of the shell had turned a darker green and you can see the wings inside.

This morning...

Monday morning this creature emerged from a capsule half its size.

Empty chrysalis, butterfly on deck railing (through the glass) 

Ready to meet the world!

It was fun to watch the creature trying out all its new machinery, almost like stretching before a game.

Bon voyage!

What a wonder. 

I can't wait to see what comes out of this guy...

It's a "variegated fritillary". Larvae feed on violet leaves.

This caterpillar's chrysalis came out on Sunday. 

And instead of gold, they have silver and iridescence on their chrysalis. And look at that body shield!

rain play and garden photos

No I'm sorry, I was mistaken. Not three inches of rain in 24 hours. It was five point two. (This was already last weekend)

That is almost half of a ruler! And how delightful it has been. Historically I start hopping and beaming when a long-awaited rain comes and this was no exception. Barrels and barrels of rain soaked into the garden, now turning fast toward fall.

M recently calculated that with each inch of rain, .62 gallons fall on a square foot of land. That makes 967.2 gallons on our thirsty garden. It sounds crazy, but when you collect it in barrels, it's true! A friend of ours with roof-water collection overspilled his barrel-system (he has about seven 250 gal tanks) in the first 40 minutes during which 2.2 inches fell.

Unfortunately, the wet must have driven out the bunnies as well. My beautiful new bean crop had already sprouted fresh green leaves...only to be popped off to the stem the day after the rain. I must admit they looked delicious...but that was the whole crop! How disappointing. Any gardeners' counsel- should I replant now?

Portrait

year one, 2011

Growth ring

M and I are one!

...and we still don't take very good self-portraits.

To celebrate the month of our anniversary, the streamers that fluttered around the ring of witnesses at our wedding went up around our decks. That's been a fun reminder.

On the weekend of our anniversary, we took a 24-hour vacation to a refreshing mountain river, with falls and pools clear as glass.

We mark this milestone with profound gratefulness and joy. It's very humbling to hold a gift and know that it's not by some merit that you've have it.

Livingroom Life

big squash leaves make me so happy.
I promptly prepared them for breakfast- a favorite dish from Cameroon.

In the same room, on the floor, is this.

Professional collaboration with a guy he grew up with who does another type of engineering.

The machine, which I've named Alvin, materializing from digital design to physical presence...in our  livingroom!

The season of gathering family has begun.
Here my newest and nearest relatives are gathered in the livingroom for a belated 1st birthday and Father's Day. 

Four generations plus dog.

June is a verb

I get it now. Each year, the sudden lurch into high activity rather surprises me, as the year turns Spring into Summer. Perhaps it's the heat or the furious plant growth or the summer solstice that alters our pace, I don't know. But today it dawned on me, something which I never learned in English class: that June is a verb. That's what we've been doing these last few weeks: Juning!


Homestead reports:
H&M- living it up

Guest room- enjoying lots of company

Tomatoes- fattening
Cucumbers- climbing, first one was delicious
Cosmos and Lupines- coming!
Canoes- dripping
Mercedes- drinking gallons and gallons of inky fluids, trying not to get dehydrated.

Look about you

This is the name of a clever play by Anonymous, written in the 1500's. M&I enjoyed a production of it at a local theatre earlier this year. If nothing else though, I like its advice.

When I was looking about me today, there were two very exciting sightings:

This explains the morning carpentry sounds outside our bathroom window:

I learned that they are cardinal eggs! Here is the Mama (picture take through a screen):

And then at lunch on the back deck, M remarked on a blue- feathered bird at the edge of the wheat field. I gasped when I looked through our scope:

An Indigo Bunting! I've always heard of but have never spotted one of these dazzling and slightly frumpy birds. Now in our own back yard.