It’s a good thing I stopped to check the first Monarch chrysalis of 2015 before I left for work! I noticed that the chrysalis had turned colour, so I thought I’d better take it to work; that way I’d at least know the poor thing wasn’t ready to fly and eat, but trapped inside. I dusted off the container (it was in the garage, and I didn’t bother to dust it when I first put the chrysalis in there), and readied it to head off to work. I was already running late, and that made me a little more so. I finished getting ready for work, gathered up my stuff, went out the door and stopped to lock it…at which time, I looked down, and there was a brand new butterfly! Obviously, I couldn’t take it to work, so I had to stop and get her (I think) out of there, walk through the wet grass in my work sandals and long skirt, and carefully place her in a butterfly bush so she’d have something close by when she was ready to eat. I told B and C that I was sure that would’ve been an excuse for lateness that even they had never heard before!

My new steps! D was out mowing his front lawn, so I went over to ask whether he’d sell a couple of pieces of that big old osage-orange that had fallen last March. P had asked him months ago, and he said that he’d given the wood to someone who has a wood stove, but he’d been mowing around them long enough that I thought maybe he wouldn’t mind selling enough for me to make my bird feeder steps. Not only did he not mind, but he absolutely refused money, and even rolled them across the street for me! Anyway, now I have cool new steps that aren’t ugly concrete blocks, and though they are wood, they’re big chunks of osage-orange, which will be going strong long after I’m dead and gone.