Structure

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“Life on earth is a whole,

yet it expresses itself in unique time-bound bodies,

microscopic or visible,

plant or animal, extinct or living.

So there can be no one place to be.

There can be no one way to be,

no one way to practice, no one way to learn,

no one way to love, no one way to grow or to heal,

no one way to live, no one way to feel,

no one thing to know or be known.

The particulars count.”

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Jon Kabat-Zinn

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“Nothing is less real than realism.

Details are confusing.

It is only by selection, by elimination,

by emphasis,

that we get at the real meaning of things.”

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Georgia O’Keeffe

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“The basic structure of the universe

is balanced on a razor’s edge

for life to exist”

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Sunday Adelaja

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

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For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Structure

Where Have the Butterflies Gone?

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Where have the butterflies gone?  Just in the last few days I’ve noticed their absence.  On Friday I was watching one bigger than a goldfinch feeding on a Zinnia, and suddenly yesterday, I didn’t see any while working in the garden.

And this morning, I read Kim Smith’s beautiful piece on the declining Monarch population.

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Our population of Swallowtails has been strong this season.  We’ve had their constant companionship for months.  We often stop to enjoy them as we’re walking past the windows, arriving home in the car, and working in the garden.  They have been a delight- and now are more than missed.

And now this morning, sipping coffee early this morning on the deck, I spy new caterpillars.

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What a joy to find them. They are still enjoying the Bronze Fennel I sought so early this spring, hoping for a huge, ferny display all summer.  Well, Andrew Patton ordered it for me when I inquired,  and soon I purchased beautiful healthy plants at Homestead Garden Center.  We planted it in  big pots, alongside Borage, with high hopes.  Somehow, I think that watching generation after generation of these beautiful caterpillars has been even more interesting than a huge Fennel plant might have been; disregarding the fact that they were never able to bloom.

So I’m happy that the Swallowtails found a sanctuary here in our little garden.  We have done our small part here to keep their population healthy and happily growing.

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Tiger Swallowtails on Echinacea.

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Sadly, the Monarchs are struggling.  The herbicides used by farmers raising GMO crops destroy the host plants Monarchs require to raise their young.  The Milkweed plants are disappearing from the countryside for many reasons- development, spread of the suburbs, and industrial farming.  Each of us can do our small part to assist the Monarchs, along with countless other small wild things, by providing safe habitat and the host plants they require to live.

The stores are full of brightly packaged chemicals to solve every gardening problem, from weeds to mosquitoes.  As more and more of us see past the promise of a quick fix, and understand the implications of using these dangerous chemicals, perhaps we can turn to other,  safer, ways to manage our land and grow our gardens.  The 1960’s promise of “Better Life Through Chemistry” was a hollow promise.  We have poisoned our water, poisoned our land, and now are poisoning ourselves.

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Monarch on Zinnias

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Please keep in mind that we are all interconnected.  All of us are parts of the web of life, sharing this beautiful home hurtling through space.  And we Homo sapiens sapiens, intended to be the wisest of creatures, are the ones who have killed the oceans, filled the aquifers with fracking fluids, cut the forests which purify our air, and are now in process of even destroying our store of seeds for the foods on which we depend through genetic modification to make them immune to herbicides.  As our farmers spray their fields with glyphosate, killing the host plants needed by birds and butterflies; so it also runs off into creeks and ponds, killing insect larvae, frogs, fish, and turtles.

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Monarch feeding on Asclepias syriaca at the Stonehouse Elementary native plant garden.

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We can not, by ourselves, change industrial farming practices or stop fracking for natural gas.

We can do our own small bit to keep our own garden as a sanctuary free of herbicides, and pesticides; to provide sources of clean water; and grow a few life-giving plants to sustain the creatures who find shelter with us.

As we do to the least among us…. we do to ourselves.

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There are many butterflies and moths native in Virginia and all of them are currently in decline. We have a network of dedicated butterfly enthusiasts in our area who rescue and raise cats, releasing the butterflies into the wild as they emerge, and by protecting the butterfly larvae, they help insure that more individuals make it to the adult butterfly stage, mate, and increase the population.

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Woodland Gnome 2013

Updated 2021

 

 

Eastern Black Swallowtail Caterpilliars- Revisited

This gallery contains 6 photos.

The first chrysalis turned up a few days ago. Perhaps you saw my post on the caterpillars?  So far we found one chrysalis on the bronze fennel the caterpillars were munching, and another on a nearby tomato cage. The others must be close, but I haven’t found them yet.  Originally there were nine caterpillars on … Continue reading →

Hungry Caterpillars; What’s For Lunch?

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Bronze Fennel is a favorite of Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars I counted nine caterpillars on just one fennel plant this morning Hungry as the caterpillars might be, fennel grows quickly and will survive their munching.  This Osmanthus goshiki shrub doesn’t look like a good host plant, but is on the menu for this gigantic beast. … Continue reading →

Butterflies Everywhere….

This gallery contains 27 photos.

What a wonderful sensation to wander out into the butterfly garden and stand in the midst of dozens of butterflies flying around from flower to flower sipping nectar. Sometimes four or five butterflies are all drinking from the same plant, shoulder to shoulder with the bumblebees. What joy to be a butterfly in July when … Continue reading →