Friday 1 August 2008

Another Butterfly

Last year Skip and I hatched two monarch butterflies. Following them from the egg stage when I brought them in on milkweed leaves, to larval stage watching them increase in size 2000 times. Then they pupated and made beautiful green chrysalises. After two weeks they hatched. They were both girls. I named the first one Chewy and the 2nd one Chewy II.

Our first hatchling, Alpha, emerged from her chrysalis today. I know she's a 'she' because females don't have black dots on their wings and do have thick black lines between the orange sections. I found her hanging upside down in the bug container so I took her outside. She just wanted to stay put or on my finger.
















I finally got her onto a milkweed leaf and took some photos. She stayed there for about 3 hours and finally flew away.
















Beta will not be hatching. The chrysalis did not attach properly to the lid of the container and ended up on the bottom. Greenish goo spread out from there and the chrysalis turned a dark colour. However we have three viable chrysalises still literally 'hanging in there' and they should hatch next week sometime.

I also finished the 15th square of the Aran afghan designed by Ada Fenick.
















It was an easy knit on 5mm needles. I added two reverse stocking stitches between the garter stitches and the celtic braid on each side to give it a bit more width. Only 5 squares to go!

When I arrived for my workout today, I realized I had cleverly left one of my shoes at home - duh!!!! So I did everything in sock feet much to the horror of my trainer. I even did 20 min. on the elliptical trainer and another 15 min. on the treadmill in sock feet. I don't have a training session on Monday because of the holiday so the next one will be Wednesday the 6th. Nicole wants to weigh me and see what she needs to 'tweak' for maximum fat/weight loss. The training diet isn't really different from how I used to eat except I'm consuming more fibre and am not eating sugary snacks in the evening although I really miss my Tracy's sugar and cinnamon pita chips (sniff). Portion control has been important and I've been measuring all the meats and cheeses. I still have to remember to have my snacks which consist of an apple, yogurt, fudgesicle or some other nutritious 80 - 100 cal item. If I can get my butt out of bed early on Sunday morning, I'll go and do the Body Pump class at the gym.

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