Even in my world of chaos, crafter ADD, teenage drama, the endless incessant needs and energy of youth, irreconcilable differences, petty clashes, neighbors from hell, and just generally too much to do and not enough time to do it in, there are scattered moments of joy and light at the end of the tunnel.

Actually there are a lot of those :)

But today, I'm excited about butterflies. The butterflies I forgot to post about earlier, but meant to. Now they're all grown up and it's too late! Don't worry, I'm exaggerating a little ;)

The butterfly lady, who I built a website for a long time ago, *domain name issues prevent me from linking to the site* came by a few weeks ago to pick up an image I had scanned for her. She was on her way home from doing some workshops or something with schools. She noticed my hollyhocks had holes in the leaves and started looking for baby painted lady's underneath. We got talking a little and I mentioned my interest in one day getting a kit from her so we could try raising some butterflies (not that I need another hobby). As it turns out, butterfly lady had a car full of caterpillars and gave me 8 of them in a container filled with some kind of soy diet & a loaner screened cage for later on.

Just 3/4 short weeks later

There are still 6 more to be born, once they're all out and their wings dry we'll have a release ceremony. :)

The Legend:

If anyone desires a wish to come true they must first capture a butterfly and whisper their wish to it. Since a butterfly can make no sound, the butterfly can not reveal the wish to anyone but the Great Spirit who hears and sees all.

In gratitude for giving the beautiful butterfly its freedom, the Great Spirit always grants the wish. So, according to legend, by making a wish and giving the butterfly its freedom, the wish will be taken to the heavens and be granted.