We never thought it would happen, but Rowan's butterfly, Molly Monarch finally hatched out of her chrysalis yesterday. She made her chrysalis about a month ago, and monarchs usually only take about 14 days before they come out as a butterfly---so this one took her sweet time. I was just about to take the lid off of her container and set the chrysalis outside because I thought something had gone wrong and it was never going to hatch out, but she surprised us just in time. It was a great thing to discover late in the afternoon yesterday. Since we're all currently sick and spending waaaay too much time at home, this constituted a big event and really turned the day around! Rowan was mesmerized by the new butterfly and jumping up and down and giving everyone in the family congratulatory hugs. We realized there aren't many flowers left in our yard for it to find food, so we cut what was left and put it in her container last night while she got used to flexing her new wings. This morning she seemed ready to go, so we took her down the hill to our neighbors for the big release (our neighbors have a far superior flower garden with a few things still blooming). Rowan proudly carried the butterfly down the hill and then got to hold her for a few seconds before she flew off and perched on a birdhouse in the yard. It seemed quite content there, so I'm not sure how far this slow butterfly is going to get before the next stretch of cold weather, but maybe with the coming winds of the hurricane she'll get blown around and pushed far enough south to catch up with some other monarch stragglers! This was a really simple yet magical fall activity--bon voyage Molly!
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