Rustic Sphinx

Rustic Sphinx moth shortly after coming out

Life is often filled with little surprises and we had one that was really cool. In a flower pot with a plant we bought found a cocoon! Now my bride is an animal person so she took the cocoon, put it in a wire globe with potting soil (actually two strainers), with leaves and twigs, and waited. Oh, and she gently sprayed it with water every once in a while.

After a few days she began to doubt that life existed in the cocoon (which is the second image, the one at the bottom). But when she picked it up, it wiggled!! And I mean, it really wiggled. The cocoon is about 3 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. One end of the cocoon would wave back and forth about an inch. And so she thought, “What’s next?” The internet held the answer, of course, and so she built a place with long twigs and left the cocoon on the bottom.

This morning, my birthday, too, the moth “hatched” and climbed onto the branches. Like a butterfly, the wings are all crinkled up and not ready for flight. He or she is hanging there and the wings are gradually filling out. We dare not let it out during the day because the swallows or bluebirds would eat. Tonight it will go free.

The cocoon, about 3 inches long

I Noticed

Solitude. I was alone, too, when I found this image in February 2021 in Old Town Alexandria one evening. I wondered what this person might be thinking…was s/he waiting? Watching? Thinking? Down the rabbit hole I go…can we truly be alone if we have our phones? What would it be like if I didn’t have my phone. Would that translate to solitude? If I were sitting next to this person, would they talk with me? Would I talk with them? I think I would although my shyness would make the first connection difficult. The night was quiet, snowy, peaceful.

Whenever I find myself in a snowy, quiet place with few people I’m transported 60 years back to where I grew up…Huron, SD. The teen years weren’t always happy ones but the memories of those quiet evenings with snow crunching under my boots is a pleasant memory. But then, I remember the twenty degrees below zero, wind blowing 50mph, and 6 foot snow drifts. It all goes together, can’t have the good memories without the bad.