Here We Go Again

Well, wouldn't you know it.  Yesterday's post saw the caterpillar's transformation completed and the beautiful butterfly flying into the sky.  This morning, when I went out to check on the rabbits and give Andy his regular parsley treat, I found more caterpillars on the parsley!  This time, I found them much younger because I knew what I was seeing.  The youngest caterpillars are mostly brown with a white horizontal stripe. The ones I found before had already grown out of that stage. 

So, I found three caterpillars:  two of the small ones with a white stripe and one larger yellow and black striped one.  I'm back in the caterpillar business again!  I figure it's a fair trade.  I save them from predators and they entertain me.  Everybody's happy. 

My high tech caterpillar habitat

Speaking of the circle of life, my sister-in-law Amy sent me a couple of prints of a picture she has of my great-grandfather, Daniel Frank Parker.  I need to scan the photo in and add it my collection and post it on Ancestry.com.   It's amazing how many old photos we've been able to turn up since I got interested in this project.  I wonder what kind of car/truck he's standing beside?

Flutterbys

In all the excitement of our Florida trip, I completely forgot the Black Swallowtail butterflies!  When we left, they were all in their chrysalises and I wasn't sure when they were planning to come out.  The references said between one and two weeks, but that it could be longer if it was late in the season.  I figured that the basement was so cool that the butterflies might think it was fall. 

After getting home last night, I finally remembered the butterflies this afternoon and went down to check on them.  This is what I found:

It looks like two of the four caterpillars emerged while we were in Florida and lived out their short lives.  I found one on the desk and one under my chair.  The beauty in the pictures above probably emerged today and was still drying its wings.  There's a fourth chrysalis, but it doesn't look right and I don't think the butterfly survived. 

Sam and I took the little guy in the basement outside to meet the wide world.  It was great watching him take flight. 

Last Day in Paradise

Today is our last full day in Florida, so I'm not going to spend a long time on the computer.  I just wanted to note two fun things that happened. 

First, the day we got here, we were in Orlando eating dinner and it occurred to us that Giles might have a show.  Giles Davies is a fabulous actor who was Ally's mentor at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.  He was with the company for about eight years and was one of the originators of the Groundlings program for high school students that Ally was a part of. 

After being in one place for so long, he decided -- in a way that only a true artist and otherwise unattached person could do -- that he needed to move on.  So, he put his necessities in the car and called over a bunch of his friends -- including Ally -- and gave away everything that didn't fit in the car.  She still treasures the tweed cap and a couple of well-worn volumes of Shakespeare with his notes written in them.  He had no real destination or plans.  He just took off.  He got acting jobs around the country, but eventually settled in Florida in the Tampa Bay area.  I think he likes the warm weather. 

So, sitting at the dinner table in Orlando, we asked ourselves whether Giles had a performance that night and, thanks to the Internet, we learned that he did. A new theatre company had just opened in the Tampa Bay area called A Simple Theatre and he was in the second night performance of their opening offering of "Death and the Maiden."  So, we drove over to Tampa to see it. 

It was fabulous.  Of course it was, Giles was in it.  The other two actors in the three person cast were just as talented though.  The story was riveting and the storytellers were superb.  As one of the reviewers said, I had a headache after seeing the show, probably because I had forgotten to breathe for an hour and a half.  In brief, it was about a woman who had been tortured in a previous political regime and was suffering post traumatic stress.  Her husband had a flat tire on the way home and was brought home by a good samaritan -- but she insisted the stranger was actually her torturer and took him captive.  Giles played the stranger brilliantly and I won't say more about the plot. 

The second fabulous thing that happened during our stay I've already discussed with Annette at length.  The Disney Vero Beach Vacation Club played host to a swarm of red darner dragonflies for two days.  They don't bite and they eat mosquitoes, so they were welcome.  They were actually very cool looking  -- hundred of dragonflies zipping around in a frenzy.  According to the locals, it's a common occurrence this time of year and it's probably a feeding swarm eating the plentiful mosquitoes and other bugs.  It was hard to get a good look at them because they were flying high and fast, but the resort naturalist thought they were red darners.  We couldn't capture any actual specimens without killing them and I couldn't find any dead bodies. Odd that, with so many of them flying around.  After a couple of days, they went back to more normal behavior -- flying low and sauntering along, just a few at a time. 

Last -- this is for the girls -- I took a bunch of pictures of the resort.  I realize that even though we've been coming here since they were babies, we don't have pictures of the restaurant or the lobby or some of the other common areas.  So, I took a bunch of pictures and I'm posting them.  Ha!  Ha!  We're at Vero and you're not!  At least, not until we come down again at Christmas. 

Fun in Florida

Jeff and I are having a wonderful time in Florida -- we're just relaxing and doing only what we want to do.  Well ... I'm relaxing, Jeff has been on the phone with work for a significant amount of time each day.  Still, he's been in a relaxed mood overall.

We started out in Orlando last Saturday and spent Sunday cruising Epcot.  I got some pictures of the various countries and picked up some small souvenirs. 

Here's Jeff acting silly in Canada

The gardens of Canada

An interesting artwork in Mexico -- Are there seriously no bathrooms
at Mexico?  That's what I was told.  I had to go to Norway.

The Viking exhibit at Norway

A lovely wood carving in Norway

The entrance to China

Lovely water gardens in China.

China

Germany

Italy

The US Pavilion -- sort of appropriate that it has
storm clouds over it.

I loved this bronze decoration in the US Pavilion

This would be a perfect Disney job for Kate.
  There's a chorus that sings before the US show -- they
get to be indoors in the air conditioning and dress in Civil War era garb.
Sounds like a very sweet gig.

After we looked around Epcot, we went to the Flying Fish restaurant on the Boardwalk and sat at the counter so we could watch the chefs work.

I had a wonderful cheese platter and took a picture of the menu so maybe I can find the cheeses when I get home.

Tomato Love and Other Things

Jeff and I are in Florida.  We got the girls settled at college and then took off for some quality empty nester time.  However, before we left I took several pictures that I want to share. 

First, Andy seems to be all well.  He had a recheck with the vet last Thursday and the vet proclaimed him cured.  Yay!!!  He's one tough rabbit. 

Second, here's a picture of Ally moving into her dorm.  It wasn't such a big deal for her since this is the third time she's done it.  She was happy to see her friends and get settled. 

Third, I got a cool picture of a strange mushroom clump that sprouted in our front yard. It's weird looking. 

Last, tomatoes are delicious.  Our backyard is full of them and I've been making wonderful caprese salads.  Something like this can make a nice dinner for me. 

I also grew some Principe Borghese heirloom tomatoes, which I later learned are not as good for eating fresh as they are for drying.  So I've been drying them.  After 6 or so hours in the oven on low, they turn out sweet and chewy and delicious.  I suspect we'll be enjoying them all winter.  Here they are before drying:

And here they are afterward. 

They look better before drying, but they are quite tasty dried.   

Happy Anniversary to Sam

Today is the 11th anniversary of Sam's adoption from the Kenton County Animal Shelter.  He was found beside a road with a female dog about the same age.  They were about 2 months old.  The shelter called them Mork and Mindy and, while Mindy was adopted, Mork sat in the shelter for over three weeks.  He had enormous paws and I think most people were afraid he would grow into a huge dog. 

I had been looking for a dog for months.  Our previous dog/child was a Snoodle named Widget and was with us for 16 years.  Jeff and I adopted her a year before we got married and it was heartbreaking when she died.  So, I was very particular about getting a new dog. 

Sam was exactly what I didn't want.  He was likely to grow into a big dog with a lot of shaggy hair to aggravate Jeff's allergies.  But, once I saw him, I couldn't forget him.  There was just something about him that said he was the right one. 

When Jeff and I were dating, he wanted to get me a stuffed bear.  We looked at the display and he told me to look them over and pick out "the one with the magic."  So, I picked Bernard, our first "child." 

Sam, too, was the one with the magic.  Jeff and I brought him home from the pound 11 years ago today and waited for the girls to come home from school on the bus.  Ally was 10 and Kate was 8.  We stood in the driveway with Sam on a leash and the girls couldn't believe their eyes as the bus rolled down the street.  We had a new family member. 

Andy continues to improve.  He's decided that, while he likes the special moist food and licks it off my hand, he's not too keen on the medicine and struggles when I give it to him.  He's well enough to be feisty.  He hopped around the house a bit this morning.

 

Drama

Things have been wild around here this week.  We got Kate all packed and took her to Centre on Wednesday morning.  The college was great and the transition was far less traumatic than I anticipated.  Kate and her roommate seem to be hitting it off and her room -- although small -- looks lovely.  She's got several days of orientation before the rest of the school arrives on Sunday.  Last night, they got together in small groups and had dessert at their academic advisor's home and discussed the book they all were asked to read over the summer.  Kate seemed to enjoy it and she's very impressed with her advisor, Barbara Hall. 



Kate in her dorm room

When we got home from Centre on Wednesday night after dropping Kate, I found Andy the elderly angora rabbit lying prone in his cage -- still breathing, but obviously in distress.  We weren't sure what to do, but after making some calls, we found an emergency vet across town who deals with rabbits.  So, we loaded Andy into the car and took him to the animal emergency room. 

The diagnosis is that I inadvertantly poisoned him when I gave him a treatment for mites.  I gave Genny the same dose and she's fine, but Andy is old and thin and frail and it wreaked havoc with his system.   



Sick Andy -- he's looking a little better now



The emergency vet put him on IV fluids and several other medicines to keep his digestive system moving and to avoid other complications.  The next day, he was slightly better and I went across town to get him and take him to his normal rabbit vet.  He stayed one night on IV fluids at his normal vet and I brought him home yesterday night. 

When I picked him up yesterday, he still looked pretty sick and they sent practically the whole hospital home with him.  Here's his routine for the next week:

• Liquid feedings 4x a day
• Antinausea medicine 2x a day
• Liver medicine 2x a day
• Antibiotics 2x a day
• Sub-cutaneous fluids, 100 ml, once a day

This morning I woke up at 5 am for some reason and couldn't get back to sleep, so I finally got up and started my day.  I fixed Andy's liquid food, which looks a lot like baby cereal except green.  He was enthusiastic about eating it.  In fact, he ate two spoonfuls out of the spoon in addition to the 12 cc I fed him from the syringe.  

I was a little nervous about the subcutaneous fluids because I've never poked anyone with a needle before, but the veterinary assistant had showed me how and I didn't have any trouble with it.  Andy didn't seem to mind at all.  He sat in my lap and let me stroke his ears while we waited for the 100 mls to drip in. 

After he had been fed and had his medicines, I sat with him in my lap and stroked his head and ears and he went to sleep.  I had never seen him sleep before with his eyes closed -- I don't think rabbits usually do -- but I took it as a sign he was relaxed (or dopey with medicine).  He purred every now and then, so I don't think he was in distress.  Rabbits are harder to read than dogs. 

I wouldn't have wished this to happen in a thousand years, but there is a bright side to it.  Andy is giving me someone to fuss over and care for in this difficult transition when my girls are leaving for school.  Andy is warm and snuggley and he needs me right now.  That's a good feeling.