New pics

I took Kira to Picture People on Thurs. They send out free 8X10 coupons every so often, so I take advantage of them! There were so many great pics that it was hard to choose just one. Since my purpose was to commemorate her starting preschool, I chose one with a backpack. Here they are if you'd like to take a look:

http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?tk=12cfa55c-68d2-456d-b71d-d2a1ba2f6852&CMPN=EmailAlbum

Feathery Visitors

We've had some neat feathery visitors in our backyard this week.

Kira's First Day of Preschool

Today was Kira's first day of preschool! She was very brave. See more pix and info at her blogspot:
Kira's Chronicles

Butterflies

I planted some parsley early in the summer in hopes butterflies would lay their eggs on it. They did and we started seeing caterpillars in August! Last week the parsley plant was completely devoured so Kira and I went to Publix to buy some fresh parsley. We went out a couple times a day to check on them and give them some more if they needed it.


They have all pupated now and today we had our first butterfly emerge. It is an Eastern Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), I believe it is a female. When Kira and I first went out at 8 AM, it was hanging upside down on the Osteospermum located right next to the parsley plant. It wasn't able to fly yet, I think it had just recently emerged from its cocoon (is chrysalis a correct term for cocoon?). A bit later we went to check on it again and it spread its wings for us! So beautiful!

It is my understanding that butterflies like to lay their eggs on mint plants (peppermint, spearmint, etc.), parsley, fennel, dill and perhaps some other kinds of herbs. Different butterflies are attracted to different herbs. Next year I think we will try some other kinds of herbs to see if we can get some different kinds of butterflies in our garden.