Officially into the 9th month of the year (in case you missed my 60-second August wrap, you can watch it here), and my Christmas senses are tingling, people. The lights want to be hung! The lists want to be made!!
But summer isn’t quite over yet, and I’m making the most of the last days of it.
(Christmas lights will be being hung within the next month)
hangin out with some beautiful girls 🥺❤
It was soon after I bought the Painted Lady caterpillars (mentioned briefly in my recent post) that I went down to the spring plant sale at the farm and had the tiny baby Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars pointed out to me on the dill plants for sale.
I’ll admit that as much as I love dill, the reason I got the dill plants was to try raising these butterfly babies.
The only butterflies that I’d ever raised up until that point had been Painted Ladies, so I was psyched to have another species to watch grow. I will say that at the end of this particular journey, I was very relieved to set them free, because it was a bit of a roller coaster. But I’ll also say that I think I learned a couple things, and I’d probably try it again if I find some more babies next year!
(you can watch the YouTube short that I made about raising them here!)
cutest lil face munchin on his dill leaves 🥺
A new addition has been added to my…skull wall. Which yes, sounds like a strange thing to have in a bedroom that has pink walls, and white furniture trimmed with gold.
But you know what? I’m pretty sure I pull this vibe off perfectly.
Because floral skulls, y’all.
With gold teeth.
The vibes are impeccable.
As I briefly mentioned in my recent post: I pinned my first butterfly.
This, of course, quickly turned into me pinning my second butterfly. And my third butterfly. And then I moved on to pinning plenty of moths and other interesting insects…but I’ll save that for another post (because my current collection deserves a whole post of its own).
And just in case y’all don’t know me already, I’ll start this post with a clear disclaimer: I only pin bugs that have already died naturally; I never kill bugs to pin, and I don’t approve of such strange activities ☝🏼🤓
Spicebush Swallowtail (left) and Red-Spotted Purple (right)
July has come and gone (if you missed my July wrap, you can watch it here!), and we are well and truly into summer. As in, it’s frickin hot, and I don’t remember the last time we got rain. I’m giving my gardens just enough water to make it through these hot days, but they could really use a good soaker.
The pole beans are finally producing (I always forget how late they start, but once they start, the harvests are plentiful until the first frost), the butternut squashes are climbing to the sky and have quite the collection of babies growing, and the zephyr squashes have been as delectable as ever.
my friend Brandi sent me these marigold seeds (left) a few years ago, and I’ve continued collecting the seeds and growing them every year since!
It’s been a hot minute (literally) since I’ve posted on this blog — you have no idea how many drafts I’ve started in here, only to lose steam halfway through and never publish them!
When I disappear from one place, it usually means that I’m busy elsewhere, and that has definitely been the case this time around.
Although summer has technically just started, it’s been so much fun so far.
releasing my dear Painted Lady butterflies (more on this later in the post)
Goodness gracious. Officially half way through April, and it’s definitely been an emotionally tumultuous shift from the previous few months.
Spring has returned, and although it brings the joy of green grass, blooming flowers, singing peepers, and birds fighting over our nesting boxes (as cute as the bluebirds are, they are being just as problematic as usual), it also means that our horrendous neighbors have returned to their horrendous ways (unfortunately, it’s been a telltale sign of the changing seasons for the past decade).
the time of the crocuses has officially passed, but today our first mini daffodil bloomed
I’ve been in the process of cleaning my coyote skull since I posted this beautifully witchy photoshoot last autumn. And by “in the process,” I mean mainly letting mother nature do her reliable work, because I stay away from these things until they’re clean enough to not make me wanna gag while in close proximity to them (I’m just a girl with a weird hobby, I’m not a girl with a stomach of steel).
Well, the time finally came last month, after the long, cold winter began to thaw off, and I retrieved this perfect specimen from my…um…specimen bucket.
Yeah, okay, I hear it. And I know how it sounds.
But listen, this was a donation from my grampa who found a dead coyote. So really, I’m just doing the respectable work of appreciating the good lawd’s creatures, even after their death.
the gold accents are truly the chef’s kiss ✨
art by jordan rae 