Waiting on a Miracle: Chrysalis in the Rain

The big monarch news from the yard is that our chrysalis (which, as you will recall, I shamelessly stole from a milkweed patch on Tow Hill) has turned dark and you can see black and orange wings inside. It's dark-wing time!

The chrysalis is shiny and dark and amazing to look at, covered in raindrops, and I have begun checking in with it every hour or two, waiting on the miracle. My husband moved the plant the chrysalis is on under the garage overhang, out of the rain. Yes, it poured for hours and hours on this day.

Our two big monarch caterpillars, Fred and Wilma, are now clinging to the undersides of the few remaining green milkweed leaves. My husband saw both of them today; I just saw one. The leaves are fading and falling. Eat quickly, my loves! We're running out of milkweed!

I've put a chair by the plant with the chrysalis, so that I have a front-row seat to the miracle. You can't predict these things with exactitude, but I suspect our butterfly will be born either Wednesday or Thursday. (Thursday I have lunch plans, so I'm hoping that won't be the day it happens, while I'm gone!) I'll post pictures of its birth into its winged form if I get to see it. I promise! If I get to see the miracle, you will get to see it, too!

Sometimes the waiting is the hardest part!

Our soundtrack song is Eddie Vedder, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, singing The Waiting.