margopatrick

Joined: Aug 7, 2019 Last Active: Oct 10, 2024 iNaturalist Canada

Our family has always shared our world with nature. I wanted to study Botany at University in the late 60’s but since only 5 people wanted it that year, it was cancelled so I moved to Biochemistry. I guess that makes me a frustrated botanist. Marriage took me to Quebec & Ontario for 30 years, where we farmed, gardened, and shared our home with kids, baby raccoons, skunks, cats, dogs, turtles, rabbits and a crow. We moved back to Nova Scotia to retire in 2003, and since moving here have spent 5 years living with a wounded Starling (a wonderful companion!).
We went back to Ontario one year to bring home the seed pods from the Common Milkweed plant which is a nuisance in farmer’s fields there. It took us 5 years to finally get a milkweed patch growing enough plants to attract Monarch Butterflies. The Monarchs are a rare sighting in this area. We saw a butterfly and a few larvae on year (2017), only a few butterflies on year 2, and now this year (2019) we have seen at least 3 butterflies at a time since they first arrived at the end of June, and now have numerous progenies of all ages living in the patch. We brought 1 larvae into the house where although we missed seeing the change from the hanging ‘J’to the cocoon stage, it is doing fine. Hopefully we will have an unveiling about Aug 16. The day after we brought the larvae into the house, we found a cocoon on the bottom of a milkweed leaf, so we are watching it carefully. Hopefully it too will hatch, more larvae will attach & pupate, and the sky will be alive with Monarchs.
We will continue to sit on Geriatric Row (a set of 6 Adirondack chairs in a row on the deck where you can practice for when you really are in a geriatric home) with our binoculars in hand watching the seasons grow.

margopatrick is not following anyone.