Currently Nights in Rodanthe By Richard Gere, Diane Lane see related

Today, I had to get up at 6:00 am on a Sunday for work. This capped off a two-week period of battered friendship, childcare juggling, scary medical diagnoses, and general schedule upheaval and tension. I wish I could blog about some of it, but I'm not the only one affected, so this is one of those times that I have to respect other people's privacy and find an alternate route of expression -like exercise (coming soon!) or household organization (in process).

Anyway, other than the fact that I stayed up way too late last night watching Inglorious Basterds (go see it - I'm not normally a fan of rewriting history, but in this case it's totally awesome and justified), work was no big deal. We tested our new application upgrade for a couple hours and went home.

I came home to this:

A newly hatched Swallowtail Butterfly, freshly emrged from his chrysalis in our kitchen.

This is what he looked like when we first met him 16 days ago:

My friend Tracy brought him to work from her garden, just so my kids could enjoy a miracle.

I had meant to take him outside when it looked like he might be ready to come out, but I was starting to lose hope.  Until you've watched the metamorphosis up close, you have no idea how unassuming and depressing a cocoon can look.

But just look at him! I am as amazed as the kids that a cocoon 1/6 of his size held this:

Isn't he gorgeous?

He wandered gracefully off into the yard and allowed us to follow for a few minutes.

The he flew to the top of the junipers.

He hung around the yard for about an hour before heading off to greener pastures. Note to self: Plant Flowers!

And look what else:

Baby pumpkins!

Grown from abandoned jack-o-lanterns.

We have a very laissez faire attitude about gardening.

It's a very good day to live and let live.