Butterflies

We like butterflies around here quite a bit, but here is a delightful post about a young homeschooled butterfly lover. We ooh and ahh over them, we have books about them which get pulled out from time to time and we dream of planting flowers to attract them (we've only been in this house a couple of years and are starting to get serious about garden planning - suggestions for plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies, and can survive Wisconsin winters, are most welcome!).

Our most touching interaction with a butterfly, though, was when Gus (a.k.a. the Map Guy), at age six (I think) found a large yellow butterfly with an injured wing, hanging out on the back patio. It didn't seem to have long to live (had a big chunk out of its wing). Gus was very touched and wanted to take care of it. We decided to try to feed it a little juice on a Qtip (which it seemed to appreciate) and build a little shelter from the wind that kept flipping the poor creature around helplessly. Gus kept vigil for a few hours with gentle reminders that it didn't have long to live (and that butterflies didn't have a very long life anyway). One cute thing was that it drew the attention of some of the neighbor girls from across the street who came by to check up on it periodically (Gus gave the butterfly a name, but I can't remember the name right now) and showed up the next day at our front door wanting to know if we wanted to adopt a snail, a guinea pig and a hermit crab that they weren't able to to take care of.