Sunday, April 6, 2008

Killer Kitty and a Quilt

Something caught my eye in the garden this morning. It was a black and white bouncing fur ball. Tisha was chasing a butterfly as it visited the garden. She's a killer. Luckily, this one got away before she got her claws into him. The butterfly she was after this morning was a Giant Swallowtail. Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera in time to show you our early arrival. I need to get the lemon tree out of the greenhouse so the swallowtail can lay eggs on it. The Giant Swallowtail caterpillars look like bird poo. We have seen Gulf Fritillary butterflies already as well. The passion vine is doomed. The Fritillary caterpillars look like they could sting you. They are red/orange and black striped with spines all along their body. Scary looking. The Black Swallowtails are not here yet. Their caterpillars look like something from a Dr. Seuss book. They have green and black bands with yellow dots and get as big as my thumb.

One time I really embarrassed myself by asking an entomologist coworker if could I put a bell on the cat so the butterflies would hear her and fly away. She looked at me like I look at the "can I grow this in a container people" and said, "insects sense most things chemically. They don't really "hear."

Here, in our little garden, we provide both nectar plants as well as larval food for our butterflies. My monkeys know what to look for. They can spot a tiny caterpillar faster than I can. They should, their eyes are better than mine. The larval food plants we grow are dill and fennel for the Black Swallowtails, citrus for the Giant Swallowtails, and Passion Vine for the Gulf Fritillary. Nectar plants are mostly Zinnia and Salvia. I am not sure what the Sulphers need, but I will find out and try to grow it.

Have you seen any butterflies yet?

Here is the completed quilt. I had to use blue as the binding. I didn't have enough yellow.
Posted by Picasa

15 comments:

  1. Lovely quilt! No butterflies here yet but the good news is there's nothing else here yet either :-) I expect that will change soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like that quilt. I'm a bit of a quilt collector. I've always wanted to attempt to make a quilt on my own, but haven't gotten up the nerve to give it a try.

    Your cat likes to hunt bugs like my Speedy. It's funny, but I never heard of bug hunting cats before now. At least I'm not alone in this venture. I guess I prefer the cat to eat sand spiders to butterflies though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Melanie and Cinj,

    All the bugs are showing up here in N.Tx. She doesn't really hunt bugs in general just butterflies specifically. She does not eat them just bites them and spits them out. Bad bad kitty

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely quilt Debbi!

    Your kitty looks just like our Jess - who also chases butterflies big time! We've had Brimstones, Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies in the garden so far this year and some peacock in the house courtesy of Jess.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ooh, ooh, beautiful quilt!!! No butterflies here yet, but maybe by May. We always have lots of swallowtails and mourning cloaks, and monarchs as well because of the milkweeds. Fortunately, the cats are too busy sleeping to chase after them!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi vp and ben. Thank you for the quilt compliments. I need to get my baby sister to guest post on butterflies for me. She really knows her lepidoptera junk.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The sulphers really like my lantana. As far as larval food, I was told that candlestick trees do the trick, but I haven't had any luck. The fireants really like the candlestick nectar and destroy any other living thing in their way. I hate "bleeping" fireants. We just got back from a two day camping trip to Daingerfield and the butterflies are loving it there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am going to ask you to guest post on this blog about butterfly gardening. I have a feeling my 3 readers might appreciate someone who can actually write.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I just started to see the first butterflies of the season last week. I like how you've planted for the caterpillars as well as the butterflies (I do that too). And your kitty is absolutely adorable in the photo you took.

    Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage

    ReplyDelete
  10. I just left you a big ole long message and it went off into cyberspace, never to be seen or heard of....

    ANYWAY.....our cats are big into butterflies as well. It's very sad, really.

    LOVE the quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  11. You are not the only person who's messages have gone missing on this blog. I don't know what's going on. I am not blocking or deleting anyone but spammers. Any you, my friend, are not a spammer.

    Tisha is very very bad to butterflies.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Debbi, I sure learned a lot today. I don't know much about butterflies and thanks for the lesson. I love your quilt. I almost have my quilt/laundry room set up. I can't wait. That quilt pattern you did was the first one I tackled. I call it the texas star pattern. It was really hard for a beginner--getting all those points straight. Now I line them up with straight pins. I love the colors you used.

    ReplyDelete
  13. My mom would love that quilt! Cool pattern. The colors are great together.

    I've been seeing lots of swallowtails and hubs swore he saw a monarch Sunday.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi anna, thanks for the quilt compliment. I used the stamps on this one and it made a huge difference in how the thing went together. There was no pulling on the bias. I have a quilting corner is in the laundry room.

    Vonne, no way he alread saw a monarch. If he really did I am way jealous. We have seen some fritilary, which look little monarchs.

    ReplyDelete