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February 15, 2010
ZEN AND THE ART OF SNOW SHOVELING
empty head, (easy for me)
scoop,
lift,
transport,
pitch,
repeat.
..............................
FREEZE CAN'T TOUCH ME
Amidst a load of firewood that came into my possession hours before the first big snowfall last week, I inadvertently unearthed a hibernating Mourning Cloak butterfly.
I discovered it living in my van two days after I unloaded the well-aged wood. As I was driving, I heard a fluttering struggle against the glass of the van's rear window. Looking at it in the rear view mirror I thought it was a moth, being ignorant of what butterflies, other than the migrating Monarch, do in winter.
Back home, butterfly/moth book in hand, I watched it sun itself still inside the van, now parked in the newly-shoveled sunny driveway. The wonder was perched on the chrome latch of the rear window, wings full open, showing dull reddish-brown surfaces with a faded yellow border, and small blue spots near the yellow. Fuzzy body. Four legs.
Best guess after leafing through the book was Mourning Cloak. But in winter?
Turns out the Mourning Cloak is known as the 'winter butterfly'. It is able to 'freeze', hibernate, and come back when tree sap, their primary food, starts flowing during the first warm days of Spring, usually in March; then they mate up, and die. Life span: ten months.
I read a news story a couple weeks ago about insects that produce an anti-freeze protein that allows them to endure sub-freezing temps without cell damage. That feature has implications in human organ preservation which was the point of the study discussed in the article.
Right or wrong, I'm keeping my Mourning Cloak, as yet un-named, as a pet for the duration.
... banana, peaches, water, on the look out for tree sap....
The top of its wings has the same pattern, though a little faded, as the open-wing image in the little photo below this one.
Somebody better refinish that window sill. The two brown spots on the wood are either from box elder bugs which hang out with us pretty much year round; or from a stink bug, an invasive species, but prehistoric-looking and interesting .
Haven't trained mine to open his wings on demand, yet.....
Posted by ronpaci at February 15, 2010 9:38 PM