Luna !

I am on a roll here.... I either go for months on end without a single post, or I am finding inspiration and beauty every where I go. Take for instance yesterday when I went to see how the building of the woodshed was going. Hubby is in the process of building walls on top of a concrete box base -- on an inside wall, I found this little guy (?gal)

Hubby said he had not seen that one but had almost stepped on another that he moved outside the shed, and upon looking where he told me he had placed it, yup, still there, and a third one attached to the outside of the building. Now, around here, we may see 2 or 3 over the entire summer, so to see that many all in one place was very kewl. This morning hubby needed my help to hold a beam he was nailing in place so I looked around to see if they were still there -- they were, along with 2 more !

After I was done helping, I headed back to the house ...among other things to get to work, and also to find some info on the moths, or Actias luna. Apparently, these moths developed from caterpillars hatched from last fall's eggs (which over-wintered somewhere nearby). The adult moths only live for about a week, they do not eat (no mouth), their only purpose is to mate. Once they do that, they will die. The eggs will hatch, and the caterpillars will eat their way through several stages of development before finally spinning themselves into a cocoon (this silk is spinnable by people, I am given to understand, though it is not the strongest of silks to use for this purpose). These cocoons will hatch and the new moths begin their life cycle again, with this batch of eggs waiting until the spring to hatch.

I suppose I will need to look around the area a little closer this weekend...maybe I might get lucky enough to see one emerge -- now that would be way-kewl !