A Robin Moth In Our Own Front Yard!

We love finding odd or unusual critters in our yard.  The other day, my middle man spotted this beautiful moth on the trunk of a dogwood tree. I must have taken a thousand pictures of it! I just couldn’t get over how BIG its body was (easily two of my thumbs wide!)   Or how furry!  Or colorful! 

Or beautiful!

I came in and looked it up online.  As far as I can tell, it is a Cecropia Silkmoth, North America’s largest silkmoth, commonly called the Robin moth. 

In my research, I found a few interesting facts. 

Did you know…

• The adults do not feed.  (We were wondering what they ate as we were taking pictures.) Once they reach the moth stage, they live only long enough to mate and lay eggs and then die. They actually have only rudimentary mouth parts.
• In a few weeks, the eggs, laid on the favored food plant, hatch out into their caterpillar form (silk worm).
• The caterpillars feed fore several weeks, then spin silky cocoons on twigs.  They then spend the Winter maturing and waiting to emerge as beautiful moths in the spring or early summer.  So there is only one generation per year to come out.
• Host trees include box elders, sugar maples, wild cherries and plums, apples, alder and birch, dogwoods, and willows.
• They range from Maine to Florida, and from the eastern United States to the Rocky Mountains.
• The population of these moths is actually very secure.  You just rarely see one! 

The day after we spotted our moth, I sat down to write this post.  And I got to thinking…darn, I didn’t actually measure it to see how big it really was.  I wonder if it is still out there?

So I picked up my ruler and headed out to the dogwood tree. 

I looked around the base of the tree and was sad to see it had flown away. 

But as I was turning to go, I scanned the top of the small tree and did a double-take.  Our beautiful moth had simply flown to a higher perch. 

And she had company!  Lol! 

I say she, because (now that I could compare an obviously male and female couple), I could see that the newcomer was definitely the male.  He was smaller, and he had huge antennae (which I read could help him locate a female from up to a half mile away!!!)

I didn’t want to disturb them.  However, I really wanted to get some pictures to compare the two. 

Note the male on the left.  You can see that his antennae are noticeably wider.

Here he is up close.

  Compared to the female, below. 

Still.  She was larger in every other way and definitely the beauty queen in my opinion.  She looked as soft as a newborn kitten!   :)   

In this last picture, you can kind of see how much larger she was.

I never did measure her.  Lol!  But she was as big as my hand spread wide.  Trust me.

God certainly created some beautiful creatures, didn’t He? 

Walk For Air

My family recently had the privilege of doing a 5K to raise money for the American Lung Association. 

The date of the walk fell on the one year anniversary of the passing of my dear friend’s mom, who died of lung cancer.  It made the event even more special for her family! 

Doing the walk was the perfect way to remember Joanne and support her family.  It felt good to do something positive in her honor and actually help fight the disease that took her life.  

This is my friend’s team.  She is in the very middle.  My husband and I are on the right in the back, and my three boys are down in front with my friend’s son. 

The day was very hot and humid, and I have to admit, I wondered how my crew would make out.  (Me included!) But everyone did a super job!  Even my little guy!  Although the one picture I took shows him hitching a ride with his big brother, he walked the lion’s share of it all by himself!

I was so proud of the boys.  And happy to be a part of it myself.  It’s something I think we would all like to do again. 

My friend’s team raised over seven hundred dollars and had a wonderful time together. 

Have you ever done a walk? 

Homemade Tomato Cages

Years ago, we bought a few tomato cages.  The ones that didn’t fall over in wind storms, soon broke apart, and we didn’t bother replacing them.

The last couple of years, we’ve “tied up” our tomatoes, which you have to re-do often as the plants grow. 

This year, we decided to make our own tomato cages using galvanized cattle wire.  The squares are large enough that we’ll be able to pick tomatoes through the holes.  And because the wire is heavy duty, we figure the cages will last forever!

Cutting and bending the wire is no easy task!  I still have marks from the blisters to prove that I did my share!  :)  However, we worked as a family and managed to make about 22 of them using the spool of wire we had on hand. 

Most of them were 9 squares around, but a few of the last ones we did were a little smaller.  Our neighbor made some of these years ago, and he puts the bottom square or two down into the dirt to keep them secure and upright.  We simply drove in stakes to tether them to. 

After we put cages around all of our tomatoes, I was happy to still have enough to use with our cucumbers!  I can’t wait to see how they work for us!  And this morning, I noticed a few inch-long cucumbers!  It won’t be long now!

I’m especially excited about the prospect of not having to do a lot of “tying up” this year!  It will give me more time to play with my cell phone!  Lol!

How is your garden growing this year?

One Of My New Favorite Things!

Guess who has a new HTC Inspire?  That’s right!  Me!  And I absolutely love it! 

The screen is almost twice the size of my Back Flip, and it is crystal clear and snappy to boot!  It has all the applications I’ve come to enjoy with an android, and an 8MP camera that takes beautiful pictures. 

Although I know it’s not nice to brag, can I just say that my husband has phone envy?  Lol! 

One of my favorite features is the list of effects you can use with the camera.  The Depth of Field effect allows you to blur the edges and focus on whatever you like.  Here’s my little guy eating lunch after field day.

This was down at the bus stop on the last day of school using the same effect.  You can pull the focus circle in tight on one thing and blur the rest.  Or you can enlarge the focus circle and blur only the edges.  I was experimenting with the size of the focus circle.  :)

It’s been fun taking pictures of just about everything.  Here’s one using the Black and White feature.  (Doesn’t he look like an imp?)

I love having a good camera on the phone—because I always have it with me.  And I can take candid shots like this one one--which I took on the way home from a soccer tournament.

I was lucky enough to snag this phone upgrade while they were still having all kinds of specials.  Although I missed the sale where it was FREE with upgrade (shoot!), $29 was still well worth it!! 

If you are looking for a good Android and have AT&T as a carrier, this is a really good pick!

So, have you gotten any new toys to welcome the summer? 

Before and After Pictures of The Bathroom Makeover

Sorry it took me so long!  Like everyone else, I’m swimming in end-of-the-school-year-activities.  :)

This is pretty much the bathroom of our boys’ bedroom before:

The walls were a buttery yellow—a pretty color, actually.  But there were holes in the walls from overzealous towel hanging.  Um, yeah.  I’m sure that’s it. 

After patching all the holes, I decided to paint the room a light grey/blue to match the bedroom. 

The vanity was sad.  The wood finish was in bad shape and the hardware was rusty and outdated.  (I forgot to take the picture with the hardware.)  But, trust me, the whole thing definitely needed something!

In the end, we painted it a light grey to match the walls.  The dark grey accent color is the same grey I used to paint the crown molding in the bedroom.  So it ties in pretty nicely.

Walmart had these door pulls.  Do you think Sabrina Soto would approve?  Lol! I love her show, by the way!  She is SO clever with her home staging tips!

I decided not to replace the towel bars or toilet paper holders.  I wasn’t anxious to patch more holes anytime soon!

So, instead, we (mostly) wandered Walmart’s bathroom decor isle looking for ideas and picking out a few things:

• We found an inexpensive toilet paper holder which fits over the tank and under the lid.  Works for me! 
• We picked out a pretty set of over-the-door hooks to hang on the side of the shower stall.  And actually, I think the placement is more convenient than where the previous towel bars were. 
• We found an inexpensive sticky-backed hook to apply to the mirror.  It’s now a simple and functional hand towel hook. 
• We picked out short black curtains to match the long ones in the bedroom. 
• And as a final touch, we swiped a black bath rug from another bathroom.

I would still love to frame or replace the mirror.  But for now, it’s fine just the way it is. 

And I’m moving on to the last bedroom.  Well, I will be after the boys get out of school for the summer.  Monday is their last day.  Sigh. :)

This year, I’m more anxious than the boys (if you can believe it) for school to be over!  Can you say SLEEP IN?  Lol!

What projects do you have planned for the summer?