A Morning in Thrall

The dark chrysalis seemed to become more transparent by the minute. In the dull kitchen light of pre-dawn, I could see that the butterfly's legs had pulled away from the chrysalis side, leaving a whitish translucence behind.As the light from the dawn grew, I realized that I needed to take the chrysalis outside to have enough light to capture its details.That's better. Sunlight gave me a whole new perspective, enhancing the transparency of the chrysalis.It seemed it would burst open at any moment.How much more transparent could it get? More, apparently...The waiting was driving me crazy. The sequence above was taken from 6:30 AM to about 10:45 AM. I had taken a small break to take Phoebe to her bus at 6:15, and, not daring to leave the chrysalis, I'd taken it out with me to deliver Liam to his bus at 8:04. Back home, I was sitting on the deck with my laptop, writing a journal of the metamorphosis, in between glancing up at the creature on the deck railing every 30 seconds or so, looking for the slightest change.

A different, somewhat foreboding look at the miracle to be. It's a pod, alien yet familiar.
Finally, I called my mother, to while away the time and see how she was faring this fine autumnal morning. That did the trick. This is the last picture of Combo as a chrysalis.I looked away, looked again, and Combo was splitting open.

I do apologize for not giving this to you in one big heaping bowlful. There are so many photographs in the sequence--dozens upon dozens-- that it would be a shame, a waste, a drag to put them all in one elephantine post. Besides, I want to give you some feeling for the kind of ---I detest this word, but I'm using it for fun---

stick-to-it-iveness

that it takes to follow an organism from egg to butterfly. Please don't ever quote me on this, OK? I fancy that I am not the kind of person who uses a word like

stick-to-it-iveness.

Then again, I never thought I would use emoticons in an email, or buy shirts for a dog. 

More on Combo on Monday.