Wacky Weeds
—And our Butterfly-palooza!
This past month, Hubby & I noticed a couple of new-to-us plants growing in pots on our patio. It turns out the plants are Shepherd’s Purse—a non-native weed. Here’s one of them, painted in my Perpetual Journal next to a native Lupine I painted in 2023.
Check out the fruits on this plant—they’re heart-shaped! Cool and kinda wacky, huh?
Shepherd’s Purse is native to the Mediterranean region but is a common weed in lawns and roadsides worldwide. William Coles, a 17th century botanist, is reported to have written that "It is called Shepherd's purse…from the likeness of the seed hath with that kind of leathearne bag, wherein Shepherds carry their Victualls into the field."
Since it’s a non-native weed, and Hubby & I are all about growing native plants in our yard, we decided to get rid of our wacky weeds with...wait for it...a weedwack(y)er! 😆 Ha. Not really. Actually, after I was finished creating my art, we pulled one plant out of the soil (roots & all) and snipped the other at its base so we wouldn’t harm some poppies growing next to it.
When Hubby saw my art of the Shepherd’s Purse, he deemed my art “very accurate” and added “That’s exactly what it looked like when I put it in the compost bin!”
🐛 Butterfly-palooza (a.k.a. a HUGE Update on the Q Continuum!)
Hubby & I have had lots of Queen Butterfly excitement since I posted about our Q Continuum two weeks ago.
Butterfly #3 eclosed (emerged from its chrysalis) on 2/12/25; seeing that it was male (and keeping with our 🖖 Star Trek naming theme) we named it Sulu.
Butterfly #4 eclosed on 2/13/25; it’s male so we named it Scotty.
Butterfly #5 eclosed on 2/17/25; it’s male so we named it Worf.
In case you’re not a Trekkie like I am, Worf is a Klingon character and Qapla’ is the Klingon word for “success”. Go ahead, feel free to call me a nerd; I’ll accept the compliment! 😁
Butterflies #6 and #7 also eclosed on 2/17/25 (what an exciting day!!!)—one male and one female—about 30 minutes apart! Butterfly #6 is male so we named it Hugh; Butterfly #7 is female so we named it Seven of Nine (we used Star Trek Borg names for these two).
That little red dot on the Milkweed branch under Seven of Nine is meconium which is waste material from the chrysalis, that a butterfly excretes before it flies off.
Finally, Butterfly #8 eclosed on 2/22/25; it’s female so we named it T’Pol. Since T’Pol is a Vulcan character, I gave our Butterfly T’Pol an appropriate Vulcan greeting (shown below).
Wowzer! I think we all need a nap after all that excitement!!! 🥰 Woo-wee!
I’ll wrap up this post with one more Star Trek reference—a quote from Star Trek: The Next Generation:
“Things are only impossible until they're not.”
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard
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A charming look at what's small, near, and endearingly wonderful!!!
Delightful!!