Those of you that have known our gal for a while, will remember the various causes that she has taken on over the years. We remember with fondness, "The Great Toy Drive" (when she decided that the children in her school should unite in cleaning their playrooms of unused or pre-loved toys and donate them to an organization in our community that benifits children in need.) Sounds noble huh? If you have ever attempted to do this sort of purging accompanied by your child, you may smile knowingly as I report that even our philanthropic miss was loath, once all was said and done, to have too many of her toys pried from her little fingers and stuffed toy room.
You may recall what we affectionately remember as the "Moosic for Moola" idea (when Stink and several friends had the ill-fated idea to play recorders on the sidewalk of one of the girl's neighborhoods hoping to raise donations for the heifer project). After fifteen minutes of tooting their own horns *snort* they decided that cows were too big to send out anyway.
This summer, our gal learned of the "Monarch's Plight". In short, Monarch butterflys, once plentiful are dwindling in number due to a shortage of their preffered food (mostly weeds) that they require to complete their migration South. This time, she was determined. Here was the result:
In addition, she "shared" with her class about building a Monarch Habitat (that entailed convincing the gentle fellow that farms our fields to leave some go to seed- which he did - bless him.) and registering it with Monarch Watch. Then she invited her WHOLE CLASS (yes, that is 28 children and their parents) to our house to help her "tag" them.
Monarch Watch sends teeny weeny stickers that you place on the lower wing of a captured butterfly. You record the information, the gender of the butterfly (identified by either scent sacs -that's the fellow, or no sacs - that'd be the gal) and set it free to go about its journey perhaps slightly traumatized, but more or less, unaffected.
What beautiful images. I feel like a monarch butterfly myself.
What a beautiful effort your little Stinker has put into this. A queen of the monarchs. I will think of her when I see one of the bright orange faery creatures.
All the best, Nancy
Posted by: fledgling | October 26, 2007 at 12:22 AM
That is awesome!!! I can't wait to plant our Monarch habitat next spring. I look wistfully at the milkweed seeds in anticipation. Hehehe!!
I'll have to register it, and get wee tags. That is so fun :-)
Great pictures! You are such a good writer, Sarah.
~Kirsten
Posted by: Kirsten/winipoo | October 27, 2007 at 10:09 AM