Swallowtails – Busy Bee Suz

I’ve made a terrible, terrible techie mistake. But perhaps one day you can call me The Tiger Queen.

I had a mini-breakdown last week; actually, I have had several over the past month or so. I should learn that when things are going well in my technology life, just leave them that way. The story of my frustration is a long one, I don’t want to bore you with ALL the details, but I’ve learned a hard lesson.

*bangs head against wall*

design desk display eyewear — Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com

A little timeline of my blogging career. Wait, is it a career if instead of making money, you might actually spend money?

2008 I signed up for Blogger (daybydaywithsuz.blogspot.com)
2019 Purchased my own domain while still using the blogger platform (busybeesuz.com)
April 2020-Feeling ballsy, or perhaps it was the pandemic, I moved over to WordPress.com because I was sick of bloggers bullshit. Also, sick of everything because pandemic. (temp blog: Suzblogshere.wordpress.com, until I could move my domain over) I was loving WordPress.com. Ease of adding in photos, videos, gifs. IT was a glorious time in my blogging life. Glorious.
August 2020-I might have lost my mind because I was so happy with WordPress.com and The ONLY thing I couldn’t get it do to was to copy protect my photos and I thought that might be a good thing. I thought I’d go even bigger (or home) and get myself involved in the WordPress.org (I can add a plugin to protect my pics) which is a bigger deal because it needs a host; I chose Bluehost as my host because I’d read they were great; they were helpful; they were easy. (WordPress.com and blogger ARE their own hosts) I moved my domain there and immediately hated it. It was hard y’all. Within a day I called and said I wanted to cancel my bluehost account. Guess what? They aren’t easy. They aren’t nice. Since I’d already moved my domain twice, I could not move it again for 60 days. So, I’ve been in hosting jail. The beds here suck.
My get out of jail card is on October 6th. So I’ll try to switch my domain back sometime on that day or shortly after back to my WordPress.com site. I’m scared. I have a bit of PTSD with all the moving of domains, profiles, emails, etc….PRAY FOR ME.
If I disappear altogether, you’ll know why.

Now, onto pretty and pleasant things that don’t make me bang my head against a wall.

I just realized I’ve not shared anything butterfly related in a while. Have you lost sleep? I’ve been all about ‘my bones, chicken tenders, pelicans, hating olives, and possibly turning into a Georgia peach, sucky blog’ lately.

While in GA (you’re a peach Suzanne!) Kelly and I noticed what we suspected were Giant Swallowtails from a distance, but upon closer inspection they were Tiger Swallowtails. And they were aplenty. Did you hear us squeal?

Guess what butterfly I DO NOT have in my yard at home? TIGER SWALLOWTAILS! I was so excited I might have pee’d a little, which really isn’t that unusual.

Sadly, they don’t have butterflies year round like I do here because the weather actually changes in GA, which really is the reason I want to go there, so I’ll have to suck it up buttercup. Aren’t they lovely? If I raise Tiger Swallowtails, I can change my name to the Tiger King.

Wait, maybe Tiger Queen would be better because bad hair, bad piercings, the weird relationships….ughh.

So, has anyone felt like throwing their computer out the window lately?

**Deep breaths Suzanne, deep breaths**

Happy Friday y’all. Or in my world, you’ll probably not see this until Tuesday. See YOU next Tuesday. I just made myself giggle.

It’s a poop party at the wild lime

That title sounds like some obscure fetish gathering in an underground establishment that I’d not like to visit nor be invited to.

I’m sure you remember one of my first vlogs where I shared my wild lime tree. You don’t? What the heck have you been doing aside from memorizing my yard? Well, it’s a pity because I lost that vlog during the blogger to WordPress transfer. Your life will never be the same.

Please note the vine of death in the background up there. It is actually starting to sprout leaves, someone has laid eggs on it already and yes, I still have PTSD.

We planted this tree soley for the purpose of attracting Giant Swallowtails. They also like my real citrus trees but this is not a real fruit bearing tree; it’s as fake as a Kardashian derriere.

I found three giant swallowtail caterpillars in the wild lime recently, all in different stages. *Can YOU SEE THEM?*

Our creator is such a genius; he made it so that the baby caterpillars look like bird poop. Hence keeping predators from eating them. Raise your hands if you’re glad he didn’t follow through with making our children look like bird poop? I mean, I’m not saying I didn’t want to nibble on my babies here and there, but had they looked like poop? Ehhh, I’ll pass and I hope this ‘phase’ passes too.

Two are still in caterpillar form, the third is in his chrysalis.

I ~~captured~~ brought in a baby swallowtail caterpillar in June and was hand feeding it daily. It finally had it’s fill of food and it created it’s chrysallis on July 4th. Last week, much to my surprise VOILA’, she was here just a rustling around in the styrofoam cooler where I pin all the chrysallid’s. HULLO-Lady human, I’m ready to live my best life!

This is my very first time successfully raising a Giant Swallowtail and I was so excited, so you know what I might have done-yes, Happy SHAAAAT. I carried her outside, had her on my hand and was trying to place her on a flower when she decided to come in for a closeup.

I heard her say: why u schwetty? why u slippery and smell like sunscreen? what happen to yur nek, so wrinkky.

Who knew butterflies were so DAMN judgy?

Don’t ya love that it has two distinct “outfits”…the inside and the outside.

She stuck around for quite a while we had our own Glamour shot sesh.

Go ahead and comment: Pretty butterfly. You know you want to. But also, did you read the part about me almost shatting? That is what some might call quality blogging.

Well, that is enough learning for today. It’s also a reminder to apply sunscreen to your neck and decolletage. I apologize if you fell asleep in class, but that’s what you get when you stay up all night watching bad TV.

XOXO

My {fence} field of dreams with Kevin Kostner.

Way back in December, when the world was semi-normal we started working on updating much of the landscaping.

I wanted to add in more butterfly-friendly elements. I already had everything set for my monarch, queen, eastern black swallowtails, Giant swallowtails, and gulf fritillary community of flyers, but wanted to add in some more swallowtails to the mix. {why so many links, Suz?}

I have a secret to tell you.

I haven’t shared this with everyone.

I have my very own butterfly guru.

I have only had him since December, but I do adore him. His name is Michael, but I refer to him as my guru. I thought I knew about butterflies but darnittoheck, he knows everything about butterflies.

He told me I needed to plant pipevine; I’d read about the pipevine prior and I did want it, so no arm twisting was involved.

He said if you plant this THEY WILL COME!

Perhaps less ominous-sounding in real life.

He brought over two pipevine plants. Hmmm…they, they look like a regular vine. So far, nothing to wet myself over.

But, can you just plant them in the ground?

Hell to the no.

This is a special vine that needs special equipment; it needed a professionally designed and installed espalier.

Did you know that there are people on the planet that their job is to design and install these?

Kind of reminds me that I need to blog about the guy who injects our palms; he’s a professional palm injector.

Now that I say that out loud, it sounds dirty.

I digress.

Here are my baby pipevines back in December on their custom espalier.

Then a few months later.

This is the weird bloom it makes.

My eyes have seen a lot of things, but they ain’t seen nothing like that…see how I slipped into my southern drawl?

Do you remember health class in school? Is that an ovary or a fallopian tube?

Again, I’m off track.

The pipevine attracts different types of swallowtails depending on where you live; in SW Florida, it attracts the polydamas swallowtail. Which, I swear I have NEVER seen in person.

Not sure why I have to swear so much but it feels good.

Unknown — Polydamas pic borrowed from UF/IFAS

So, I’ve been training my vine every few days; I move the growing vines around the wires to keep them attached as they grow.

Remember training bras?

This is nothing like that I just wondered if you remembered those.

When I’m out there doing my training, I can hear Michael, aka the Guru, saying “if you plant this, THEY.WILL.COME.” He doesn’t even look like Kevin Costner, but he’s in my head.

The other day I went out for my training, and guess what.

Wait, did you hear a sudden high pitched squeal around noon Eastern time on Thursday?

I have polydamas babies!

I wanted to shout it from the rooftop that I have eggs and larvae thriving on my vine.

But, our roof is really tall, I struggle with vertigo and it’s hot outside, so a blog post will have to suffice.

I was so excited I almost wet my pants. Which really, at this stage isn’t unusual.

BTW: spellcheck wants me to change the name to polygamous. Weirdos.

So, that was my exciting butterfly news for last week.

Life is good in my butterfly world and that makes all the hard to swallow pills easier.

XOXO

I’m certified and I’m finished.

My gardens are officially certified.
And you thought I was just certifiable.

Notice my Monarch model; he approved the signage.

Bona-fide.
Authorized.
To be prized.
I’m rambling here.

I wish I could ditch the electrical boxes and irrigation stuff off the walls, but electricity and irrigation are essential to me.
Also, this is the side of our house, not the front. The front is prettier. But don’t tell the sides and back; they’ve never met.

I’m sure the signs will lure even more butterflies to my lair.

I really try to keep my posts short and sweet so I don’t lose anyone, but I never know where exactly to stop.

Stop here?

Maybe stop here?

Nope.more.to.chatter.about

The puzzle is finished.

Can I stop talking about that damn puzzle already?
No. I can not.

I know, you were probably not sleeping a minute wondering how I was doing with it; it’s finally done and yes, I was missing two pieces. MAX!!

I complained to Linds that it was hard to do because my right arm hurt so much.

Linds: Do it with your left arm.

Why do my children use logic against me?

When I was finished, I wrote a note on the box for my future self or someone else’s future self that two pieces are missing and I sharpied the spots on the box.

If my arm felt better, I’d pat myself on the back for that.

Actually, my arm is feeling a bit better. Thank you all for your wonderful advice; it’s appreciated.
Also, icing it a few times a day has been awesome and something I didn’t think to do before. *duhh*
It’s no picnic being me.

NOW, I’m done.

Kidding.

Does anyone have plans for the weekend?

Suzanne, that was cruel and uncalled for.

Oh, wait.
One more thing.

Our marina has opened back up (with VERY limited contact) so the Coach is excited to get on his boat and go fishing tomorrow. He’s been working a lot and being home with me a lot.
He needs some fun because I can only entertain him so much; that wasn’t a part of our vows.

I DO wish you all a nice weekend doing something you enjoy with people that you can semi-stand being around.
I consider myself fortunate in that way.
I never thought to ask my husband how he felt about it.
Probably just as well…

Bee good
Bee silly
Bee well

XOXO