Dreams in Fiber: Summer

Reiman Gardens - Part 1, the Butterflies

I have posted about Reiman Gardens before but it is truly a great place to spend an afternoon. The butterfly section is fantastic and each time you go (when you go once or twice a year like we do) is different because of the sculptures they have at the time and because different plants and flowers are in bloom.

One of these times I will get the photo that I want of the beautiful blue ones - they thwarted me once again last Summer.

They seemed to have more of these giant moths this past Summer as well :)

We always stop by the butterflies first when we arrive, next up is the sculptures :)

At the Fair

The minions and I took our annual walk around the Fairgrounds shortly before they opened for their 2017 season. We got in just as they were putting up a fence around the entrances so I'm not quite sure how we'll get in this year but we'll see :)

Here are some photos from our loop.

The Great Cicada Molt and Other Creepy Crawlies

Let's face it - Summer is loaded with all sorts of creepy crawlies and they are all so fun and different to check out.

The Cicadas were incredible this year in the sense that we were able to see so many of them along the fence molting. The minions and I learned quite a bit about them this past Summer! We were able to watch around 10 molts or so, usually there were multiple going on at the same time. This is a progression of sorts that shows the process the cicadas go through.

They start off by crawling out of little holes in the ground and work their way up trees or fences, decks... Anything they can cling onto.

Then they start moving around and pulsing a bit and create a crack in the back of the shell that they squeeze themselves out of. I was able to get a video of this and it's neat to watch.

Once their upper body is out they work themselves into this horizontal position so their wings can start to unwrap themselves.

They stay horizontal for a little while and then do a crunch and pull their lower half out and cling to their shell while their wings continue to straighten and harden. Most of the ones we saw stayed in this position for quite a while as well.