Midsummer days
It is all too soon the middle of July. Where has the year gone? Before we know it , we’ll be discussing the upcoming holidays. Hard to believe when our temperatures here in the Tampa Bay area are hovering in the low to mid 90’s with the humidity to boot.
If you have not taken your summer holiday yet, be prepared for the new restrictions and procedures at the airports. Allow yourself plenty of time and just put your mind to the fact that you will not allow yourself to be rattled. When you are away make sure that someone is looking after your home. It can be a neighbor, a friend or contact your local concierge service. They can assist you with either a person to house sit or someone just to check in on things on a daily or weekly schedule for you. I can’t tell you how many people I have known over the years that have gone away on holiday for a couple of weeks or a month and received a phone call that the water heater failed, the dishwasher pipe broke or the ice maker pipe sprung a leak. A flooded home is not what you want to come home to any time much less after a holiday. If you leave a copy of your insurance information/agent with the person taking care of the place, you will be much better off. Mold can grow quickly when it is warm and dark. Finding the mold later and having it remediated is a task few want to follow.
I have a situation in my own home that we have been dealing with for over 6 months that involved a slow leak from a repair that was not done correctly. Unfortunately, we have had to go to court to get the situation corrected properly. I don’t wish this on anyone. No wonder there are so many attorneys in the US. I shall leave it at that and hopefully by the next time I write, I will be able to say that we have hada positive outcome and are not still waiting around for judgement.
On to some more lively news, as many of you who read my blog on a regular basis may know, I am in my second year of having a butterfly garden. It is truly one of the best mental health activities I ever did for myself. It is amazing to watch the cycle of the butterfly especially the Monarch. I have learned so much. As we are now in to the middle of July the butterflies are starting their 3rd generation, egg, caterpillar,chrysalis,adult butterfly. The butterflies that are born now will live an adult life of only 2-6 weeks. The next generation that will be born in Sept/Oct will live for 6-8 months. Why the difference? The ones born in the fall will be the adults making the migration to Mexico for the winter. Butterflies can not tolerate cold weather so they have to go where it is warm. While in Mexico they will live off the fat in their abdomen and huddle around each other to stay warm. If a butterfly falls away from the huddle it most likely will die as it will be too weak to fly up to rejoin the group. Then once the warm weather starts again in February/March they will begin to awaken and mate thus laying their eggs. Withered and tattered from their hibernation and migration, the adults will die. A whole new generation cycle will begin once again.
My garden is in the direct migratory path of the Monarchs this year. I have had to go to my local nursery numerous times just to get food for those cute little caterpillars. I finally was able to get some seed pods and have started my own nursery of butterfly weed so the Monarchs can lay their eggs under the leaves and start the cycle egg,caterpillar, chrysalis, adult. The caterpillars once they hatch from the egg just eat from morning to night. It is like they have an internal clock that keeps telling them to go, go ,and go again, chomping away at all the butterfly weed vegetation they can get. They will do this for about two weeks until they are about 2 inches in length, then they will crawl away creeping ever so purposefully to find the twig,plant or whatever suits them to shed their skin and make the chrysalis. The chrysalis will be a beautiful jade color with a little thread that looks like gold towards the top. It will stay that way as the pupae generates it’s wings and turns in to a beautiful butterfly. Just before it breaks out of the chrysalis, it will become almost transparent and you will see the butterfly inside. Then in a day or so it will break out and let the blood fill the veins on its wings. The butterfly will stay put for a while as its wings dry and it gains the strength to fly away. It is a beautiful sight to see. I just learned how the scientists and butterfly followers are tagging the butterflies so who knows, next year you may reading about how I tagged butterflies.
Speaking of breaking out, I have to tell you about this physician who is only one of two in the entire state of Florida that is certified and licensed to do work with adult stem cells and T65 to help heal sport’s injuries an make you feel a bit more chipper. Dr. Dennis Lox has an office in Clearwater and in New Port Ritchey. He is on the cutting edge of some fabulous technology that will become almost a standard for medicine 10 years from now. We are lucky to have him in the Tampa Bay area. I will be telling you more about him and his practice as well in the days ahead. Pam Butler of LifeReflections LLC taped a talk by Dr. Lox last week so you will be able to see it on Youtube soon.
Take care of yourself and stay hydrated. Let your body dictate your progress and your tempo. Will be back with you soon with some other exciting news!
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