It’s July and festivities are in the air. Fireworks and people celebrating all over town, but I choose a more befitting role, that is to tend to my garden and it’s hopes for more visitors. Periodically I would see a cabbage butterfly fluttering through the garden but yesterday for the first time this summer a fast flying orange beauty flew in. My camera was in hand but his/her rapid movement preventing me from capturing it’s beauty. He/She didn’t appear to be a monarch and all I could identify was the bright orange color. He/She did not even slow down for me to taken much observation. Could it be a Aphrodite Fritillary? Judging by it’s speed it could possible be a Gulf Fritillary also. The bright colors seen in flight resembles that of the Great Spangled Fritillary. I was a little excited to see a new visitor for a change but was disappointed when he/she left so quickly. Hope he/she had stopped and tasted some of the Zinnias at the side of the house. I can only anticipate that he/she will return soon and bring the family along.

My husband was working on the porch and had bits of material that I could use to make something for my garden. How about a butterfly house? What a great idea that was and my hubby even volunteered to show me how to use his saw. It was a bit scary at first but when I try working with the tools it wasn’t that hard at all. Safety first was his primary concern and I got that down from the get-go.

I rummaged through the scraps of board he had discard to choose a few pieces that was ideal for my butterfly house. The pieces for the sides, a piece for the back, another for the bottom and roof, then the piece that was needed for the front had to have holes in it. Here are a few pictures taken of the steps of the progress so far. The sides, back and roof is on. 

Side View: 

 

Well the front is going to be a challenge. How do I get holes in this? I need more lessons and the know how to the tools used to get that effect. After trial and error, we had to start the process over a few times. Thankfully there were plenty of scraps to choose another piece of board. I will leave the drilling and carving out of the holes to my husband because this part of the project is a very challenging one. So far we have had three (3) pieces ruined. With each new piece I created a different design. Will keep you posted of it’s progress.