BUTTERFLIES ARE COMING!

 

The big picture. All the caterpillars which will become beautiful Swallowtail butterflies are in the big picture. Scroll down to see the close-ups. We plant the parsley for ourselves and for the Swallowtails. The sad news is that there are only four. We've had the plants covered with caterpillars in years past.

 

No. 1

 

No. 2

 

Nos. 3 and 4



Here's what the caterpillars will become if all four make it. Beautiful!


Bottom photo from Wikipedia.

UPDATE: Here's a photo of the latest edition to the caterpillar family. Click on the picture to enlarge and look at the bottom and a little to the left, and you will see a small black and white critter. The others looked like that day before yesterday. Now we have five caterpillars feeding on the parsley.



And then there were eight!


Word has gone out in Caterpillar Land that Grandpère and Grandmère have parsley, and the caterpillars are a-comin'. We should plant a whole plot of parsley next year. I'll suggest just that to the gardener, who is GP.

CONSECRATION OF BISHOP JOHN SMYLIE FOR THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF WYOMING

Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop John Smylie



Bishop Smylie presiding at the Eucharist



Our own Ann Fontaine at the podium



Our Ann again giving out orders. She practically ran the whole show, you know, with a little help from her friends. See how attentively the others listen.

Thanks to Dr. Richard Schori for these.

Thanks to Ann for the link. View the rest of the photos here.

OH NOOOO! ANOTHER WELL EXPLODES IN THE GULF

From NOLA.com:

The Coast Guard is responding to a report of a rig explosion and fire "and people in the water'' in the Gulf of Mexico south of Vermilion Bay, authorities said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said the rig is around 90 miles south of Vermilion Bay and that a helicopter earlier today reported that it was in fire "and that there was smoke and there were people in the water.''

In an interview with CNN, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said there were 13 people on the rig and that all were accounted for. Twelve of the workers are in immersion suits and one is injured, he said.

Immersion suits protect the wearer from hypothermia.
All 13 people abandoned the rig after the explosion and are accounted for, but have not yet been rescued from the Gulf, the Coast Guard said.

Colclough said the rig was not actively producing at the time of the incident, but is still on fire. The explosion was reported around 9:30 this morning.
....

She said the rig, Vermilion Oil Rig 380, is owned by Mariner Energy, but that details were scarce.

Vermilion Oil Rig 360 is a gas and oil rig in 450 feet of water in South Timbalier Block 316, according to company records.

Vermillion 380 is a fixed, manned production platform. It's not a well being drilled for oil, like BP's Macondo well and it's not a floating rig like the Deepwater Horizon.

Offshore and onshore drilling for oil will never be safe.

THINGS FALL APART....

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

From "The Second Coming" - W. B. Yeats

Do you ever get the feeling that we live in the age of Yeats' poem?

O Lord, bring order out of chaos.
Bring healing to the hurting.
Let light shine in the darkness.

FAMILIES OF TRAPPED MINERS LEFT WITHOUT INCOME?

From the Telegraph:

The 33 Chilean miners trapped underground may not be paid for months while rescuers try to reach them, leaving their families above with no income.

The San Esteban mining company that operates the facility has said it has no money to pay wages and is not even participating in the rescue.

It has suggested it may go bankrupt and its licence has been suspended by the government.

Evelyn Olmos, leader of the mining union, called on Chile's government to pay the workers' wages starting next month.
....

But Chile's Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said the government was prevented from paying the miners' salaries or pensions by the country's labour laws. Instead, they would offer the miners training to find other jobs when they come out.

He said it was up to the company to pay them and the issue would have to be worked out in the courts.

The courts? The wheels of justice grind slowly. And in the meantime? The miners set the world's record for being trapped underground, and who knows when they will be rescued, and all the government of Chile can offer them is job training when they get out? What about an emergency session of the Chile's legislative body to pass a law, which the president could quickly sign, to allow the government to pay the miners' salaries and severances?

The trapped miners face enough challenges without the added burden of worrying that their families will have no income.

Thanks to Paul (A.) for sending the link to the story.

JERICHO ROAD WON!

From the comments:

Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative said...

We won! Jericho Road will be awarded a fresh fruit orchard for the families of our neighborhood in New Orleans! Thanks Wounded Bird for supporting and PLANTING YOUR VOTE! It worked!

Visit us on Facebook to follow the status of the orchard: www.facebook.com/JerichoRoad

Thanks to all of you from Wounded Bird who voted for Jericho Road.

KIRKSTALL ABBEY

After our visit to the Abbey House Museum in Leeds, Doorman-Priest and I headed over to the site of the Abbey proper.

 

Completed between 1152 and 1182, Kirkstall Abbey still stands substantially to its full height, its massive structure presenting a unique example of early Cistercian architecture. Although its community was disbanded in 1539, it has continued to attract the attention of increasing numbers of visitors, for no other building so completely illustrates this early period of English monastic life.

For further information on the history of the Abbey, see their website.

 

The Abbey is splendid. I never saw an ancient ruin of a church or abbey that I didn't love, and Kirkstall is no exception. My only regret is that the area is fenced and gated, and we did not get to walk inside the ruins. For me, the feel of a holy place, where prayers were said over centuries, is only experienced from the inside.

 

DP told me that on special occasions, services are still held in the Abbey. To hear that prayers are still being said in the holy place, even until today, pleased me a great deal.

 

In my earlier post on the Abbey House Museum, I mentioned that the day began with rain, but as you see in the pictures, the sun shone upon us by the time we walked around the Abbey.

 

Since I'd seen the lovely ruins of the Abbey up on the hill in a previous visit and longed to have a closer look, I'm thankful to my good friend DP for taking me to visit.

More to come on our day in Leeds, in which we continued to enjoy beautiful weather.

I'm afraid that I'm jumping around the timetable of my travels, but bear with me. I write as I write.

Note: The pictures are mine, with the exception of the photo at the top, which is from the slideshow at the Abbey website.

Deo gratias!!!

From Ellie on her great-nephew James:

Subject: James improving


Jane is able to hold baby James now for 20 minutes every 3 hours. They have removed all the lines except one little IV. We are hoping he will get to come home this weekend.
Susan (James' grandma)

Full story here.

What wonderful news! Thanks for the update, Ellie.

JESUS AND MO - SUFI

From Jesus and Mo.

ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM - KIRKSTALL ABBEY

On my way from Scotland back to the airport in Manchester, I stopped in Leeds to visit with my dear friends, the Doorman-Priest family. DP, the paterfamilias of the family, who blogs at The World of Doorman-Priest, took me first to visit Kirkstall Abbey and the Abbey House Museum. I'd seen the Abbey situated high above the road when I was in Leeds last year and liked the looks of it, and DP told me that it was worth a visit, and indeed it was. In truth, I never saw an old church ruin that I didn't like and want to visit.

The morning started off with rain as DP and I headed for the Abbey grounds after coffee near my hotel. By the time we arrived at the site, the sky was lightening and the rain was less. We visited the House Museum first.

Welcome to Abbey House Museum where you can experience the sights and sounds of life in Victorian Leeds in the year 1880! A journey through the carefully recreated streets and houses of Abbey House Museum is a great day out for all the family.

And so it is - a mini-replica of a High Street with shops containing vintage artifacts from the late Victorian period. My favorite was the pub, which was nicely done and which you see pictured below. I believe the pub was DP's favorite spot, too.



Below is a photo of a vintage artifact dressed in a vintage artifact. DP made me do it! I blame him.



On to Kirkstall Abbey, but in another post. The Abbey deserves a better placement than following the above. The things I do for you people!