Hoping for a Butterfly Landing
For a number of summers now we've had a beautiful butterfly fluttering in amongst the trees near our home. It goes back and forth and up and down for about five minutes, and then it leaves. And every time I saw it do this I thought, "Gosh, wouldn't it be fun if it landed close enough and remained long enough for me to closely observe the finer details of its wings." However, in-spite of my desire, it remained aloof. Guess there was nothing appealing for a butterfly to fulfill my dreams.
Then one day the word 'appealing' came back to my mind. I began to wonder if this butterfly would actually come closer if I planted something appealing such as a butterfly garden full of flowers. I would only be able to plant it in a pot, but so what, a mini garden is still a garden regardless of its size." I decided it would be worth a try.
I had great success at growing an abundance of greenery, but not so much success at having any flowers bloom from it. That wasn't good as I was pretty sure it was the flowers that would attract the butterfly in. But all hope wasn't lost as I still had a couple of wildflower pots producing the most delicate pink and purple blossoms I had ever grown. (all photos on page are them).
Another Appealing Idea.
One day while appreciating the mini garden, I decided that the plant stems could use some additional support. So, I rummaged through my kitchen to see what I could use for such a situation and I found kabob skewers sticks made of bamboo. Perfect! Then as I pulled them out, an additional insight came to me --- I could place one of my spare crystal beads onto the tapered end of the stick and when the sunlight shone through it it would be so vibrant with colour that a little butterfly just couldn't help but come over and marvel over it.
How I Made a Butterfly Perch
It turned out to be a fun little project. All it took was 3 materials and 3 easy steps.
MATERIAL 1: Wooden sticks I used small wooden kabob skewers, otherwise known as bamboo sticks. To me they were perfect because their tapered pointed ends allows the bead to be pushed on snuggly without the need for glue. Gluing seemed like a lot of fuss for no reason. I figured that if I found a bead gone one morning, I'd know that at least a bird or something found it pretty...enough to eat...gulp... Okay, I will glue them on in the future if I see that one has gone missing.
Bamboo sticks.
MATERIAL 2: Nail-polish The sticks could have remained natural, but I wanted to add some colour, plus the polish would act like a protector to the wood when watering the plants. When I was deciding which polish to use, I figured that any kind would do: expensive or cheap; old or brand new; shiny or blue. In the end I used the following because I liked how shiny they were:
• On left: Butter London, titled Seaside. It has a iridescence to it.
• On right: Pacifica, titled Unicorn Horn. It has a sheer pearlescence to it. Difficult to see in the photos, but in sunlight the colour does reflect it.
Note: I am not a marketing affiliate for any of these products.
Nail-polish
MATERIAL 3: Beads Glass or even wood ones would have been okay but like I said above I had some left over crystal beads that I had purchased to make jewelry. It seems I always have one left over OR I have beads still waiting to be made into jewelry that's probably never going to happen, soooo this was a great solution for my unused gems.
Crystal Beads.
Instructions
STEP 1: I painted the sticks with the nail-polish. I only went 3/4 of the way down because the bottom was going to be in the dirt. Speaking of dirt, I came up with a tip for drying them: Just fill a glass with dirt and prop the sticks up vertically in it until drying was complete.
STEP 2: When nail-polish finish was dry, I placed a bead on the end.
STEP 3: Ready for the garden.
Still Hoping for a Butterfly Landing
Alas, I'm still waiting for a butterfly to land. One thing is for sure, I have the prettiest perches for them to land on should they chose to do so. If they don't, I'm renaming them Garden Jewelry. I get a kick out of thinking the crystals still became a beautiful accessory. I also smiled when I realized in the end, they might never have been for butterflies. You know, there are legends about fairies marvelling over shiny things and crystals. I just hope they too would remain long enough for me to closely observe the finer details of their wings..
Fairy haven?
That's all for now.
