Chasing Butterflies Daily

The 18th of August I found a Red Admiral caterpillar. If you look at my blog post from last year when we also raised one you'll note there's quite a difference in the colour of the two but their markings and spikes are very distinctive. It spent time munching away on nettles in our butterfly cage until the 23rd of August when it settled on the plastic roof of the cage and hung itself upsidedown - attached securely with silk webbing.  Butterflies usually make stunning pupae which are true works of art and the Red Admiral does not disappoint. They have shimmering gold patches on them as shown below. Right before emerging they start to darken in colour as their wings prepare for the world. The photo below is from the 3rd of September. Yesterday afternoon (the 5th of September) I noticed that the pupa was darkening and must've missed it emerging by minutes as when I looked soon after there was a butterfly in the cage. Gutted that ...

Wanted to collect my social media posts about hyperemesis gravidarum journey #4 in one place. Have a few more specific posts I hope to tackle in individual blog entries but I felt that the shorter posts could make one longer one to remind me why I'm not going through this again. I never thought it would wear me down mentally this much. I know it did every other time when I also felt a million times worse but I seem to chose to forget and I can't do that to myself again, I'm more than blessed enough to have the gift of being mother to four children. WEEK 15 - 10/08 Hyperemesis Gravidarum - severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy - is every bit as glamorous as you might imagine. From pregnancy #1 I've vomited so violently I frequently pee myself... I know I'm not alone but it's hardly something people advertise.  Thing is I've kept a lot of my anger and pain about my pregnancies in. This time I know it's the last time, we're not wondering i...