Life cycle stages of diverse planktonic organisms and a couple other animals that also undergo metamorphosis for comparison. Scanned from Heather L. Montgomery’s charming Little Monsters of the Ocean: Metamorphosis under the Waves.
I’ve been waiting to collect these remains for a while now and I finally did it.
This beautiful creature passed away in a ditch that was half full of water and now 6 months later it’s dry and just about passable through all the nettles.
This may not be everyone’s cup of tea, a number of years ago it wouldn’t have been mine. As I’ve gotten older and watched members of my family have their bodies fail them and held their hands as they passed, death and my view on it has shifted significantly.
For those interested, it’s a fox. The remains I have collected will be cleaned and be utilised in my craft which is very much based on what my local landscape provides.
I very rarely work with ingredients that I’ve not foraged for or grown myself and I feel this is another way of making a connection.
**All words and images are my own, please make sure that credit is in place if you reblog or share it**
This looks like the same Gulf Fritillary butterflies we get up in North America! They range down into South America, too!
The caterpillars eat leaves from the passionvine. There are lots of varieties of this plant. Here are two in Texas:
Yellow Passionflower
Passiflora “incense” - I grow this vine in my garden and it takes over the entire back yard! The flowers are huge (see the spider in the right of the photo?) and hummingbirds will even come to feed at them.
“We give thanks for all those who are moved, in their lives, to heal and protect the earth, in small ways and in large. Blessings on the composters, the gardeners, the breeders of worms and mushrooms, the soil-builders, those who cleanse the waters and purify the air, all those who clean up the messes others have made. Blessings on those who defend trees and who plant trees, who guard the forests and who renew the forests. Blessings on those who learn to heal the grasslands and renew the streams, on those who prevent erosion, who restore the salmon and the fisheries, who guard the healing herbs and who know the lore of the wild plants. Blessings on those who heal the cities and bring them alive again with excitement and creativity and love. Gratitude and blessings to all who stand against greed, who risk themselves, to those who have bled and been wounded, and to those who have given their lives in service of the earth. May all the healers of the earth find their own healing. May they be fueled by passionate love for the earth. May they know their fear but not be stopped by fear. May they feel their anger and yet not be ruled by rage. May they honor their grief but not be paralyzed by sorrow. May they transform fear, rage, and grief into compassion and the inspiration to act in service of what they love. May they find the help, the resources, the courage, the luck, the strength, the love, the health, the joy that they need to do the work. May they be in the right place, at the right time, in the right way. May they bring alive a great awakening, open a listening ear to hear the earth’s voice, transform imbalance to balance, hate and greed to love. Blessed be the healers of the earth.” -Starhawk Calming the waters by Kimberly Webber
I love these beautifully created diagrams that explain the relationship plants, soul and fungi have… its an amazing world living right underneath the ground we walk on.
