Halfway…..Caterpillars and Butterflies

Queen Caterpillar getting big!

Whoooo Hoooooo! Halfway! Only six more treatments to go! The CEA count is down to 52 from 75, so great progress this month! I have been feeling a lot better this last treatment. Little nausea and pain levels are WAY down. Just fighting the chemo burn, but can live with it when the tumor marker count drops like this.” It is working, it is working” is my mantra! Thanks again to all of you for your support, prayers, positive thoughts and good wishes!

Queen Caterpillar – about 1″

It is finally cooling off in the desert! We have had water falling from the sky, my friends tell me it is rain….even some hail. The windows are open, it is 75 degrees and fabulous! So the monarch and queens are appearing on our desert milkweed! We have had three monarchs go full cycle and four or five queens, with four queen caterpillars and one monarch chrysalis still on the bush. It is our best year ever. Saving the Monarchs one butterfly at a time. Hopefully I catch one of the butterflies and post photos, but they are skittish and tend to fly when I open the door. It is awesome to see them fly away, since there are tons of flowers for them to feast on.

I have a new guardian hummingbird who sits in the Arizona Orange Bells just outside the door. He flies away everytime we open the door, will keep trying to get a photo! It is really hard to sneak up on these guys, I am going to have to practice stealth! I am trying to get lessons from the kitties. However, the cats are very unhappy because we are keeping them inside, except for supervised visits in the backyard. I do not want to encourage them to become bird murderers. They are very vocal about the rules at times, but the parrots just scream louder to cover up the noise, LOL. Note to self….buy earplugs. Wishing you a happy fall!

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Almost halfway!………Step Away From the Killdeer

Killdeer – Pastel Pencil

Next week will be treatment #6 – halfway! Only 3 more months to go!!!!  This resting week, I had a migraine Tuesday, but am feeling much better today. No nausea! Whoooo Hooooo! Back to the first New Normal, now maybe I can start having a good week in between treatments. The ole hair is thinning again, but it is taking longer this time, maybe some of it will stay. The Astivan tan is definitely back, so it looks like I have been to the tanning booth. Maybe a few field trips this week as I feel better! Art store, here I come!!!

Three of my pastel pencils are down to the nub, but still was able to work on the Killdeer. Think it is about time to step away from the drawing. Well, maybe a few more adjustments……I love killdeer, especially the fake broken wing act the parents do to draw you away from the little ones. And speaking of little ones, killdeer just have to be one of the cutest of the baby birds, they are just little fluff balls on long legs, with the greatest expressions. Now how am I going to figure out what to work on next. I have been going through my 30,000 reference photos and it is just hard to choose. However, I haven’t done a parrot in a while, maybe I can bribe the guys to pose for me. Hopefully they have forgotten about the wages issue and will work for peanuts again. Stay tuned……….