TRR photo by Ed Wesely My friend Alexa, posing with “Tipsy,” a pet monarch, attached to her sweater.

Is Tipsy a boy or a girl?

Early last September I met Alexa, age 10, and let her take home a pet monarch with deformed wings, called “Tipsy.” I also gave her a monarch chrysalis to care for, and was rewarded that evening with a couple of e-mails from New Jersey.

“Dear Ed,

the butterfly And the coccon are doing fine. do the butterflyes drink necter and what kind?”

Alexa

“Dear Ed,

I have one one more question. tipsy keeps flaping his wings reaily fast and I do not know what to do. if you know what to do write bac soon.”

Alexa

“Dear Ed,

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An unusual fishing adventure

“The wildness and adventure that are in fishing still recommend it to me.”

—Henry David Thoreau

One of my fishing buddies, Kurt Jellett, is more in the mold of Izaak Walton than Theodore Gordon. Kurt rarely uses a fly when angling, and if he does the hook of the fly is invariably tipped with a piece of worm. Kurt mostly targets panfish or bass, which he then feeds to his cats, Molly and Tigger.

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Season’s last wild edibles walk

DAMASCUS, PA—Nathaniel Whitmore will hold his last scheduled nature walk for the season at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 1. The walk, which will be held at the Whitmore Farm on Whitmore Road, off Conklin Hill Road, will focus on edible plants that can be harvested in the autumn for immediate use or stored for the winter.

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Also in this issue:

• Nature prepares for winter