Monarch caterpillar to Monarch butterfly - in my front, fenced garden

These are monarch caterpillars eating milkweed, their host plant. It is the only thing they eat. These two are close to being ready to molt for the last time and create their chrysalis.

One of them climbs up a Spanish bayonet in our front garden. It began to create its chrysalis about 7:00 PM. When I woke the next morning, the caterpillar was almost ready to begin metamorphis. At about 9:00 AM, it pulled the last part of its chrysalis up over itself. I took a photograph just before I went to bed, and then when I woke.

I'm awed. The chrysalis looks like an emerald with a circle of gold dots at the top.  The caterpillar will liquidate and transform its being into a butterfly.

A few weeks later the chrysalis became transparent. That means the butterfly is ready to emerge. I watched as the butterfly pulled its body out. 

It took about 30 minutes for the monarch's wings to dry and fly to the flowers to nourish itself with nectar while pollinating flowers. I plant a diverse array of flowers in my garden for butterflies. Here's a list of plants if you want to attract butterflies. 

Sunday morning, looking up

Sunday morning, looking up. Terry Barrett, photographer

Wood-louvered window is a "Tim Seibert special"

Wood louvered single hung window, Wildewood Springs

The original vision of the wood-louvered windows was to maximize ventilation and allow them to be partially open during Florida’s summer sun showers. Pat Neal calls them a "Tim Seibert special" (correspondence between Susan Michael Barrett and Pat Neal, December 2015). 

The window used in Wildewood Springs is a single hung window with a louvered manufactured insert. (The wood-louvered single and double hung windows were also used in other high-end buildings in our area.) 

The difference between a single and double hung window is here.

Wildewood's original wood-louvered windows are single hung and were made by a company called Clearview Windows. This company is no longer in business.

However, the original louvered windows are available as replacement windows with one difference: the wood louvers are made of aluminum (to meet hurricane code) and can be painted to match the color of the wood louver. (The original color chosen by Seibert for the wood slates was dark brown.) 

The hurricane-grade louvered windows are manufactured by Sol-A-Trol in Miami and available through reputable Florida window companies. Tony Soler (owner) writes (December 2015): 

"We have [this window] Miami-Dade to 2010 NOA code and are running thermal simulations to the .60 u-code presently required to update to 2014 code."

I sought a quote for a hurricane-grade louvered window as a replacement for the wood-louvered window. I had heard that a louvered window was no longer available. My purpose in seeking a quote was to prove that a compatible, replacement louvered window is available. 

So this is one quote for one size of a Sol-A-Trol louvered window (quoted by Tom Morlock, owner of Mister Window, a small retail company in Palmetto, Florida, 7/26/16). The cost reduces significantly by the number of windows ordered. Still, it is fair to say that a hurricane-grade replacement window will be expensive. However, the "Seibert-special" original window was expensive for its time, also.

Repair and replacement parts for the wood-louvered windows are available from Mister Window or Sun Window and Door. Though the Clearview handle on the wood-louvered single hung window is now obsolete, some window companies still carry them. The wood slats can be made and painted.

Our wood-louvered windows continue to function beautifully. We love the look and feel proud to maintain the integrity of Seibert's original design.

Oh, and the enjoyment of an early morning rain with the window open—pure delight. 

This is a photograph of me looking out during a rain shower. I notice that the monarch caterpillars feasting on the milkweed in our front garden scurry to hide under the leaves to wait out the storm. Now that's something: leaf umbrellas!

Articles about Tim Seibert's design work

Architect and interior designer Sam and Pam Holladay purchased a Seibert-designed home on the golf course of Sara Bay Country Club. I love getting to peek at the wood-louvered window. Image credit: Sam and Pam Holladay. Sarasota Magazine.

Thirsty Thursday: Tim Seibert's Fatuous Elegance of Sarasota Architecture. February 2015. The Daily Revolution.

Go Inside a Restored Sarasota School of Architecture Designed Home, January 2015, Sarasota Magazine.

Market Snapshot: Tim Seibert on Wildewood Springs. April 2013. Herald-Tribune.

When lions roared—Seibert on Architecture, April 2013. Herald-Tribune.

Tim Seibert: Retired, but still very much in demand. January 2014. Herald-Tribune.

Wildewood Springs designed by Edward J. ("Tim") Seibert and built by Paul (and Pat) Neal

Wildewood Springs IIA, Pineneedle Drive

Wildewood Springs is a neighborhood situated in a shaded, mostly live-oak and pine hammock in Bradenton, Florida. Wildewood IIA is made up of 54 units and called Pineneedle Village. Wildewood IIA has its own home owners association. The condominium structure was built in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Wildewood Springs (including Wildewood IIA) was the brainchild of architect Tim Seibert and developer Paul Neal, father of well-known and award-winning developer Pat Neal. Paul, Jr., a retired lawyer, and his son Pat Neal created Neal Communities in the early 70s. 

Tim Seibert helped to create what is today known as the Sarasota School of Architecture, a modernist mid-century style that makes the most of south Florida's humid subtropical climate.

Tim Seibert is perhaps the most prolific practitioner of the Sarasota School of Architecture...Seibert still remembers the initial creative vision [of Wildewood Springs]. 'We decided that it was time to try a condominium project without the ‘goop’ — cut-out mansard roofs, fake shutters and fake light fixtures of wrought iron — something that was modernist architecture.'

'I went out and measured the branches on a spreading oak and jiggled the building around, so we didn’t have to cut [the tree] at all,' Seibert recalled. 'Paul made me do it — he wanted it done right.'

'It was economical,' he said. 'The materials — concrete blocks and wood framing — were white and the wood was brown. There is beautiful landscaping between buildings, and they relate nicely to each other.'

The wide, wooden louvers on the windows were designed to be functional to open up and encourage air flow or “passive air conditioning,” as it was called then. 'It was green building before its time,' Seibert said. (Chris Angermann and Harold Bubil, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 2013).