silk cocoon

The late autumn is a really wonderful time to go out to look for Cocoons.

The one Dad is holding here is the very one that he found when he was ten. It is 77 years old!
I am now a proud Cocoon owner. Dad presented it to me when I visited recently. How special is that?!

So many Cocoons are made to look like leaves and nuts to disguise them from birds and other predators, but not this one - so bright and golden even after all these years. Dad placed this one in a glass canning jar with small air holes in the lid. It didn’t need food or water because while inside their Cocoons they don’t eat or drink. It took this silk worm approximately 3 days to spin its cocoon around itself secreting saliva from its mouth. This single strand of silk that the worm forms is about 1 mile long. Silk worms have to work in a figure 8 pattern in order to spin their cocoon around themselves. Dad took care because if their threads are disturbed by anything, the silk worm would have to start all over again spinning a new cocoon. He cannot remember quite what happened to the contents of this one.

All I know is that I feel that I have a little piece of Natures gold...