Wild Wednesday, Cecropia Moth or Garden Giant

About five years ago, Zach and I were hiking through the wooded hills behind our home. Our property butts up against the Edison easement and the wood's open up to a grassy plain area where the power lines run through like giant skeletons linked for miles and miles.
In these grassy areas, there are always things that catch the eye, especially in the fall and winter when the green has drained it's color from the lush hills and often nature has a way of drying itself and preserving into the most interesting things that can be collected.
I'm always on the lookout for strange seed pods that have turned brown and crisp with the coming of colder weather, acorns, pine cones, maple seed "helicopters," black walnuts, they are like little treasures that allow us to hold nature in our hands.
While Zach and I were hiking, I came upon one of these little mysteries. It was a mossy little pod, attached to a stick. I broke off the stick and carried the pod home to be filed in with the many mason jars, and mossy Terra cotta pots that hold past wonders that I've collected on similar walks.
Truth be told, by next spring I had forgotten about the pod, until one day as the weather warmed a giant beautiful moth emerged from the ugly brown casing. It was the largest moth I had ever seen, as big as my hand.

After some research we found that it was the Cecropia Moth, or Garden Giant and is the largest moth in North America. I framed the photo above and hung the opened cocoon next to it.