I lost three weeks of August to a terrible summer cold that had me sleeping inordinate amounts of time rather than be in my gardens six to ten hours a day.
Be that as it may, this summer has been an bountiful year for monarchs in this part of the world, on my little world of 3 acres, and in the general vicinity as neighbors near and far have been reporting abundant monarch sightings.
I believe people have become ever more aware of the declining number of the once ubiquitous monarch butterfly, and have responded by planting milkweed along their migrating routes.
Caterpillars have been everywhere, even in the ear of a sculpture of a horse comprised of copper butterflies.
A chrysalis earring. I’ve always wanted one.
This summer there have been so many breeding monarchs, more than in many, many years. As I was bringing in milkweed for the first dozen caterpillars I started ‘raising’ in a hand-made enclosure July, I was inadvertently bringing in eggs and tiny caterpillars as well, just as I had when I started this butterfly path in 1971. For the first time since then, as it was getting too crowded in the enclosure, I brought more than a dozen caterpillars back to the wilds of milkweed patches all over my property. Kinda wonderful. Thrilling, actually.