when we got home from our time at the Airbnb we discovered twenty monarch caterpillars…

I had five milkweed plants but toward the end of their growing phase, the caterpillars were running out of leaves to eat…

they had stripped every leaf and I was able to cut some stalks from a friend’s yard…

I tied the new leaves to the old and we had just enough for them before hiding under leaves and building their chrysalides… two died, although there was still some leaves left…

we watched one caterpillar for a while once it moved into its j-shape but didn’t catch it weaving the chrysalis…

we only spotted two chrysalides, one of which vanished… not sure if it fell or something came along and ate it…

I watched it daily and then one day it turned black, which meant it was ready to eclose…

I watched all day, but nothing happened… late that afternoon I spotted the butterfly which had emerged…

it sat for quite a while before finally opening and closing its wings, but it was still on the iris leaf when I went to bed…

during the night the city came around and was spraying for mosquitoes…

In the morning it was hanging in a strange fashion and I was worried whether it would survive…

but, later I went out and she was gone;-)…

since then I’ve seen a total of eight butterflies flying through the garden;-)…

nature is amazing…