26 Friday Jul 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly, discovery, eggs, flowers, garden, milkweed, moments, monarch, nature, plants, treat, widow
recently, I wrote about all the caterpillars and the butterflies that emerged and my hope that, as the milkweed has new leaves, another monarch mother might stop by and leave a few eggs…
well, on Thursday, this happened;-)…
I was very excited and after she left, and a bit of searching, made the discovery of at least four eggs…
babies, here we come;-)…
21 Sunday Jul 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterflies, caterpillars, chrysalis, discovered, garden, milkweed, moments, monarchs, nature, plants, weather, widow
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…
01 Monday Jul 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, caterpillars, garden, leaves, miffed, milkweed, moments, moved, nature, plants, stem, stripped, widow
yesterday I moved five monarch caterpillars from one area of milkweed, where all of the leaves had been devoured across the path to the group that were caterpillar-free…
this picture is before every single leaf had been gobbled up…
I used a stick to move them because I didn’t want to get injured, lol…
at least one of the caterpillars was miffed because it opened its mouth wide and felt like it was hissing at me…
I guess they also travelled on their own, because today I discovered eleven on those plants… and I moved another one that seemed to be trying to eat the stem of the stripped milkweed…
hope there are enough leaves to get them to the correct size to move into the chrysalis phase;-)…
29 Saturday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, decimated, family, garden, happy, milkweed, moments, monarch caterpillars, nature, photos, plants, pond, twenty, widow
on Tuesday we counted twenty monarch caterpillars on the milkweed in the garden…
they were all over the newest batch that was recently planted and have nearly decimated all the leaves…
they were also on the ones near the waterfall which were planted last summer… we’ve now taken out all the poppies so there is more room to be able to see the caterpillars…
there were none on the ones from last year which were located around the edge of the pond… these were the ones that I planted in a spot where I could see and photograph any butterflies, eggs and caterpillars that came along, lol…
there were some chives next to them so when Hilda the Gardener was here the other day I had her take them out… maybe the butterflies don’t like the smell…
so excited to have so many;-)…
19 Wednesday Jul 2023
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterflies, caterpillars, change, colours, flowers, garden, milkweed, moments, monarch, multiply, nature, plants, pond, purple, widow
strange happenings with the milkweed…
I am very happy as they continue to multiply…
not too many caterpillars, and they seem to nest on the plants closer to a wall rather than the ones nearest to the pond… maybe there is more protection from predators there… too bad for me, as pictures are easier beside the pond, lol…
the odd thing is that the plants along the edge of the pond, all with the same origin, have produced two different coloured flowers…
the usual pink/purple flowers…
and these white ones which are turning yellow…
will be interesting to see what they do next year, lol…
05 Wednesday Jul 2023
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beautiful, big girl pants, blessed, butterfly, dip, eggs, flit, flowers, garden, happy, milkweed, moments, monarch, monarch butterfly, nature, nectar, photos, plants, treat, widow
for the last few days, in the afternoon, I’ve enjoyed watching a monarch butterfly dip and flit through the garden, landing on the various milkweed plants to enjoy some nectar and maybe lay some eggs…
got a few good pictures…
such a treat;-)…
20 Wednesday Jul 2022
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly, downpour, flowers, garden, happy, milkweed, moments, monarch, nature, pond, waterfall, weather, widow
the other day I saw a monarch flying around the garden and laying eggs on the milkweed…
I went to check out the two milkweed plants that are just by the waterfall to see if any eggs had been left there…
and it was there that I discovered this little caterpillar… of course this is the hardest spot to get any pictures, lol…
and I was happy to still see it after the downpour…
nature is amazing…
03 Sunday Jul 2022
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
had a bit of fun on Wednesday afternoon… it had been overcast for most of the morning, but the sun came out after lunch…
drove ~ I still remember how, lol ~ to my friend’s house… she had obtained four milkweed plants for me from her neighbour…
it was very windy, but I spent a delightful time wandering around her space taking photos of flowers…
got my plants, had a quick visit, and headed home…
sat and read for a while and then planted the milkweed around the pond and waterfall…
the spots I’ve chosen should make for good photographs if any monarchs and or babies turn up;-)…
fingers crossed…
01 Wednesday Jun 2022
Posted in business, garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly bush, dahlias, dynasty, flowers, garden, happy, milkweed, moments, nature, purple, weather, widow
great wander around the garden before the rain a few days ago…
excited to discover the milkweed is growing in the ground and in the planter where it did very well last year…
it appears that one of the dahlias may be poking through the soil…
and most exciting of all, the Monarch Dark Dynasty Butterfly Bush has new growth on it… this is huge as I’ve tried to overwinter them before without success…
right now only one of the pair shows any signs of buds, although that one came outside earlier than the other… fingers crossed…
26 Sunday Jul 2020
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly, chrysalis, experience, family, fun times, garden, grandson, lily of the valley, milkweed, moments, monarch, nature, photos, plants, Pokémon, time, widow
yesterday morning my youngest grandson was dropped off at ten by his two older brothers who were heading off to a two-day Pokémon event…
about fifteen minutes after they left he spotted the first of our monarchs as it emerged from the lily of the valley where they had gone to turn into their chrysalis stage… I had been watching this chrysalis for a number of days as it was the only one we could find…
perfect timing, and he spotted three more as they came out to dry their wings…
the first one had a wasp attached to its wing and it took me quite a while to get it off… not sure if that hurt it or whether the wasp had already injured it…
the others eventually flew off after their wings dried out, but this little male spent most of the day with us… finally it was gone, so we are hoping that it was able to fly…
what a wonderful experience to share together;-)…
herbiggirlpants 