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;-)…
24 Wednesday Jul 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, caterpillars, flowers, garden milkweed, growing, leaves, moments, monarch, nature, plants, re-emerge, widow
the monarch caterpillars decimated every leaf of the milkweed in June through to the beginning of July…
now, in the last few weeks, the leaves have begun to re-emerge…
some have even started to flower…
I am hopeful that another monarch butterfly might come by and lay a few eggs, not twenty, lol…
05 Wednesday Jun 2024
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly, fast, flit, garden, moments, monarch, nature, pictures, weather, widow
had a delightful time yesterday afternoon as I watched a monarch butterfly flit about the garden for quite some time…
it was overcast, but I continue to spend as much time as possible outside… as I was reading I looked up to see a monarch going by…
couldn’t get a great picture, as of course I didn’t have the Nikon outside, lol… and the butterfly moved quickly…
some milkweed is just starting… some was recently planted, but has no flowers yet…
hopefully this monarch and some friends come by as the weather improves and flowers are ready for them…
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;-)…
08 Thursday Jun 2023
Posted in garden, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
25 Thursday Aug 2022
Posted in family, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
ashes, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, creek, family, flowers, memories, moments, monarch, nature, remembering, walk, widow
today we walked by the spot along the creek where we scattered my beloved’s ashes…
it was nice to wander past…
just a moment later I spotted this monarch in a field of wild flowers…
felt like a sign from him;-)…
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…
18 Monday Jul 2022
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, butterfly, duel, garden, memories, moments, monarch, nature, photos, rain, thunderstorm, weather, widow
there was quite a thunderstorm early Saturday morning…
it was the first day in a long time that I ate breakfast in the house as I’ve been doing a great job of being outside if it isn’t raining…
eventually it was dry enough to spend some time in the garden where I had a bit of a duel with the gray squirrels that have found a way to get to both of the slinky protected bird feeders…
and then, I spent a lovely time watching a monarch flit around the space, landing a number of times on the milkweed and then flitting around some more…
what a treat and how lucky was I to get to enjoy those moments;-)…
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 