The Last Monarch Chrysalis

We have had a very good run with monarch butterflies this year. It seemed like they were popping out of the woodwork for a few days there last week, perhaps when I needed them most. And as I pointed out - like druids - butterflies are never early or late; they arrive precisely when they mean to.

This is a picture of the last monarch chrysalis that I know of in our jewelweed patch. The last caterpillar I saw was on September 11. The season for butterflies has grown late. As I type this blip, it is the next day, and I am sitting in the afternoon sun, waiting for this butterfly to eclose!

Our hummingbirds are all gone now, but we get the occasional migratory one coming through, so the feeder is still up. The fawns no longer sleep under the deck. I have started to see the first of the fall colors on the trees. Asters are blooming everywhere in shades of pink, purple, and white. Dark comes earlier; the nights are chillier now; I already put the flannel sheets on the bed.

My husband came in from the yard late in the afternoon, very excited, wanting to show me something he had found on his bicycle. I went running out, with camera, to discover a green bug sitting on his green bike. Apparently, this week's photo theme is "big bugs going places"!

Did the huge green bug want to go for a bike ride? Why, yes, as it turns out: katydid! See the photo in the extras (there is actually a second, much smaller, bug on the seat, so this is officially a bicycle built for two.). Beep beep! Look out! They're on their way!

Since this is a two-picture day, let's have two songs. One is for the final chrysalis above, and let's let it be a love song: Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle, with Just You and I. The second is for the bugs on the bicycle: Queen, with Bicycle Race.