Monarch on Echinacea

These are the butterfly days of summer. I took a morning stroll down to the patch of flowers for the pollinators at our local park, and who met me there but a few monarchs, spicebush swallowtails, and fritillaries. I stood and watched and photographed as they flitted from flower to flower. Is there anything more joyful than butterflies, playing?

Please enjoy this photo of a monarch on echinacea from Autumn Meadow Park. I almost thought it seemed like the butterfly was sitting on a couch, being interviewed on a talk show! (I laughed to think of the movie Gremlins 2, where the Gremlin gets interviewed: "Creature, what is it that you want?")

It was a busy day around our house, in which I helped do body work on my husband's car, did laundry, mended clothes, glued a pair of my husband's shoes, redid my pedicure (hello, new shade of red), and made a pizza from scratch. (No, not quite every SINGLE minute of every hour around here is filled with magic moments, starlight dancing, and unicorn riding. . . . ) And then it rained, late in the afternoon, and I simply sat on the porch and watched and listened to and smelled the rain.

But around noon, oh what a special event! We spotted a small orange creature in our yard. It was flying. It was . . . a very small, very petite, very gorgeous MONARCH! The day before, I had taken a picture of our milkweed patch, feeling very proud of it because our plants are huge and glorious, and also very sad, because it was empty: not a single monarch had claimed it yet. But then SHE arrived!

SHE was a tiny, wonderful monarch! And as I watched, and sang, and danced - "Oh, this is for you, IT IS ALL FOR YOU!!!!" I sang - she went around laying eggs on a bunch of different plants!! I walked and watched as she did so, until my husband told me to stop pestering the butterfly! Hmmph!

So here is the news from our yard, and oh what a difference a day can make, so hold on, hold on, hold on. . . . Yesterday the milkweed patch was empty. Today, it is a whole new era. For the milkweed patch is full of promise: NOW, we are growing BUTTERFLIES!!!!

I wanted a sparkling, stellar song to go with this lovely image and happy story. Here are Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt, from the album Trio II: a cover of Neil Young's classic, After the Gold Rush.