Flower Friday ...

... Tithonia Sundance or Mexican Sunflower.

To say we were surprised when we saw a monarch butterfly today on the Mexican sunflowers would be an understatement!  And she stayed for hours and hours.   And I took hundreds and hundreds of pictures!  (We actually saw her again on Saturday ... so she must have spent the night somewhere close by our garden.) 

Thanks to Anni (BikerBear) for keeping Friday's beautiful.  Please have a look full screen.

Later in the day there was another surprise in store for us ... which can be seen in the Extras.  Two teeny, tiny, very young chipmunks!  It was huddled like this for a while ... probably cold as it was very overcast and cool today.  After getting a couple of pictures I put out some shelled peanuts to see if he/she would eat them.  And happily he/she had a couple before disappearing.   I really hope to see them again soon.