Butterfly Dreams

Dancing through the fields at Summer's end...

imagining Fairies in the Castles of Queen Anne's Lace.

 Chasing Butterflies 
and discovering Caterpillars on the "milky" weeds.

This is what filled my days as a child. 

When I was a young girl I delighted in playing in the fields surrounding my home. I loved all of nature: the flowers, the bugs and especially the butterflies.  Milkweeds were abundant and it was easy to spy the yellow and black striped colors of the caterpillars crawling on them. We captured wiggly caterpillars and placed them carefully in glass jars with a stick or two to climb on and a long fat leaf from the "milky" weed to chew on. With the fat little caterpillars in the jar, we watched patiently for the transformation to take place... when the wiggly caterpillar would become a beautiful chrysalis and then magically become a butterfly.  

♦  ♦  ♦

Of course this whole magical event always seemed to occur at Summer's end, about the time school would begin. No matter, we packed our caterpillar jars off to school to share for Show and Tell.  Teacher always made a fuss over our treasures in a jar and invited us to place them on the Science table. This was always a big deal because that meant we could learn more about caterpillars and butterflies... and I could never learn enough.  My favorite was always the Monarch. The whole idea of a yellow and black striped caterpillar transforming into a green chrysalis and then becoming an orange and black butterfly fascinated me, and still does to this very day.

♦  ♦  ♦

Fast forward to now. I've lived in this home for eight years and I had never seen a Monarch in my garden. In fact, rarely do we see butterflies of any kind in our gardens.  

Once in a long while a Tigertail floats through my perennials  

and late Summer always seems to bring a Cabbage White or two

but never have I seen a Monarch Butterfly in my gardens.  

And oh how my heart has yearned to see one.

♦  ♦  ♦

Last Fall, my Honey and I walked the trails of our part of the kingdom looking for milkweeds. We were delighted to find several places where common milkweed grew freely within several miles. Carefully examining each leaf of each plant we encountered, there were never signs of caterpillars. You can imagine my disappointment. Not one to give up hope, I spent the Winter devising a plan to bring these beautiful creatures to my gardens. And this Spring I began to work the plan.

With loads of butterfly attracting flowering plants already in place, 

I determined that what my gardens needed was milkweed. 

So early last March I visited a website that offered  Butterflyweed plants for sale. After determining that they would grow in my garden, I purchased ten plants. I felt like a giddy school girl waiting for them to arrive. A muddy wet spring for the grower delayed my plants for weeks, but they finally arrived in mid June. The little two inch plants I found in the box did not raise my hopes for drawing butterflies to my gardens any time soon nor did our very wet Spring that brought the attack of the giant snails.  Three plants survived and are now about twelve inches tall with sweet little blossoms in yellow, orange and red. 

 
 They are growing little by little but I faced the realization weeks ago that this season they won't be much of a butterfly magnet.

But that's ok because Mother Nature is working her own plan.

Mother Nature planted common milkweed in my garden...

just a few feet from where I was nurturing my Butterfly Weed.

What are the odds of that? 

There is no milkweed anywhere in site of my gardens that could have spread seeds.

Common Milkweed growing in my Garden

I've been nurturing it right along with the Butterflyweed.

and it's growing like a WEED!

Several mornings ago, as I was taking pictures of the Milkweed,
a Monarch Butterfly floated through the scene.

Monarch floating into the picture

Seriously.

 She simply floated into the picture as I was snapping pics.

 She lingered long enough for me to capture several images...

and then she disappeared as quickly as she came.


 

 I am as surprised as I tell the story as I was when it happened.

Surely a Tender Mercy sent from Heaven above...

"a personal and individualized blessing 

that does not occur randomly nor is it a coincidence."

"The simpleness and sweetness will lift your heavy heart."

and it has. 

Oh, but there is much more to this story...

in my next post!