The Golden Monarch

This past weekend, amidst the chaos of diet changing, workout benchmarking, and fun having, something amazing happened.  While this may not mean much to you, it was so significant to me. 


this is not my actual photo, but I did snap one that I'll upload soon

 As I walked up the front steps, sweaty after my workout, and arms filled with items from my big Costco trip, I saw a beautiful golden monarch fluttering around all of my flowers.  I actually have the exact flowers as the photo above which are the ones she was dancing around in.  It was amazing.  I was almost moved to tears.  I know, tears?  A bit extreme but I LOVE butterflies.  Something about them and their fragility combined with strength and vibrance just moves me.

I placed all of my groceries (all, because I always try to carry every bag and box at once to avoid the extra trip- dumb.) in the front yard and grabbed my camera from my purse to try to capture this beauty.  Again, these pictures are from Google Images, but I was so enthralled with my beautiful butterfly that I hesitated to snap a picture and scare her off or miss any part of her fluttering about.

My first year at Camp Boggy Creek, my friend Shanon and I ran the nature barn for the kids.  With the help of a willful nurse, we raised caterpillars that would one day become golden monarchs much like this:

We were there the morning that the amazing wrinkly and brand new monarchs emerged from their chrystalis' and began to flap their wings, ready for their first flight.  It was such an incredible experience for our campers and for us.  Shanon snapped pictures of the wet-winged butterflies landing on our campers heads and faces and shoulders while they practiced flying.  What a testament to mother nature and her gifts. 
Through doing some research and google searching, I have learned this:

The fourth generation of monarch butterflies is a little bit different than the first three generations. The fourth generation is born in September and October and goes through exactly the same process as the first, second and third generations except for one part. The fourth generation of monarch butterflies does not die after two to six weeks. Instead, this generation of monarch butterflies migrates to warmer climates like Mexico and California and will live for six to eight months until it is time to start the whole process over again.

It is amazing how the four generations of monarch butterflies works out so that the monarch population can continue to live on throughout the years, but not become overpopulated. Mother Nature sure has some cool ways of doing things, doesn’t she?  http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/
So my golden monarch must have been a 4th generation beauty preparing for her flight south to carry on her species.  Having read that makes me feel even more special that she visited my sweet flowers before her long journey.  Amazing!

There is something so inspiring and special about these beautiful butterflies.  Their transformation from crawling to flying.  Their need for both protection and freedom.  Their striking beauty, yet gentle flutter.  I could have sat on my front step and watched her float from blossom to blossom ALL DAY.  I wish she'd have stayed a while.  I look for her or her fellow 4th generation butterfly mates each day when I get home.  I believe they've begun their journey south for warmer climates.  Safe travels!

yours in awe,
whitney

A change is happening...

I think it's official; I like flowers.  I've spent much of my life hating and boycotting this ridiculous symbol of supposed love and care, of girlieness and obligation, but I think I'm officially converting.  This summer Mike and I planted some pretty flowers outside the condo to spice it up a bit, make it look summery.  Since the winter was so dreadful, I felt like flowers would be a nice touch.  Even though I didn't really like them or want them in the house, I thought they were pretty outside.

To be fair, I did both the planting and maintaining of the flowers, and Mike took care of his sea grass.  The sea grass is not doing quite so well.  Sorry Mike.  But after we planted these beauties and they began to bloom and grow and fill up the little spaces we cleared, I realized that I really liked them. I'd come home looking forward to seeing new opened rose buds and spend about a half hour dead-heading and watering and feeding all of the plants and flowers.  I read up about each type of plant to be sure I knew how to care for them.  And, I started bringing the blossoms inside to decorate our table and bookshelf.  I know... it didn't take much to convert me, really.

I've spent all summer taking great care fo these plants.  I've made sure they are hydrated, but not too much.  I have planted cups of beer in the beds to keep the slugs and bugs away (which really works), and I've weeded and weeded to keep them from being choked by the awful weeds that grow wild near us.  Success!  Or so I thought.  In mid-July, right before we left for Florida, the men who take care of the lawn for the condo complex weed whacked all of my flowers (except the rose bushes) to the ground.  Literally, to the ground.  They came through and just hacked them to pieces.  Now we are talking a lot of $ in flowers that were planted.  I came home from work to find them totally destroyed and all back to ground level.  All that was left were burnt ends where the sun had scorched the plants between the time they hacked them in the morning and I got home from the gym.   I nearly cried.  I had put so much love and time and effort into these plants.  I had once hated this kind of thing, but was really likeing them and enjoying the whole gardening thing.  I spent days trying to nurse them back to life- water, food, shade...  and it worked!

They made a comeback!  Event the seagrass is coming back.  I now leave a note on the wall outside scolding the lawn men about their mistake and demanding it never happen again.  I think Mike is embarrassed about the note, but screw it!  They tried to ruin my summer project.  How could you mistake hot pink dhalias and asltromerias as weeds and grass?  Morons!  So take that, lawn men.  My plants are strong and have deep roots.  You can't whack them down.  And, to add to their resurgence, a wonderful family of small monarch looking butterflies loves my wildflowers and they visit every day to collect pollen or nectar, or whatever they collect.  They are truly lovely.

So with that, I think it's official.  I'm a flower lover.  I even brought flowers in for my desk today.  They are pretty and I like having something summery and bright in here.

Well, that's my story for the day.  Hope you all have a great day!

Yours in pollen sneezes,
Whitney