Gabe, Flowers, Butterfly

Daily Monarch

My Pet Monarch

He's out here every day, eating and eating.

Summer Days

Monarch in my Butterfly Weed

Clethra alnifolia

At long last, another mystery shrub in my swamp is identified! Sweet pepperbush!  There is a large area full of beautiful twisting stems in my wet woods in the winter. In the summer, I kept missing the blossoms somehow. The foliage just blends in otherwise. But here, I finally caught it in bloom - and how had I ever missed such a spectacular show before? I bet because I melt like a popsicle in this heat. The flowers are abuzz with bees, and smell so sweet as to almost be sickening.

Someday I will have time to get out there with a real camera again.

Finally, Monarchs!

I had been getting so worried about the monarch butterflies. Only one or two had dribbled by so far this year. But this week, they have arrived en masse. I'm afraid I have been systematically removing much of the milkweed volunteering around the yard. But the seeds I had scatterd in the front meadow are taking hold. In a year or two it will be epic monarch habitat out there, right where I want it.