One word comes to mind, “grateful.”

Grateful I began a butterfly garden a number of years ago. Grateful that I get to watch the incredible journey from an egg, to a stunning monarch butterfly. Grateful I get to photograph such amazing moments, such as this male enjoying some sweet almond bush nectar. Grateful that my daughter enjoys the gardens, and butterflies, as much as I do.

These last few days I have had so much fun watching the monarch butterflies eat. Today’s feast was sweet almond bush, lantana and pentas. My daughter was extremely excited to pick out pink and purple pentas today, while I was ecstatic to add another sweet almond bush to the nectar variety. The aroma of the sweet almond bush is incredible.

The amazement was how much they sip until they rest, or fly away. It definitely put a perspective of how much nectar a butterfly garden should have in addition to its host plants.

Here are a few from my photoshoot for today.

https://videos.files.wordpress.com/v1j4kFf8/20230206_170558.mp4

https://videos.files.wordpress.com/RyFqDvFO/20230206_171027.mp4