Big hearts

Another proud momma moment today!

My daughter, a few days from turning 7 years old, and her friend, also 6 years old, absorb so much information, and with that have such big hearts for nature.

Today, they came running through the sliding glass door, yelling they had to show me something . . . a gulf fritillary chrysalsis that had fallen. You could tell they, too, were proud of themselves for both knowing what it was, and for saving it.

Quite a few caterpillars use her playground as their final chrysalis destination, which is where they had found the chrysalis.

So now, we have a new resident in our butterfly house, hung, so hopefully, it can emerge without any problems.

It absolutely warms my heart how much my daughter, and now her friend, love seeing butterflies. The joy and squeals that radiate off of them when they see a butterfly is rewarding for me. I have shared my passion with two beautiful souls that hopefully will continue to provide gardens for butterflies to enjoy when they grow older.

The lovely

Tons of gulf fritillary butterflies are visiting the gardens today.

Here’s an assortment of the three visitors I was able to photograph . . . sipping on nectar (blue porterweed and lantana), resting and laying eggs.

It’s fascinating to watch them. One of them went from host plant to host plant laying eggs and then stopping at a nectar plant to take a sip before returning to lay more.

There was one that almost landed on my leg a few times, almost.