Touched

They say butterflies appear when angels are near. I am convinced.

My daughter and I first spotted a male monarch in the garden, and almost immediately after a female monarch butterfly. She instantly named both of them with two very special names. I love how sentimental a 7-year-old can be, how she says the first thing that comes to her mind. She instantly brought tears to my eyes, as well as a huge smile. My kind, thoughtful girl.

It’s not only amazing watching their lifecycle, but also touching when you stop and think about how much they come to mean to you.

The first photo is of the female, second one a male. The male has two black dots on its lower wing. The final photo is of the pair, male on the left, female on the right.

Sweet penta nectar

We’ve had a bit of a cooler weather spell here lately, which has been wonderful for us Floridians. Today, with the warmer, cloudless blue skies, the monarchs have been in abundance. This female was not bothered at all by the countless photographs I took, or how close I became. She was hungry, feasting on the sweet nectar of the red penta, which is in abundance right now.

Absolute love

The sulphur caterpillars are excellent at camouflaging themselves among the Bahama Cassia tree, especially now with the beautiful yellow flowers opening all over the tree.

The orange barred sulphurs have been frequent visitors of the garden, which I truly love due to their magnificent yellow fluttering about.

The lone caterpillar

Yesterday there were three monarch caterpillars on this particular milkweed leaf. The others must have found their final resting place to make its chrysalis. There is a tree nearby, I would imagine they are somewhere in there seeking shelter to transform to a beautiful butterfly.

Now, just this lonesome caterpillar. I moved him to a milkweed plant that offered an abundance of food.

The final one

Today our final atala butterfly emerged taking our number to seven that we successfully raised from egg. My daughter named this beauty “Turkey,” she said because of the season. Stay awhile Turkey, make our garden your destination.

Check out yesterday’s post, Oh, happy day, for more information about these lovelies.