Buggy Saturday (284/366)

TIME: 12:56 pm
PLACE: Front yard
SUBJECT: Monarch butterfly

TIME: 1:00 pm

PLACE: Front yard
SUBJECT: Grasshopper

TIME: 6:18 pm
PLACE: Back yard

SUBJECT: Caterpillar

*~*~*

I saw so many insects today when I was outside.

The monarchs were in full force on our butterfly bush.

Grasshoppers were, well, being true to their name and hopping on our ornamental grass.

And while I was sitting in the backyard with the dogs, this caterpillar (I think it may be a fall webworm) dropped on my leg.

He's pretty hairy - what kind of winter is he predicting?

Monarch Mating (228/366)

TIME: 3:07 pm

PLACE: Front yard
SUBJECT: Monarch butterflies

*~*~*

Birds do it, bees do it and so do Monarch butterflies.

In my front yard.

In the middle of the afternoon.

I guess I'm kind of jealous.

 

Butterfly (245/365)

“When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away.”

Anna Pavlova (Russian ballerina, the most celebrated Dancer of her time. 1882-1931)

TIME:  5:46 PM
PLACE:  Backyard
SUBJECT:  Monarch butterfly

We’ve had many monarch butterflies around our back yard these days.  It must be mating season.  They are chasing each other and fly-dancing all around the yard.  I never knew butterflies could be so fast.

Monarch (247/365)

 
“The butterfly is a flying flower,
The flower a tethered butterfly.”

Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun (French lyric poet, 1729-1807)

TIME:  3:04 PM
PLACE:  Backyard
SUBJECT:  Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

Although I cannot stand the dreaded milkweed vine that overtakes my bushes and fence each year, the flowers that it produces attract many butterflies and other insects.  I guess I can’t complain about it too much as it does provide some great photographic opportunities.  It was a beautiful day – sunny, hardly any humidity and a high of 76 degrees Fahrenheit.  Today also is a double wedding anniversary day.  My parents were married on this day in 1963 and my sister and her husband chose this date to be wed in 1999…they are now celebrating 11 years of marital bliss.