July

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July was hot and humid, but we got plenty (and then some) of rain so the grass grew and nothing turned soul crushingly brown and crispy.  I already know it's going to be hot.  I can live with the extra humidity if it's from rain.  I'd prefer it didn't flood the barn, but we can deal with that. 

The B Garden has been a real treat this summer.  We've had several monarch appearances already (usually not until August) and have seen several caterpillars!  I'm not sure if this is just going to be a good monarch year all over (finger and toes crossed) or if we've just added enough habitat that our farm has made their map.

Our year supply of hay and straw is in the barn.  The Tour de Fleece was fun and productive.  I pulled the big girl camera out and enjoyed taking some nice pictures.  Archie only nearly fell off a couple of things this month, Possum has fully embraced the air conditioner life, and Bea has learned what a "pup cup" from Dairy Queen is.   

Onward into August!

Late Summer Blooms

The B Garden is in a yellow phase right now, but the zinneas and a volunteer cosmos are keeping things colorful.  I'm starting to see a few monarchs and and few swallowtails.  I haven't seen any caterpillar activity, but maybe soon.  

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the caterpillars this year.  I feel like most of them, maybe all of them, were predated last summer.  I'm thinking about putting the nursery back in play this year.  I'd rather they lived a natural life, but if they don't make it to maturity, that's not helping anything :-/.

While we think on things, here's a fun new puzzle :-).  

Butterfly Birthday

The first porch butterfly hatched this morning.  I knew he (watch for the two black dots on the lower wings) was close to hatching so I hurried with the barn chores and came back to the house to watch.  While I was killing time I decided to wash the dishes...and missed the first 30 or so seconds.  Housework...

While the weather is just as ugly as it could possibly be (way too hot and humid for a September morning!), it's perfect for a newly hatched butterfly and his wings were dry and he was ready to release in just a couple of hours.  

I carried him out to the zinnias and carefully turned the hamper over so the top was open, gently set it on the bench, grabbed my camera...and zip, he was gone!  This was the only "release" picture I got.

He immediately got to drinking...probably because he was dehydrated because it's 9 million degrees...well, 90 degrees...

He had lots of company.  I thought this delicate butterfly (moth?) was very pretty.

And a swallowtail!  I usually don't see many of those, but I'm hoping after all the caterpillars I found this summer there will be a big influx in the next week or so.  I need to look up their hatch schedule.

Better than tv!