For years I have waited, watched, and prepared the garden beds for visitors. Carefully, I have examined each leaf for signs they inhabit my garden filled with milkweed for them. Common milkweed was the first, taking years to be established. Then swamp milkweed, followed by rose milkweed planted by students. Each germinating, growing,…
During the last week, I have resumed care of my monarchs in very stages of their life cycle. Right now, I have the following: 8 Chyrsalises 4 Larvae in J hooks 4 Larvae in the earliest instar stages 2 eggs What is unusual about this year, besides getting a very late start to finding monarch…
Earlier this week, toward the end of the vacation my husband and I took to the island country of Bermuda, I remembered to ask my sister-in-law who was staying with our boys how the monarch eggs that I charged with her care were doing. I did not get a response. Our cell phone service on…
Today, is the Monarch Monitoring Blitz hosted by Monarch Joint Venture. I came across a posting on social media that reminded me of this citizen science event. Having raised monarchs for 14 years, I definitely feel the need to participate in the reporting activities of this weekend. Just to set the stage, this summer I…
Lately, mowing has been the subject of many conversations in which I have taken part. This summer, for the first time in many years, I hopped on our tractor (60 inch deck, Blue New Holland) to help my husband mow our lawn. He is siding our house, so I decided to help with the grass….
Today, I realized I have quite a few monarch stories. Early this morning, I travelled to the Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge to speak to a group of Festival attendees about the Monarch Butterfly and its current plight. On my way, I was reviewing my self-introduction (in case it was necessary) and remembered how I came to…
Today’s post will be short. It was a busy day finishing up my last assignment for the grad course that I am taking on Advanced Interpretive Media. My final was due last Sunday, but this week we had a full load of assignments, the last of which is due tomorrow. My day started with a…
On June 30th, last Friday, I saw my first Monarch of the season! It was at our cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin! I have a perennial bed with common milkweed for the caterpillars and nectar plants like purple cone flowers for the adult butterflies. The monarch was flitting from plant to plant! Later, after…
Late last week I spent some time looking at my milkweed patches for signs of monarch caterpillars. It is one of those activities that no matter how many times I do it, it is always filled with hopeful anticipation for me. I have three main patches. The first patch is common milkweed, next to my…
We have some large projects going on at our house right now. The siding is being replaced and a few of the gardens are being revamped, once the siding is finished on each section. My husband is handy, so the siding job is his. My job, fitting for a nature lover and master gardener, is…