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…
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…
Yesterday, I had my “learning to drive adolescent” chauffeur me out to the Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge (TWR). He got an hour’s worth of driving experience and I got to walk through part of the prairie found near the loop trail at the TWR. The refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There…
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…
I always wait with the students as parents arrive to pick them up from our garden club meetings. Invariably, there is a student, usually one of the younger ones, who becomes nervous that their adult will not arrive to take them home. Pick up was from outside the school this week, as we planted the…
via Daily Prompt: Survive Evergreen Garden Club. Founded September 2004 – Concluded May 2017. The Life of a Garden Club that is Evergreen, Twelve is the times the Butterfly Garden has been planted by students unseen The Monarch Way Station Sign is seen but not read, signaling a special precaution to those who truly care:…
This morning I was able to watch a female purple finch work on making her nest. She caught my eye as I looked out my kitchen window and saw movement in the garden below, near an ornamental Korean Lilac tree close to blooming. Busily, she kept adding pieces of mulch and plant debris to the…