This Monarch has been hanging around off and on for the past week. There may be two of them; I thought I saw another one in the distance yesterday. I love Monarch butterflies and as I said on Instagram, I’m not sure if these Monarchs come from our milkweed or if they’re passing through on their way to warmer climes. I’m simply happy they’re here and that I have flowers still in bloom that they like. They’re not interested in morning glories, but they love the geraniums and the zinnias.
I feel a special spiritual connection to them.
In the meantime, the bees do love the morning glories!
I wonder what that little bug is? Such distinctive markings! The bee just ignored the bug and climbed right in the center of the morning glory.
My unofficial count today (from inside the kitchen) of morning glories is 32 in the memorial garden. I have yet to count the blooms in the chicken wire fence garden.
The hollyhock is still going strong. What a winner this one is! Beautiful.
Today: recycling, and an overdue oil change. And some errands, of course – when aren’t there errands?
Don’s got sinus problems or a cold. He’s stuffed up and isn’t feeling tip-top, but he’s hanging in there. As he said, “Better this week than next!” – ’cause I’m headed to New Orleans next week! I have a lot to accomplish before I leave next Thursday. Chop! Chop!
Happy Wednesday.
feel better soon, don!
hope you get the errands out of the way soon and enjoy those flowers and monarchs, claudia! thanks for more lovely photos.
kathy in iowa
You’re welcome, Kathy!
I saw the prettiest butterfly yesterday and it lifted my spirits. Love your photos as they also lift my spirits. Get well wishes to Don. Errands for me to run after a visit to the Dr. today. Still looking for an answer on the pain I’ve had and I think we are on the track of it. Hugs!
I think butterflies are almost spirit-like. There’s something transformational and magic about them. Feel better!
Your hollyhock is gorgeous. There are always errands…especially before a trip. We saw cliffs yesterday overlooking Lake Michigan. I’ve lived here all my life and still discovering new things. Enjoy your day! ;).
Isn’t that wonderful? I love that you’re discovering new places to see!
Thank you for the butterflies and flowers, Claudia. I needed the beautiful pics to distract from the fires raging north of my city. I’ve been reading the news and seeing the heart-breaking photos of the destruction.
Hope this week and it’s errands fly by for you so you are soon off to New Orleans.
The fires are terrible. I have a longtime friend who lives in Santa Rosa. Her home – so far – is safe, but her brother’s home was destroyed. It’s unbelievably tragic.
New Orleans is a truly special city and I envy you your upcoming visit, but it is located in prime sinus trouble/infection country, so that’s probably Don’s trouble. Unfortunately, Houston’s no better.
When anyone comes back from NOLA the question is always, “where did you go?” meaning where did you eat what. One of our favorites is Elizabeth in the Bywater. We also love the Camellia Grill on Carrollton that you can get to via the St. Charles streetcar (which you absolutely must ride through the Garden District). Brocato’s, also on Carrollton, is fabulous. They have mini sizes of their most popular goodies, so you can have a sampling.
He had the sinus trouble on the plane, before he even got to New Orleans. The weather here has been up and down for several weeks and he’s surrounded by fellow cast members!
Thanks so much for the recommendations, Margaret!
Thanks for beautiful pictures on a rainy day…Get well soon to Don!
You’re welcome, Nancy!
Hi Claudia, I just sigh when seeing the photos of your hollyhock. I still haven’t had much luck with them. Some monarchs here and there at Frog Hollow, enjoying some late blooming zinnias. xxoo
I didn’t have lucky with them at all until a couple of years ago when one self-seeded in my planter right outside the kitchen. That seems to be the magic spot!
I think I am going to try for some morning glories next spring. I don’t know where I will put them. It would probably help if my husband would finish the back fence. I have some clematis out back but they need company.
Go for it, Jan! They’re really lovely!
Those flowers are beautiful. Get better soon,Don.
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn!
Your hollyhocks are amazing. They always remind me of carnations – you know, the kind where the florist has”tipped” them different colors. And the red and white are always the most beautiful. Hope Don feels better and fast – it’s never much fun to sing when you don’t feel well. And it must be extra-miserable when you’re a professional who’s expected to rally for the cause! Ultra-dark & dreary here today – rain off and on – good Halloween weather actually. A charcoal overcast sky. Peace.
#Resist
Dreary here as well. And this day is also starting out dreary. I hope it perks up!
I love how YOU love your garden and appreciate it every day; of course, it’s also the fruit of your labor, as you’ve toiled to make it what it is…and it is just lovely; I never tire of looking at your cottage and yard, inside and outside, nor your surroundings in the wider area, like when you go on a mini road trip there upstate and share photos (LOVE your on-the-road posts and I know you’re going to have awesomely- wonderful photos of NOLA which will make me salivate, since I yearn to go back there SO MUCH; I felt a major kinship with Louisiana in general).
To have the monarch in the frame on a pretty Fall day? Well, just makes me have a smile on my face as I sit down here to the computer for the first time today. Thanks for sharing and, gosh, hope so much that the cold/sinus thing passes over Don quickly; as much as he can, he needs to hydrate with some good, clean water to drink (flush out the toxins), I personally benefit from saline nose drops (even the ones OTC for babies/kids) and he should try to get as much rest/sleep as he can (schedule allowing)…good, nutritious food as well; help heal the dear body! He’s a big, grown-up boy; he knows what he’s gotta do, but I feel the same of my own husband yet, unfortunately, when he’s down with cold or flu (and he has a chronic sinus condition anyway), he won’t always do ‘what he’s supposed to except that he WILL resort to these things: Hot black tea (real stuff; not herb) wherein he then dissolves an aspirin in it (yuck; bitter!); Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (yuck; salty!) and Keebler’s Original Club Crackers (not so yuck).
We have a couple of cooler days here in SoCalif (before it heats up again on the weekend); was only 53 at 8am and only 80 degrees around 3:30pm; more humidity so not so dry as with the Santa Anas which brought so much havoc this time around. Couldn’t believe it but I saw TWO more palm trees down today plus one half-toppled oak tree and a eucalyptus that’s looking iffy. VERY sad, but these were probably weak trees (dried-out roots DEEP down), struggling on their last legs from 2016 drought. Anyway, that makes three palms I’ve seen down and it’s not a sight you see every day around here because they’re almost indestructible . That hellacious wind tore two tarps we had to shreds, which were covering the leaky roofs of two exterior sheds. And, OMG, the tumbleweeds. Today, I was descending out of the foothills to a residential area and about the largest tumbleweed I’ve ever seen IN MY LIFE was blocking my side of the road and more. (Road hazards! Wasn’t it just yesterday that I had to pull a big branch out of my path? Yikes.) I thought, “Well, I wonder how long THAT has been rolling and tumbling and getting larger by the minute?! How am I going to get around it? I do NOT want to have to throw this car into ‘reverse’ and back all the way up the curvy road to the last intersection.” I didn’t even know how I’d grab hold of this gigantic weedy thing (it was taller than I am, but I’m quite short). I’ve run over my share of tumbleweeds but it’s never a good idea to get one of those caught up underneath your car; you want to try to always avoid them. But, of course, this was no small tumbleweed; this was a monster. Never know what’s quite tumbled inside (!); they remind me of something in Wizard of Oz. So, another guy stopped, coming the other way and he somehow cleared it enough so we both could get up and down the road (he motioned to me to just stay in my car) but he said he was going to call the City to have crews come and do something about it. Everywhere I went in town today, people were doing clean-up. There’s just debris all over the place; not like some big melodrama or anything, but just messy and, oh gee, I’m really praying for rain now because we are dried up like prunes around here.
Does give me pause to think of what everybody in these hurricanes…Houston, Florida, Cuba, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico…has to contend with (those poor people, all of them, but especially PR now in the news so much)…not just water damage and scattered trash/belongings/rubble/palm fronds (you name it, even sand) due to that violent wind and also waves and rain; but then downed telephone/electrical wires, buildings in ruin and basic necessities an issue…around here, this is nothing but nuisance, not catastrophe.
Very noticeable, how the ‘time’ is changing, with shadows falling from about 4:30pm, getting darker earlier each evening. Just read that we turn back the clocks on November 5. When we were on an appointment/errand today and I was sitting in the car at a traffic light near a mall, I noticed the big shop window of a dollar store…somebody was taking down the Halloween stuff and putting up Christmas stuff (oh, those retailers…Halloween won’t even BE here yet for 3 weeks!). And the post office is already selling their 2017 Christmas postage stamps!
Christmas was up at Lowe’s yesterday. Too friggin’ soon!
Don is really good at drinking a lot of water every day. I’m the one who needs to be reminded about it! He’s sleeping a lot, as well.
I watched a monarch butterfly the other day, it was the first one I’ve seen in the garden all season! On the same day, in spite of our unusually warm fall weather, I noticed that the goldfinches have lost their yellow color and have faded to their winter olive green. I hope you get some time to relax today!
I’ll have to keep my eye on the goldfinches and see if that’s happening here!