Getting Ready for Flight

I looked into the garden this morning and saw this wonderful Monarch Butterfly drying its wings ready for flight. I seem to have missed all my other ones do that, so it was lovely to see.

We used to have a lot of them at one stage in our garden, then when we had a big snow storm a few years ago that killed all of my mature swan plants. It was taken a few years to get them growing well again. Early in the season we never had any butterfly's come visiting, then a couple of months ago they all arrived and the plants were eaten away.

It's main Food plants in New Zealand for the Monarch Butterfly are Swan Plant (Gomphocarpus fruticosus), Giant Swan Plant (Asclepias physocarpus) and Tropical Milkweed - Bloodflower (Asclepias curassavica). The larvae need to eat mainly Swan plant or Milkweed to successfully pupate, as this gives them the chemicals they need to have a successful metamorphosis.

Sorry I haven't put any black blips up yet as I haven't been very well. Late on Sunday afternoon I started to feel all hot and cold and got the shakes. Then early the next morning I found I had a tummy upset. I was OK driving home yesterday and didn't feel too bad. By lunch time today I started to really ache all over so I thought I would have a lay down and have lunch later. Five hours later I woke up. I did mange to get the start of our trip down south for the Anzac Blipmeet on Flickr if you would like to see them.