Knock Knock! Who's There? Butter! Butter-Who?

B: Knock knock!
Me: Who's there?
B: Butter!
Me: Butter-who?
B: I'm your brand new monarch butterfly!

Say hello to a female monarch who eclosed on this day! I had noticed the evening before that the chrysalis was darkening up, and in the morning, it was darker still. So I thought this might be the day!

I went out in late morning to find the brand new butterfly already out of its chrysalis, and walking up the milkweed stem. As you can see, our milkweed patch is looking a little forlorn, as so many leaves have been eaten by caterpillars.

I ran for my camera and took some photos. And as I did, I noticed a second orange form in the background: another brand new butterfly, this one a male (it had the tell-tale spots on the rear wings)! Hooray, it was a two-butterfly Labor Day! I got a chair and sat with them, just watching, so happy to be in the company of butterflies.

Both butterflies flew pretty quickly. The male went first. He was bigger, and he wobbled and wheelied all around the yard, then landed on a Norway spruce tree. Then he took off across the road, JUST AS A CAR WAS COMING!! GAHHH!!! My heart! To see a wonderful thing, and then to see it murdered in front of my very eyes!?! Oh NO!!! Please, don't let it be so!

And so I am standing in my yard, pumping my arms and screaming: "HIGHER, HIGHER, BUTTERFLY!!!!!" And just as the car arrived, ZIP!!! UP in the air went the butterfly! The butterfly lifted up a few feet, the car missed it, and the butterfly landed safely in a tree in the neighbor across the street's yard!! Whew! That was a close one!

"You're like a mother to these bugs," my husband said teasingly, later in the afternoon, when all of the drama and excitement had passed. And I guess I am. I did not birth them, but I am the one who watches over them. I am their guardian, I guess. Oh, heck, yeah, let's just out and out admit it: I AM A MOTHER TO BUTTERFLIES!!!

My soundtrack song is this one from John Mellencamp's Human Wheels album: What If I Came Knocking."