Monarch on Aster / Lilacs Blooming in October!

I was sitting on our front porch with a book in the morning, when I heard my husband shouting something about a butterfly on the white asters in the yard. I ran down, confirmed that it was a monarch, and ran for the camera.

I was just certain that it was a female, and I was saying out loud what a beautiful girl she was, as I took about a dozen photos. But when I got the pictures out of the camera, as it turns out, what we have here is a male. You can tell by those small spots on the hind-wings, which as I understand it, are scent glands that help them attract females.

A bit later, my husband had an appointment in Pine Grove Mills, and while he took care of that, I did my usual cemetery stroll. Conditions are mild here; in fact, quite warm this week, with temperatures approaching record levels. In the olden days, they might have called it Indian Summer.

As I sat on my favorite bench in old Union Cemetery with my music and my book, a lady walked by with a stroller with a child in it. She stopped by a bush to pull the flowers down for a sniff, and then she offered it to the child to sniff. It was then that I realized what she had in her hands: it was a lilac bush, and it was BLOOMING. In October!

So as soon as she had moved along, I marched myself over to the very same bush (monkey see, monkey do, as my mom always said!), pulled the lavender flowers down, and took into my nose and my heart and soul one of the most heavenly scents on earth: LILAC! WOW!

I have two photos for this day, though I took many, many more. For my beautiful boy up top that I thought was a girl, here is Johnny Cash with one of my (and my dad's) favorites, A Boy Named Sue, live at San Quentin. 

For my purple flowers in the extra (and I wish I could bottle and send you some of that glorious scent!), let's have my favorite song about the color purple. So here is Prince's Super Bowl (in the rain!) performance of Purple Rain.