The much beloved and admired Monarch Butterfly Danaus plexippus begins this series of my favorite butterflies from the gardens of 2011. I so look forward to their return each summer and delight in finding their tiny etched eggs on milkweed plants. It is more exciting when I see the female actually fastening her eggs.
I should truly love to be a butterfly . . . a Monarch emerging in late summer, so I could fly to Mexico.
Ah . . . to have the courage of a butterfly! I should wish for sunny warm days to fly freely.
Here are a few of my favorite images and encounters with Monarch butterflies over last summer and fall. I have written extensively about their marvel of a metamorphosis here, here, here, here, here and here.
This is the first in a parade of butterflies from 2011.
It is time to visit Katarina for other fanciful flights of imagination and delight.