I was fretting, bending and stretching and gazing onto every petal and leaf, careful not to disturb a bumblebee, so drunk on pollen she was stuck in a milkweed blossom. Where there had been, just an hour before, a very large caterpillar munching away on a leaf, there was now no caterpillar and the leaf quite severed. A few steps away, another caterpillar, much younger in his leafy transactions, was also missing in action.
Where had they gone?
Tom came out to help me search, with nary a caterpillar in sight.
We moved about, picking up sticks and pulling up weeds in that haphazard way gardening folks have of impulsively tidying up, then, standing like honor guards of the milkweed, something flitted about, cast its shadow, dusted the daisies and other blooms before finding its target, where it sat for a spell, sunning its wings in the sunshine.
Oh, and I finally found the caterpillars late in the afternoon.
Lifeonthecutoff's Blog 
If you build (plant) it, they will come . . . 🙂
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Yep. My field of milkweed dreams, Karen. 🙂
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What a sight to behold! You were in the right place at the right time and I am so happy to see that little fellow. Sweet!
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He was a most delightful surprise and flitted about teasing us as he chose a place to land; a milkweed leaf, of course. 🙂 Thanks, Marilyn.
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What a beautiful sight, Penny. 🙂 Flutter on, little monarch.
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It is, isn’t it, L. Marie? He suddenly showed up, as if to say “I’m here and more will come” – or so I imagined. 🙂
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Oh wow! Look at that! We don’t have Monarchs (of the butterfly persuasion… we have the other kind. ;-)) in the UK but I did see a couple when we were in the US. How wonderful to have one in your garden.
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Thanks, Cath. We are hoping to repopulate them. 🙂
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I still don’t see a caterpillar, but there hasn’t been one day in the last three weeks or so that I haven’t seen Monarchs in my garden, and that hasn’t happened in years! So I know that the milkweed is extremely important, and I have never had it in my garden before. I’m still really learning, but I’m thrilled with the potential. I do understand why you’d be hunting for your missing caterpillars. 🙂 And by the way, I stuck my whole face into my milkweed looking for a scent–NONE! You have a wonderful variety!
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Hang in there, Debra. With that many visiting your garden, there are sure to be some eggs, which are often hard to see. This is the third or fourth year we have had milkweed, so, it takes awhile. They only part I’m not seeing is the chrysalis.
I have the common milkweed, which I actually didn’t plant. It found our yard and has multiplied. I am containing it in one area. We have enough ground here to get away with it. I think it is this variety that has a scent. I wish you could smell it, Debra, as it really is quite intoxicating. The caterpillars are sometimes tricky to see. I’m finding them in the petals, curled around them. Really, doesn’t everyone go out in their garden with a magnifying glass? ha!
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Oh, how beautiful. Sometimes we just have to look and look and be attentive, and then the wonders in the garden are revealed.
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It is that patience required of us, of me, that is sometimes hard to keep, but the rewards are wondrous. Thank you, Juliet.
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Great picture!
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Thanks, Bev. 🙂
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It posed so perfectly. I can never get them to cooperate…….except the time I found one eating a pile of poo.
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Monarchs are royal, Andra. they never eat poo. 🙂
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Beautiful and the more the merrier when the other caterpillars transform!
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It has been fun to watch – and a good thing.
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