House and Butterfly Garden

Here is our house, and you can see the martin houses that are in the side yard near the pond. The martins are all gone--just a few visitors lately. The pond is really low now--we need more rain! Each year Chris plants a butterfly garden, including lots of milkweed, butterfly bushes, zinnias and cleome.

I love the banana trees he grows. Fools me into thinking I am living in Costa Rica or somewhere more interesting!

Here is the focus of all the planting and hard work. Lots and lots of monarch butterflies. The milkweed plants are huge and there are a ton on them all around the property and they get munched down to the roots. See the giant caterpillar on the milkweed to the right? And that butterfly to the left has just emerged from it's chyrsalis and is getting ready for flight. Last year we had hundreds of coccoons all around the place, and they got a late start. This year they are here early, so we should have a banner year. Amelie loves running around counting them and showing her friends all the worms and butterflies.