Two In A Row

I’m almost speechless. In fact I’m not quite sure what to say about this stained-glass beauty • For those who follow my journal you may recall I’ve questioned why we’ve seen so few butterflies this season. In July I saw one monarch caterpillar over a few days, and a glimpse of a monarch butterfly one morning shortly after. That’s it, all summer • Yesterday I had an unexpected encounter with a Red Admiral. The experience took me by surprise, and it disappeared as quickly as it appeared • Mid-day I was outside gathering what I needed to fertilize and water our broccoli and rutabaga plants, when I spontaneously walked around to the front of the house. We have a bank of Japanese Knotweed, known here as Bamboo, that’s currently in bloom and full of bees, wasps and other pollinators. A splash of orange near the top caught my eye. There’s the Red Admiral again • Of course I jogged as gracefully as possible back to the house for my camera. Returning in the same graceful form, I turned on my camera to find my battery was dead! That was a first! With the swiftness of a deer I ran back to the house for a second time to replace the battery. I hoped the orange beauty would wait for me • It did, and it was not a Red Admiral • This Monarch is for you, my blip friends!