August 24, 2025

Last week we discovered (picture 1) a huge patch of tiny yellow Oleander Aphids on a plant I didn't recognize at first but which turned out to be some of the Milkweed I had planted by seed (picture 2).  After a couple of days of hunting, we (Chaim and I) finally found a caterpillar which we recognized as a Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar.   Somehow the Butterfly had found the Milkweed and laid several eggs on it!   

This discovery set us off on a week of hunting more Caterpillars and watching them grow from tiny babies to quite large fat Caterpillars.  This set the beginning of a crisis in my little nature preserve since the Milkweed I had planted from seed a few months ago began to run out.

Out neighbor, Debby Seely, who was on vacation elsewhere at this time, would surely not mind contributing a bit of her well-grown Milkweed space.  (She didn't.)  Soon after she returned, the Caterpillars were gradually expanding in girth and finally began their great project of hanging up on the ceiling of a cage and finally on Friday afternoon chucking that striped shell and becoming a pupa!  That was the state of things on Saturday morning, August 23.

In the past week, I made a trip to the Pet Station in Jackson to try to replace some of the Fishes that had suffered the most from the latest weather and/or age.  I picked up a couple or three Shubunkins as tiny Fishes (the same kind that had grown so much and appeared in the latest blogs (as large fishes)..  I hadn't added to my Fish collection in many years and so it was TIME!  Picture 1 shows one of the little Shubunkins, while picture 2 shows one of the Shubunkins that had grown to be a large healthy Fish, flanked on both sides by baby ones that survived the trip home from the pet store.  

Here you see some shots of the tiny baby Shubunkins this week.

I suppose it will be all right if I say this was the week of red/orange and black creatures if I began with the Monarch Butterfly, which I still have NOT seen around here this year, except for its younger members.  Especially if I start with the Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle.  Is there something about the genetic makeup of these creatures that predisposes them to orange and black?

Or is there something about OUR genetic makeup that makes us love that orange and black combination?  Works for ME!  I wonder, if these were the critters that show up in our Hallowe'en season as orange and black colors, would we be going off to Michael's (the new Joann) for our costuming needs?  Note - "needs" is in the eye of the beholder!  The picture below this is of the Day Lilies, which are just coming into their own out front and beside the house, 

 Next you see the Day Lily called August Orange, in bloom on August 22.  Then the Water Lily.  I hope this means we know the difference in a Day Lily and a Water Lily.  Maybe it would be better if Day Lilies were called Land Lilies or something like that.  

Well, people, it is getting on in time and so I will have to close this blog for the week.  But there is one thing you need to see.  The Monarch caterpillars did in the Milkweed that I worked so hard to get started.  Wait!  This little patch of leaves is still alive on the chewed-up Milkweed stalk. I will still plant some from seed during the winter to come but that Milkweed isn't all eaten up yet!

Folks, it has been a long busy week.  Chaim has been so enthusiastic about keeping track of the Monarch caterpillars in all their stages that he has kept my enthusiasm at a high point too.  Thanks for everything, including your interest in a sometimes-unfamiliar subject.  Love, Martha