One of the few Monarchs I have seen this year.

A cold front is moving in tonight bringing some much needed rain. Sadly it is also the last day we will have warm temps and the flowers will probably be gone by the time next week rolls in. Frost is forecast for 4 days and I don’t think I will be able to keep my flowers from freezing in 25 mph winds. So I went out today to take a look at my garden and there was the monarch sitting happily with his buddy Painted Lady and an Orange Sulphur, slurping up the last of the nectar in my Blue Spires Sage. The bees were humming around like crazy too. The garden is positively buzzing with activity right now.

Let’s hope we at least get some substantial rain.

Thanks to the few rain showers we’ve had over the last month, my flowers are still in full bloom. And the butterflies have finally come to visit them! I haven’t seen many butterflies in my garden since moving here. I am assuming it’s because the drought had such a large impact. I was out there today planting my rain lily and daffodil bulbs and the butterflies were buzzing around me. They were getting pretty frisky too. I watched them laying their eggs on the tips of my Dalea flowers. There were several species of caterpillars munching around under the sage leaves. I wonder what they will be doing once the cold temps settle in on Saturday. I’m just grateful that I had covered the flowers from those short bursts of frost we had over the last weeks. I am certain I would not have had the bee and butterfly population right now if I hadn’t.

A lovely painted lady blessing my garden with her presence.

From what I can tell this is a Reakirt’s Blue. They were just so sweet hanging out together on my Dalea.

This morning I was sitting in front of my computer contemplating the local radar to see if I could persuade some rain to come my way (it’s supposed to actually rain today), when I stretched and leisurely looked out the window. I almost fell off my chair. This guy is a big one and any hunter would be proud to have this strapped to their wall. They would call this an 8 prong. He’s in terrific shape. Not a rib to be seen and very well muscled. He’s clearly not from around here because when he saw me he took a spectacular leap over the fence and leapt into the field beyond. In contrast the local deer here are skinny and very tame and kind of just look at you when you try to chase them out of the garden beds. It’s rutting season and last Sunday he was busily making new fawns with a doe right outside the living room window. Talk about nature up close and personal!! I feel like I am living in a wildlife TV show.

Saw this healthy, handsome fella wandering through my back yard yesterday. He had a couple of doe with him too. Handsome guy. Dick had to go chase him off. It’s rutting season and the deer boys get a little aggressive at this time of year. I told Dick to pee on the land so they know it’s not their territory.

I woke up this morning – it was 41 degrees and I was uncovering all my plants again because they said it might be a freeze – which it obviously wasn’t. I guess they need to sort out their forecasting.

Anyway – there I was when my neighbor came walking out of his house to the goat pen to let his goats out for the day. 2 goats had some kids over the last week or so. As usual all the goats went charging out of the pen into the fields. Everything seemed fine until I heard a little pathetic “Baaahaaa”. I looked and there they were: Mommie goat had been so busy rushing out of the pen that she had completely forgotten her two kids still in the pen, calling pathetically for mom. I was wondering if mom was ever going to catch on and was just about to call my neighbor back, (who had gone back into his house) when it suddenly dawned on mom that she’d forgotten her babies. On she came charging back into the pen, calling all the way as if to say: “Oh Goodness! Sorry! My bad, I’m coming!!”

So mom and kids were reunited again and it all ended well. What excitement for 7:50 in the morning!