No, this post is not about Franz Kafka! It is about butterflies.
We spent Saturday, September 23, at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia attending an all-day workshop on pollinators: Monarch butterflies, bees and hummingbirds to name a few. We got back to Franklin late Saturday night. It was a wonderful day of learning at a special place of reflection and faith. For me this has been a summer learning more about Monarch butterflies that amazingly migrate thousands of miles to forests in Mexico to winter in colonies of millions. I remember them as a kid on our Minnesota farm. They are more numerous in the midwest than here in the southeastern United States. I have several milkweed plants, the host for Monarchs, in my flower garden.
When visiting in Minnesota in July my sister, Janet, and I learned from m our cousin, Louise, how to raise Monarch larva in the house. Louise is a former teacher, very patient and caring. As a result of what we learned Janet successfully reared 7 butterflies this summer.
Many of our pollinators are in trouble. That could be disastrous for mankind. The reasons include habitat loss and use of pesticides. At the conference we learned things, many small, that we can do, such as a few good pollinating plants where we have space in our gardens. My milkweed plants did not do well this year. Aphids were particularly bad. By now my plants were worn and ragged, and I was thinking of cutting them. Unbelievable coincidence/miracle, when I checked my garden last Sunday there was a Monarch caterpillar on the milkweed! We brought him in the house and fed him milkweed leaves until today when he spun his chrysalis!!! It appears we may have success with this Monarch.
In five years here at our Franklin home I have only seen 1 Monarch butterfly. That was this summer. 1 butterfly, 3 poor milkweed plants . . . it is incredible that we have hopes to hatch a healthy butterfly to return to Mexico. The lesson in all we do is that is is the small things, the attention to detail and the caring that may bear fruit. And, we all go through out own metamorphosis as we age and learn.