2024 September 3 Monarchs and Zinnias

Yesterday, Carli and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. Labor Day Weekend was a great choice for a wedding, since it’s always beautiful and we usually get a bit of free time to celebrate together. It’s also awesome because we grew Zinnias for our wedding flowers and they are always in bloom at this time of year. It’s fun to save the seeds, share them and watch them grow every year! 

A male Monarch butterfly takes nectar from our wedding zinnias. 

As I’m sitting on my porch writing, two Monarch butterflies are popping around to the Zinnias, Mexican Sunflowers, and Boneset. We’ve seen so very few Monarchs this year, so I’m honored they chose to stop by. 

A female Monarch butterfly takes nectar from a Mexican Sunflower given to me by my coworker, Keith. 

Sometimes I look at the wild way the plants have grown this summer; leggy or stunted with a slight drought, or completely flattened by the tornado…sorry Pokeweed! However, as I came home from work and saw the Monarchs, the winged Grasshoppers and even the Cabbage butterflies, I know it’s still the right thing for nature. Here in Lakewood we are lucky to live in the path of several migrations. I’m delighted to see them still carrying on. 

This grasshopper is watching me write.