You can smell the Milkweed from a long way away. It has a heavy earthy sweet smell. Some say it is like the smell of Lilacs…I don’t think so. It has been a good year for Milkweed. The blooms are hanging down like huge earrings.
We have a number of plants in our area. I am only noticing a few monarch caterpillars. That makes sense as we have only seen a few Monarch Butterflies.
There were small butterflies feeding on the nectar the other day…he is brown with orange dots on the edge of his wings. Not sure what kind they were.
We have had busy days. I have been working on painting Christmas ornaments inside on hot days and outside when it is nice weather. I have ten ornaments completely done and another ten just need strings for hangers, another ten are being painted. I am trying to get all the ones done for relatives who will visit soon. Almost all of the actual carving is completed or should be completed within the next week.
I mow the grass every few days, it rains nearly every other day too.
Chance has decided that he will eat ice cubes every evening. He whines in front of the fridge until I get a bowl full of ice cubes and feed them to him one by one…can you say spoiled Border Collie. I cannot put the bowl of the cubes on the floor…he wants them from my hand. Not sure what is up with that behavior …only he knows for sure. After he has had his fill he abandons me and goes to sleep. He might miss the snow and ice that he eats all winter long.
My neighbor has milkweed plants so I have seen quite a few monarch butterflies this year. Sure sounds like Chance is one lucky dog - ice cubes from your hand.
ReplyDeleteThe milk weed flowers smell of pee to me. We have 20 by 5 feet of milk weed in front of my home. I thought that cats came do their business when flowering. I haven’t seen caterpillars yet, but found more than 10 monarch eggs. Most found eggs went to my good friend Gail home.
ReplyDeleteTom and I have been seeing more Monarchs this year than last year. Hope that means there are more Monarchs. Last year we saw very few.
ReplyDeleteYears ago on my little farm the monarchs stopped by as they were migrating. There were 1,000's in the trees of my wood lot. I have never seen anything so miraculous in my life. That was in the days before we took lots of pictures. I wish I would of but I think I was just in awe and it was getting dark and the next morning they were gone. I will never forget it....a very special moment in my life. I haven't seen many butterflies this year and usually we have lots of them but then I'm not outside much either it's so hot this year.
ReplyDeleteGood job on the ornaments! I'm trying to plan better and set goals each week for what I want/need to get done and then divide them into the days.
Chance is too funny! Nitty is just the opposite. I put ice in her bowl and she won't go near it until they melt.
Naw, it doesn't smell like lilacs. You should have a big crop of monarchs with all that milkweed. When we were kids we made some Christmas ornaments using the pods. Sprayed them gold, glued in some of the fluff and a ribbon to hang, and put something else inside I can't remember. We also blew the fluff out of the dried pods and into the air, kind of like wishing on a dandelion. Obviously, milkweed is useful stuff!
ReplyDeleteI would eat ice cubes out of your hand, too, if I wanted to feel special. :-)
ReplyDeletePerhaps Chance can't pick up the cubes from his bowl and perhaps he is a bit spoiled. 😉😎
ReplyDeleteLOL - Chance!
ReplyDeleteThat Chance is a great one!!!
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh our cat sits in front of the fridge also and wants an ice cube put into the water bowl and then licks it to death . Animals are so funny to watch. Have a great day
ReplyDeleteOld dogs do funny things! Tess has taken to stealing something of mine and either chewing it or just stashing it where she lies down. Sometimes it's my lip balm, or my roll of peppermints (she eats those!) and the other day she took my rosary box, the rosary fell out on the floor and she took the box over to her bed- but didn't chew it- good thing because it was something my sister brought back from Italy for me!
ReplyDeleteWe don't see Monarch any more they just do not
ReplyDeletelike city life, I guess. Give Chance a hug for me.
Beautiful bushes. I laughed out loud picturing Chance refusing the ice unless you hand feed him. We’ve sure spoiled our dogs. Our Chloe is the same.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Betsy
Awww! Chance. With this heat maybe he is missing the snow and ice.
ReplyDeleteg
ReplyDeleteGood that you have a good crop of milkweed.
We hardly have any butterflies at all this year.
ReplyDeleteChance and his funny ways make me laugh! I'm going right now and giving Bracken an ice cube to see what his reaction will be.
That is a lovely variety of milkweed. I don't think we have anything like that here.
ReplyDeleteChance sure knows what he wants, and how to get it.