In my last post, I wrote about  the steep decline in the population of monarch butterflies.  I mentioned that I hadn’t seen any monarchs in my gardens here in Austin so far this September. Yesterday afternoon as I was in the garden planting more fennel and milkweed ahead of our first, bona fide autumn cool front with impending rain–there she was!

Flying fast and high, this lone Monarch flitted onto the Tropical Milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, which is ready and waiting, just for her–and any other interested Lepidoptera.

Only one Monarch, but she made my heart sing!

I took photos.  Partly because I don’t know if there will soon be a time that there won’t be any monarchs to take photos of and also because I regretted not taking photos last spring when one Monarch visit for a day or two.  I remember thinking at that time: There will be more–it’s that time of year.

With serious threats to the survival of this indigenous North American butterfly species, there is no guarantee that monarchs will visit my gardens in the future.  I sincerely hope that my generation’s children and grandchildren will see monarchs in their gardens.

Wishing you safe travels to Mexico and a good winter there, beautiful one.  And for many, many generations to follow you.