The Other Pollinator

So yesterday we talked about bees. Today we can talk about the other serious pollinator - the butterfly. Now I know you're looking at this picture thinking that this is no butterfly. I have these beautifully striped guys all over right now and they are eating my milkweed to shreds. Now, I love my milkweed flowers - starbursts of red, orange, and yellow - but I love the butterflies more, so we have a trade off. I let these larvae eat all they want in exchange for the beauty and serene feeling of peace they give me when they grow up. For these guys become this: The one and only monarch butterfly!

There's something about butterflies that calm me with their silent fluttering of wings, as they glide through the air. So I count myself blessed that milkweed proliferates just like their name indicates - a weed. It also reseeds itself year after year, so I have to do no trying on my part at all to get it to grow in my yard. The best part is that it attracts the butterly (in actual butterfly form) later on in the year, so it's more than a fair trade off. What a wonderful balance of nature!

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So hat's off to this pollinator, who also helps to boost my veggie and herb production, and offers me just a few moments of peacful bliss in a busy day!

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Silently you fell and swoop

beauty to behold

Upon the wind you come to rest

on flower petal breast