It’s spring, and things are happening in our yard.

A few years ago, I planted a few milkweed bushes. Those are the ones – the only ones – that the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies eat. The bushes would get thick and healthy, and in early summer, when the caterpillars are done with their work, they are down to sticks. Miraculously, the come back for another season, although I have discovered that after two or three seasons, they seem to be spent and die. So last year I planted another dozen or so around the yard.

Today, for the first time ever, I saw an actual Monarch visit one of the plants.

It let me come close while it was busy. Then it jumped away, bumbled around the place, checked a few other plants and gave them a sniff, and eventually came back to another milkweed.

Speaking of planting:

I am growing a crop of sunflowers from seeds. They should all be ready to be put in the earth in about a week. Here they are on our potting bench:

Banana for scale.

I will post a picture of some sunflowers in bloom in a few months, and I’ll show this to remind us where they came from.