Across from my house growing up, there was a large area where milkweed grew. I don't know how many people know this, but milkweed is the only thing monarch caterpillars eat.* One of my favorite things to do when I was a kid was to find the pupa hanging on the milkweed or a monarch caterpillar and put it in a small terrarium with some milkweed leaves. I would then eagerly check each day to see if the caterpillar had turned into a pupa, or the pupa had hatched to become a big beautiful monarch butterfly.

And the coolest part? I don’t remember it ever not working!

We have some milkweed in the yard here and I've seen a fair number of monarchs, but I've not seen a single monarch caterpillar yet. Until I find one, you'll have to enjoy these cool guys.

We have some other pretty amazing miscellaneous backyard bugs and spiders hanging around too. Our place here is teeming with daddy long legs. Last Saturday, Jim and my brother counted the number of daddy long legs on just one side of the house but stopped when they got to fifty!

Another fond childhood memory: catching frogs and toads! There was an intermittent stream that ran along the fire road near our neighborhood growing up. I spent countless hours catching frogs and polywogs (or do you call them tadpoles?) in that small stream of water. I haven't had any luck catching a frog and we are here a bit too late for polywogs, but there are toads aplenty!

* so you should totally plant a native species of milkweed in your yard and help the monarchs out 😁🦋