Butterflies in the Garden

I saw the first butterfly in the garden about a week and a half ago, but didn’t have my camera handy. Over the weekend, he returned for another visit and brought friends. There were a couple of yellow ones and a smaller orange one that stayed just out of range of a good shot.

The garden fairy was a wonderful hostess for our visitors. We watched them flit among the lilacs and I told her how the butterflies drink their nectar. She asked me to cut her some lilacs to feed to the butterflies. I did and she held her branches of flowers out for butterflies, who ignored them.

Her memory is amazing, though. She remembers holding out sticks of birdseed for the budgies at the zoo, a couple of years ago. The birds were more accustomed to eating from sticks held by children. They descended on the little treat she held steady for them. She loved it.

I bet she’d love hatching butterflies. I know science classes do it and I’ve read about other bloggers doing it with their kids, so there must be places to get the cocoons. I’ll have to look into it. In the meantime, I hear my little angel has been talking to Grandpa about the parakeets he breeds. Oh, the joys of a toddler with advanced communication skills and oodles of charm.

If you’d like ideas or inspiration for gardening with children, you may like this new blog series I stumbled across. I’m not entirely clear on the details yet, so click on the button to check it out for yourself. I’ve added the button to my sidebar, also, since this series will run through the summer.

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