Drying out and the visit of a real Monarch

Maybe a little time to dry out finally. After getting nearly 19" of rain since August 1st, a string of dry days is a welcome sight. It still amazes me how Mother Nature evens out the extremes to create an "average". We bake under a drought in May through July. Some of my neighbors who chose not to water their grass lost the south facing portions of their yards. Now with the pendulum swinging the other way, those same brown lawns now washing away with every rain.

This past Saturday the dog, (who wasn't much help by the way), and I spotted a monarch butterfly fluttering around the back yard. The neighbors must have thought I was nuts doing the army crawl through the grass trying to sneak up to get the shot I wanted.


The dog (our three year old black lab foster child) thought I was playing some type of game as he also went scooting across the yard on his belly next to me. THAT would have been some funny video. Well, once the dog-o-instincts kicked it, a good old roll in the grass was needed. He felt better but the butterfly wasn't going to hang around with all the commotion of 75lbs of canine flopping around for a few seconds topped off by a good old full body shake. Thankfully I got a few shots before the monarch hit the breeze for a less stressful atmosphere.