Monarchs from The Book of August

In my world, August is the month of Monarch butterflies. Debbie’s second grade teacher gathered milkweed in late August with Monarch eggs attached to the underneath side and kept them in the classroom. The children would bring in fresh milkweed everyday to feed the caterpillars when they hatched as that is their preferred food. It was a wonderful lesson, with many implications. From that time on Debbie raised Monarchs nearly every summer. It was a miracle watching them hatch, grow, them make their beautiful chrysalis and finally emerge as glorious butterflies. She’d feed the new hatchlings with sugar water on the end of a needle, until their wings were fully pumped up and off they’d fly.

Later, in 1991 when Robin and I were married on the deck we had just built, a Monarch flew encircling Robin and Mary and I during our exchange of vows. One fall in the early years, while walking through the yard at dusk, we looked up and several dozen Monarchs were hanging in the lower branches of a maple tree. It was most spectacular to discover them on their migratory journey to Mexico. Debra is always flitting about in the guise of the Monarch.