Milkweed – With a Future Monarch

We are spending a few days in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, camping by Traverse City. Today we spent time exploring the Mission Peninsula that goes north, splitting the Grand Traverse Bay. Instead of going to one of the many wine orchards for tasting and lunch, we decided to pack our favorite lunch for a picnic, and found a public launch site that had some benches overlooking the western arm of the bay. Afterwards I took photos of wildflowers growing along the shore. One of the flowers that was just starting to blossom was milkweed.

I decided to post a photo of a wildflower for Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge and when I processed the photo I found a surprise Monarch larvae. Kind of a bonus for Cee.

Floral Friday

My garden is all cleaned up – except for some mums in the front and a couple of hydrangeas that have beautiful fall-pink blossoms. Flowers don’t catch my eye like they did in the spring and summer, probably because the trees are all ablaze and steal the show. What does catch my attention are the seed pods and bursting seeds of the milkweed plant.

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