milkweed tell-all

post #179
       Way too much snow and ice on its way here.  Can't deal.  Decided yesterday that ranting was not an option.  I should instead put the path to my milkweed obsession on this blog -- even though it will take weeks to do so.  By then we will be closer to spring....
        My story begins June 23, 2013.
       The incentive:  a change of one letter in George Ella's manuscript for our alphabet book!  She took out M being for miners and mountains, and it became MILKWEED IN THE MEADOW.  My reaction was to run out to our meadow to get a milkweed photo before all the blooms finished.  That very day.  Nature changes a lot faster than we realize.
       Well, it turned out my curiousity gene kicked in big time.  I have stayed fascinated by this project for the last eight months. I am still amazed by the many discoveries I would not have even noticed had I not been paying close attention.  Stick around for those in the weeks to come.
        I have ended up with a great many milkweed photos. Today's photos are purely from the first three days.  Going by the numbers, it seems I took less than 80 photos altogether in that time, not all of milkweed.  But that is how I work.  I have never, ever just shot tons of images hoping I get a good one.  (The first day I shot in the RAW/jpeg format.)

Here goes:

NOT milkweed, but life in the meadow - vetch

very first of the milkweed images

a favorite of mine

double butterflies (not a monarch)

trying to show the milkweed plants within the crowded meadow, but to me it doesn't work all that well

         The first part of the photos were made in the meadow near our barn.  I soon noticed these few plants on the side of our driveway, in the flat section that crosses the pipeline that was put in in 1975.  The plants in the meadow did not last as well as these new ones did, but I never saw butterflies in them.  Of course, that doesn't mean there weren't any.  I could just have missed them.  I will call this location # 2.

       After making the last three images, I realized it was late (8:47 p.m.) and I remember saying to myself "Better check on location #1 before it gets any darker."  So my next photo was 7 minutes later - the time it took to drive our quarter mile driveway, grab my camera and walk down to where the meadow is:

I must have taken this photo on the way to the meadow....couldn't resist.

Here is another effort to show the milkweed in context.  Had there been some visiting butterflies, this photo would have revealed more than it currently does.  In my opinion.

     I am brazen enough to request you take a good look at each photo - the basis of everything I ended up seeing is right here.  Thank you.