Butterfly Garden {Day 8}

Did someone say, day 8?

I simply couldn't help myself, I thought I'd stop in for a little hello.

Sometimes I have top rub my eyes in my disbelief of what this garden is doing.

It was dry cactus open land and empty garden beds.

Now it is full, especially with all the rain we had all month.

I've enjoyed doing it myself, it's so therapeutic.

Over the years I've found what plants thrive in this heat, and my elevation, and what does well without a ton of water.

You can always count on lantana to withstand the heat, as it trails down my walls below.

This year I decided to try to do my part to help the monarch butterflies.

I planted a row of milkweed, and they have beckoned every butterfly in the area to come over.

The Queen butterflies especially adore it.

There are so many butterflies, it is sort of hard to even absorb it all.

It's like a dream really, I stand out there amongst them and am in awe.

Two days in a row I rescued butterflies out of the pool.

They looked like they were gone, but the minute I pulled them out, they started to come back to life.

Nothing could make me happier.

And you should see the endless caterpillars growing.

It's so lovely.

The only thing is, the pumpkin vines exploded in size due to the rain, and I almost can't even get into the garden now in some places.

Normally I have a designated patch, but this year I dispersed them here and there.

The heat and lack of rain usually keeps the vines from going bonkers, but now it's a sea of vines, so crazy.

Of course, I leave it alone and look forward to all the pumpkin babes I'll be collecting.

There are so many new ones and several ready to come in already.

Below is a photo similar to a few days ago, only thing is…

The butterflies are allowing me to get closer and closer.

I really needed these butterflies.

What with everything going on in the world, they are a light.

I am normally a very jovial wacky and fun loving girl.

A sort of introverted extrovert, as I love my alone time too.

But the other side of me feels too much and is very sensitive to everything all around.

My daily wish is always for people to grow their compassion, and think of others more.

Throughout my life I have noticed so many things that could have turned out different if there was more compassion.

Sometimes, everything seems like a whirlwind around my head, and just going out and sitting with the butterflies makes all the difference.

I went up the hill to watch the full moon come over the mountains last night, it was spectacular.

I feel like I have sooo much too say, and nothing to say at all.

I am at a sort of interesting place in my journey.

I came here as a 30 year old with the mind of a 13 year old.

I am totally and completely different in so many ways, and the same in others.

The important things are so different, mainly because your priorities change so much.

For many years I stayed tucked in at the country house, growing huge gardens, making art and raising dogs.

I was really grounded and super content.

When I was younger I had been so utterly social, that I almost needed a break from the world.

And then one day, I woke up and I felt that I was busting out of my soul, like a tree growing out of its stake and ties.

It just happened, from one day to the next, or maybe it was ML urging me to go out and live it up.

I wanted to climb hills all day, go on airplanes again, have adventures.

I would go hiking for hours every day, get too much sun, listen to loud music.

It was incredible, I'd leave a bouquet of wildflowers on a wooden fence in the middle of nowhere, at the top of the hill every single day.

I needed these things, and so I ventured out of my safe nook and went everywhere, a lot on foot.

Then I went even farther, I journeyed back to the ocean where I lived as a kid.

And then, I went even farther than that.

I went across the ocean.

Sleeping in castles, losing myself in Irish gardens, going for walks in deep forests by myself in the middle of nowhere.

Being in the most mind blowing fairy tale settings you could ever dream of, ever.

Down a forest path, with ferns and ivy everywhere, ponds surrounded by hydrangea bushes the size of cars.

I had dinner at Le Poulbot in Paris, after carrying around a postcard someone had sent me of the façade a decade before.

Walked everywhere, even strolled under a pink sunset, through Marie Antoinette's secret country garden with the grand-sheep of her lambs.

I could go on and on…

And then all of a sudden, everything changed in the world, it was time to hunker down at home.

Instead of losing my mind I decided, as you know, to start a whole other garden.

It's funny the way things happen.

It was time to refind my coziness at home, to plant more seeds.

I suppose part of my destiny has always been to grow things.

And now there are butterflies everywhere, in those old forgotten hills of rotting cactus, that I handled with a shovel, seeds and a dream.

You never know what on earth will happen, who could ever expect any of it?

The crazy things going on, the unfathomable things, and amongst all that, trying to find your own strength and joy.

One thing I do know is that when things seem too much to bear, the best thing to do is allow yourself to feel.

Do not fear the feelings, do not push them away, just let them flow through you and around you.

Eventually they disappear like a plume of smoke.

I've spent years learning coping skills that I never had to have, and they are invaluable.

Life is a very beautiful and very strange place all at once.

Have you watched the documentary of Netflix called Fantastic Fungi?

Really fascinating.

Not sure why I threw that in there, haha.

 

It's so amazing, the wisdom age brings you.

I am enjoying that part of the journey a whole lot.

Anywho, those are my thoughts for the day I suppose.

 

Day 8, butterfly magic and rambling thoughts.

 

See you sooner than soon.

Love, Vanessa

 

A little video of my butterflies.

Sort of impossible to properly convey, unless you are standing amongst them <3