Butterflies

Most everyone knows I love butterflies.  Pictures, clothes, avatars:

 

And rainbows added in sometimes :)

 

I'll save the rainbow story for another time, though.

 

2 days ago I was walking our dog Mimi (she has butterflies on her blog, too!) on the sidewalk outside  our house and a beautiful blue butterfly was lying there, one wing on the sidewalk.  I don't know if it was dead but I was sure it was dying.  I have never seen a butterfly near our house, especially not one so beautiful.  I didn't want to take a picture because I didn't want to somehow invade his privacy.

He was the most beautiful blue and looked like a monarch butterfly.  I don't even know if they have those here in my area so I thought maybe someone brought him here from somewhere else.

He looked something like this, though:

The day before yesterday, I decided it would be ok to take a picture and when I went out, he'd turned all black :(  Later in the day, someone/thing had broken his poor wings and scattered them over the grass.

But today, I saw another butterfly - an amber monarch:

 

Maybe all those flowers DH has been planting all these years are finally attracting butterflies and I'll see them every day.

What a treat!