I, too, am a newbie to this forum & am enoying the warm fellowship here.Want to add my Amen to the 'miracle to behold'; I Thank God above each time I release one of His beautiful creations, saying a prayer for its' safety on its' new life & journey, where ever it leads to. Am 63 yo happily married, retired RN, who has been a homebody since retiring due to health problems in '82, probably before most of you were born, so I feel like an 'ol timer. I feel as though I am going through my second childhood, which has turned out to be more fun, (what I remember of it), than the first. Got started in butterflies quite by accident on a trip out of town for a 'get-away' long w/e & visited a favorite plant buying spot, a State Farmers' Market. While browsing about looking for unusual plants to bring home, I heard one of the vendor's saying "They are Monarch butterfly eggs & caterpillars", which immediatly got my atttention. I went to his space & saw some plants, had no idea what they were, he said it was Milkweed, I bought one, it had a large cat on it & I knew nothing about cats, but figured with the web, I could research & find out what to do. This was 10 + years ago; the mw turned out to be bronze fennel, & the cats turned out to be a BSTs, which I gazed at for hours on end, watching the eggs & seeing my first one eating his first meal was like a 'Spiritual experience', as well as the first emerging BST, I had tears in my eyes. (Did the same thing first time I saw childbirth in nursing school!) Am a Christian, so it was like seeing the Master's hand at work, closeup & personal, if you know what I mean! The trip home was so funny, with that plant behind my hubby's head, in a clear heavy plastic plant sleeve; he was driving, & the fennel stuck up about 6 " above his head. I kept an eye on a large cat that was eating,just inches from his head, kept hearing a 'ping' every now & then, (sounded like something was hitting the plastic plant sleeve). Had no idea what it was, (hubby heard them too), he would say "What's that?" I replied "Dunno!", but found out when I got it home & saw more 'pings' which later I found out was frass! I had large long plant sleeves in my trunk, always prepared for plants, so as not to get a frown on hubby's face with the possibility of getting my car dirty. The cat kept my attention, & I kept looking back, saying 'Dear Lord, please, please, don't let him crawl on hubby's head". We arrived home after the 2 1/2 hr trip with no incidents, during which hubby kept asking me what I was looking at, to which I would mattter-of-factly reply, "My plant in the back." After unpacking the car; first thing was locating the 'mw' in my solarium, placing it in a cachepot & adding a small hand-made butterfly house that I had, making it quite attractive. After all was unpacked, I showed hubby "what I was looking at" on the trip home. The 3rd-4th instar BST was quite large, & he remarked "That was behind my head all the way home!" After having the 2 additions to our home, the solarium & a master suite, with decking running the length of the house with a large area in the center, I started collecting inside & outside birdhouses & an occasional butterfly house. That first year everybody in the family gve me b'fly & birdhouses for Christmas, & the collecting kinda got out of hand, they are everywhere! So began my passion for these lovely creatures. It took me several years to locate mw seeds, which are not native to our area & now my 'garden' or 'forest' has grown to more than 1,000 mw of many varities, fennel, parsley, Dutchman's Pipevine (first year, so I don't expect flowers, from what I have read about it)Moonflowers Angel's trumpets, many varities of nectar plants & a Catawba Worm Tree. (In our area, local word has it that the Catawba Worm Tree is supposed to be the host plant for the Luna Moth.) All of my plants are container-grown on my large deck out back of our home. Each season there tears of joy & sorrow, as some don't make it, & days when I have more than a dozen to release when hubby is in the backyard with our dog, his baby, it is a glorious time for me. I remember last year one Monarch was very hesitant to leave the pavilion, staying at the bottom while the others had lined up almost in a spiral 'take off' pattern, & I reached down & got her, checked to make sure she was okay, & held her on my finger in the sunlight, saying "Look at how beautiful the colors are! They look like somebody put glitter on her!" My poor hubby, who was hot & tired, was saying "Yeah, yeah, let it go, it will fly away". This beautiful lady flew to his cheek, & lit there just a bit! He was so surprised. I told him he just got his first 'Butterfly kiss!" He meekly smiled, called the dog, chuckling, picked her, & went in the house. You ladies know how our men are, you gottta love them, with all of their patience, putting up with our 'whims in life', for the most part supporting us in everything we do. Didn't mean to write a 'journal' here, but wanted to share how I got into this passionate hobby that has become a very important part of my life. Having several painful health problems, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, 3 failed back surgeries, being among them, it has been the greatest therapy, & God has richly blessed my life with the joy of butterflies, in fact locally I am frequently called "Butterfly Joy"..May God continue to bless all of you & thanks for having me as part of this great group.. Joy, from Coastal NC (Saw my first Monarch of this season 8-8, a male; he nectared on mw like he was starving, & gracefully flew away; y'day it was over-cast & t-storms in our area, so didn't see any more. Forecast is favorable for this week, so will be on the lookout for more). God Bless

Cute pics! Reminds me I better check my birdhouse on the patio. This morning I saw a chickadee sitting on top of it. It's really only for decoration but maybe she was thinking of moving in! Not sure it would be safe for them as the hole is quite large and predator birds could get in. It originally was blocked so birds didn't nest in it but that piece has fallen off. We have lots of trees and leave most snags in the woods for nesting as well and feel it's best for them to nest in their natural habitat.

Tina,Thanks so much sweetie : ) I received my box today and a very sweet card.No need to apologize. Heavens I wasn't worried.I absolutely love everything you sent! Tina sent me an awesome Tony Stewart Nascar Cooler Bag(You must have esp girl LOL Yes!! He and Jimmie are our favorites!)Inside the bag was an awesome birdfeeder(love this), thistle sock and suet cake(love these too).Not only do I love them... my backyardbirds think you are "super tweet" for thinking of them : )Also she sent me a box of Raspberry Zinger Tea,Thats my favorite tea ever : )A bag of mini plastic cups that will come in very handy now.I am in the process of potting up all my baby av's and they are perfect size and also 2 packs of flower seeds.Painted Daisy and Oriental Poppy.I am anxious to get these sowed. Thanks so much Tina....and Thanks Again Everyone For Making My February Reign So Special. I Love You All : )) Nancy

Here is my story about attracting bluebirds. About 30 years or so ago, there was an article in the National Geographic magazine about how the bluebird population was declining due to lack of suitable nesting spaces (old dead rotten trees). It included dimensions and directions for building a bluebird house that would be attractive to bluebirds, and restrict non-bluebirds. We had never seen any bluebirds around our place, even though they were the state bird. My husband went out to his little workshop, and measured and sawed and hammered, and put one of those birdhouses together. He went out to put it up, and as he was fixing it to the tree, there were two bluebirds flying around his head waiting to move in!!! So that was pretty exciting, and well worth it. And if you want to see bluebirds in your yard, I recommend putting up a house specifically designed for bluebirds. The worst that could happen is you will end up with a pair of bank swallows, but they are a lot of fun to watch too.