We have acres of milkweed in our pastures and woods. Great for monarch butterflies.

I have been searching all summer for a caterpillar or chrysalis, the pupa form, but with no luck.

So I resigned myself to taking photos of interesting milkweed pods, some of them smaller this year because of the drought.

And then I saw one! A monarch caterpillar in all its glory!

Can you tell which is the head end and which is the tail end?

I went for a walk in the pasture as it was getting dark.

There was a skeleton of a long-dead hawthorn tree.

When I turned around, the crescent moon was sinking in the west.

Later, much later, I sat under the night sky with a blanket wrapped around me, enjoying the constellations, shooting stars, the coyotes’ serenade, until the cloud cover spoiled it all and I went inside.