Have you seen...

Garden Sunrise

A vine has covered my garden in the way that daylight creeps across the yard—
from the first tender rays in one corner, stretching and fanning out until only a few spots remain untouched, those safely hidden behind another.
If it were any other, I would pull it—yank its long reaching arms and winding fingers from my vegetable patch, where a few withering pumpkin plants struggle beneath the heat of an early August afternoon.
But it is milkweed.
Sand Vine.

Sand Vine, Cynanchum laeve
the other milkweed

This climbing milkweed, Cynanchum laeve, with its heart-shaped leaves trimmed pink at the stem and clusters of delicate white flowers spaced along its length feeds more Monarchs than the tough and leathery common milkweed standing just feet away in my field.

Sand Vine blossom

Sand Vine seed pods

In the first light of day, striped caterpillars cover it, coursing its twisted stems, cruising the pathway from one tender leaf to the next. Until, sated, they hang as chrysalides—luminous green charms across this heavy milkweed blanket.

Monarch caterpillar feeding on Sand Vine

Their appreciation is boldy stated—
orange wings cover my field.

Monarch nectaring on ironweed

"Have you seen...." is an effort to discover the unusual beauty in things not usually appreciated for their beauty.