Playing in the Garden

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When times are tough and it's hard to find beauty in my life, I take comfort in nature. I look for the beautiful moments I find in little things.  

This week I found a caterpillar munching on a two year-old, flowering parsley plant.  I've trimmed this plant down once already and thought of just pulling him out all together as he's in the center of my square foot garden and taking up too much space.  Just as I was contemplating this once again, I spotted this beauty.  We believe he is a Swallowtail butterfly in progress and we can't wait to see him transform.  

We agreed not to move him or try to watch him in a jar.  We talked about how the caterpillar needs a lot of nutrition and this plant was the perfect plant for him to eat in our garden as we are not using it.  Meanwhile, Owen decided to make him a home, a little fairy garden of sorts in the garden bed.  Owen played there for a long time.  When he finished he wondered why the caterpillar wasn't coming down to his home. This gave us an opportunity to talk about how much caterpillars need to eat to survive and find the energy to transform into beautiful butterflies.  

I loved watching Owen play here while I puttered about the garden.  

Until next time...