To make an end is to make a beginning… {Gardening Chronicles 2012

“What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. “
~T.S Eliot

 

Oh these creatures.  Ravenous little buggies.

From the first one I spotted several years ago…after planting a parsley plant…I knew.

I knew that these caterpillars where not a typical garden pest but they just had to be destined to be something beautiful.
I let them stay.

and eat…and eat…and eat…

I now have them in mass.  I have a whole bed of parsley now that we put them all in when we find them.
We carry them in jars…home from the farm.
They love my dill and fennel and I refuse to really share those plants as freely as the parsley.

and place them in the parsley…so they can turn into the beautiful butterflies.
Haley got it in her mind that she wanted to see exactly what kindof butterfly they turned into.
So we dragged out the old aquarium and she started throwing them in there are well.

We found that within 2 days they usually create a chrysalis…a pretty one!

 We found that if they created a brown chrysalis they would not emerge as a butterfly…
but if they made the pretty green one then they emerged as a beautiful  Black Swallowtail.
My guess is they are not dead…just in diapause.
A state of waiting for emerging.  We will give them until next Summer to emerge before we give up hope.
BUT…we have had several emerge….

My favorite part of the emerging…they are slow.
And new….and allow you to take sometime to really admire their new found beauty.

Then we take them back over to the parsley bed…which also happens to have big butterfly bushes above the parsley.
We have been able to really watch the butterflies this year with these bushes!

We have even had lessons on butterfly procreation.
39 years under my belt and I had never observed butterflies….well making new future butterflies…lol!

I am thrilled to have these beautiful creatures sharing our yard…
I can’t wait until next year so we continue our butterfly watch
A few weeks ago I shared this picture on my Instagram feed….
Below it what I think of every time I see one of these miracles.

Life is at its best when you live it like a butterfly.
You go to sleep one night as a caterpillar who has worked and worked and worked to grow big and strong… 
Then one morning you wake up and realize God gave you these great big beautiful wings to fly to amazing new heights with.
Flowers and fruit you once wished to be able to reach are now yours to sail to…
You simply have to stretch out those new wings and take that scary first jump.