This morning as I went out to check on my caterpillars I noticed that some were missing. I was concerned, as we had had a pretty violent thunderstorm last night so I was worried that perhaps they had been knocked, or blown off the fennel. I looked around and realized to my delight that they were fine, but they had begun the next stage in their lives. I found three one, coincidentally enough, on the butterfly weed



one on a fennel stalk that had fallen down



and the last on the gate of my arbor



I checked on the other caterpillars and they were all sleeping. Suddenly one twitched and arched its back, making it look for all the world like the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland.



at which point (there is no delicate way to put this, it did an enormous poo. (no I didn't take a photograph of that

Then the caterpillar set out on its journey down the fennel, in search of just the right spot. I wondered as I watched it what, if anything it thought of that, leaving what has been its entire world for its short life to venture out into the unknown. If they feel at all, then I should imagine it is fear, or perhaps, as I suspect at this point they are just driven by pure instinct. Without stopping once for a final snack he began to look for a suitable spot to begin his journey to becoming a butterfly. I am not sure what they look for when looking for a suitable spot, but it appeared to me that the process involved a lot of sniffing, and feeling with the nose and mouth.



If a spot did not look right then they moved on. (At this point I should let you know that I was monitoring three different caterpillars making this journey, which is why you see them in different places in the flower bed).



Once a suitable spot had been found then the caterpillar began to "mark" it, almost like a cat (I wonder if this is where the name comes from?) marks various parts of its territory (including its humans) by rubbing its cheeks against it. I speculated while watching this behavior that this part of the process had something to do with creating the silk that eventually would anchor the chrysalis to the chosen spot. However nothing could be seen by (my) human eye. I was delighted to discover, on uploading my photographs that this indeed was the purpose of the "marking" as you can clearly see the silk in this shot.



At one point the caterpillar reached all the way around the stalk to no doubt ensure that the silk was well anchored.



In addition to the "marking" there was also a move where the "forehead" was pressed hard into the spot, I am not sure what this was for, other than if you look at the completed chrysalis it is anchored at the head and tail and the center is away from the spot. Once the "marking" process was complete the caterpillar scrunched itself up in a chrysalis shape and sat motionless. All of a sudden the caterpillar would decide, for some reason unbeknownst to me, to turn around



Whereupon it would sit, in its chrysalis shape for a certain period of time before again turning around and sitting upright again. I have no idea what this phenomena has to do with but it is no doubt essential to the entire process as all three caterpillars that I was watching did the same thing.



Eventually this turning around behavior stopped and the caterpillar stopped moving entirely no doubt its journey from caterpillar to chrysalis had disabled it.



I have to admit that the entire thing was utterly fascinating and I am extremely grateful that I got to witness it. I am also delighted that all of the caterpillars are where I can monitor them to check on their progress, as in years past I could never find any of the chrysalises that resulted from my caterpillars.

So now we wait...

Not like most people would go shopping, for clothes, and shoes and stuff, I went food shopping, and not food shopping like driving to the local grocery store and buying food. Nope, I went to British Corner Shop.com. I spent a lot more money there than I really should have but when faced with a list of such delights as Vesta Chow Mein, and Pot Noodles what is a girl to do? For those who have not experienced the delights of Pot Noodles then there is nothing really that I can tell you, other than they are the most perfect food on the planet as far as I am concerned. They are dried noodles and soy protein and stuff in a plastic pot, to prepare all one has to do is to pour boiling water up to the mark into the pot, let stand for several minutes, add the soy sauce (in the case of chicken and mushroom) or ketchup (in the case of beef and tomato) and that is it, a complete meal, it is brilliant in its simplicity. I am absolutely bereft that there is no comparison here in the US.... sure there is ramen noodles but they really do not compare. To begin with you have to preapre them in a sauce pan, which completely usurps the simplicity thing, and to be honest ramen noodles taste like well never mind, but they bear no comparison to pot noodles. Next we get to Vesta Chow Mein, the king of foods, the most perfect meal that one has ever eaten, in my personal opinion. It comes in a box, with the chow mein meat (let us be truly honest here, when we are talking about meat we are talking about the majority of it soy protein, there is no meat involved here, no cows were harmed during the making of Vesta Chow Mein) and vegatables in one sachet, this you cook for 20 minutes in 500ml of boiling water, then you add the sachet of noodles, wide, flat rice noodles, at the same time you are doing this you heat the oil to fry the crispy noodles. As the noodles and chow mein mixture cook you fry the crispy noodles to a golden brown, then you pour the entire thing onto a plate, add soy sauce (it is supplied) and stuff your face full of a serving meant for two until you are unable to walk. If there is anything better in the world to eat than a vesta chow mein then I don't know what it is. Of course I am not including in this list the things that I would eat "in situ" ie in England "meat and potato pie, chips and peas" "Gammon, chips and peas" "Fish and chips" "chips with chip shop curry sauce" "pork pies" "cornish pasties" "Stovies" and the ultimate a "full english breakfast" Still, as it goes thanks to the British Corner Shop I will soon be feasting on the delights of vesta chow mein and pot noodles, not to mention Frey Bentos chicken and mushroom pie, shippams sardine paste and a hearty bowl of heinz oxtail soup. *sigh*.....

After a really hot day, where for the most part, my cats sleep under the cars or in the shade of the garage, the watery evening sunlight, just as the sun starts to set brings them out from their hiding places to catch the last rays of that evening sun. Almost en masse they find a spot in the garden where they can let those gentle rays get to their skin and they can feel the warmth. There is something quite special about watching a cat bask in the sun, it is almost spiritual, as if the cat, in a moment of worship, bows down to their god, and let it benevolence shine upon them. They bask, eyes half closed in reverence, roll on their backs so that their sparsely furred bellies can be warmed. Come tomorrow, when the temperatures will again reach the 90s they will retreat to the cool concrete of the driveway under the cars, until the evening sun again calls them to worship.


My oriental lilies are blooming right now, which is a joy to my heart and a curse to my husband's. Whereas I think the scent of oriental lilies is pure heaven he calls it "that stink" and while a single oriental lily can scent an entire garden, when there are several blooming at the same time it is impossible to escape. As it is I have oriental lilies blooming in both the front and back gardens right now so basically he cannot get away from the scent. Nevertheless, my heart is singing right now, they are a joy to behold.





The eating machines, aka the black swallowtail caterpillars are doubling in size every day, it is just incredible to see them, from the tiny, tiny egg from whence they came, to a tiny, tiny caterpillar that hatched from the egg, to the caterpillars they are today.... today they got bigger, and changed color, from a plain brown with a white stripe to the more familiar dotted pattern, eventually they will be huge, fat green, black and yellow eating machines that will eventually turn into a beautiful butterfly. All I know is that THIS year, I should not have to do an emergency run to Pender Pines nursery to get Dill plants or start pulling up carrots out of the veggie beds to feed them because I was smart and bought SIX fennel plants instead of two..... now lets see how prophetic that statement is.

If anyone is interested, all (or many) of my shots are available framed and matted (by my own fair hands) for a reasonable price. I say this only cause eventually my boss is going to retire and I am going to have to find something to do with my time and to make a living so I am thinking that perhaps I should get started now on this photography business and by the time he decides to retire I will be set. Anyhoo, if anyone is actually interested in a framed and matted shot (the majority of which are in black frames, with black matting and a gold or silver edge, hand titled and signed by me) then please let me know. They are not pricey, (for what they are) so please just let me know. We will now return you to your regular Critters by Britty in progress.

And no I do not mean the cereal. As I have said before, if one only takes a moment to look, then life is going on all around us. While we get in our cars and hurry to work or to wherever it is we have to go the grass at the side of the roads, as well as the drainage ditches, are simply a blurr to us, we pay them no mind, we notice them only when they are inhabited by a speed limit sign. Same goes with most gardens (not mine of course, mine is a horse of a different color so to speak). Most homeowners view their lawn (the single most useless invention in the history of man if you ask me, I mean what good is it?, other than to be a vast wasteland of needy, dependent grass which nurtures nothing but bad bugs and fireants, can you imagine the strides we could make in nature preservation if every single homeowner in the US turned their lawn over to wetlands, prairie, meadows, wildflower fields etc., it would be incredible, millions upon millions of acres right now are held hostage to grass, which is decapitated once or twice per week, fertilized into submission and pesticided to death, damn there is nothing more depressing than a well kept lawn.) Where the hell was I before I opened those brackets? Oh yes, gardens. Most people do not notice the life that is going on in their garden until it becomes "a pest" in the eyes of the world. In other words, for instance, one would not notice the absolute pure beauty of a Sphynx Moth but one would notice a tobacco horn worm on their tomatoes. I plant a ton of tomato plants, mainly due to the fact that I know I am going to lose some to tobacco (tomato) horn worms, but you know, I am willing to lose some tomato plants to make sure that I have an endless supply of sphynx moths, have you seen how beautiful they are? So it with that in mind that I plant Fennel, not because I like Fennel you understand (I have still not found a use for it in cooking and I like to cook), but I know that it is the host plant for the Black Swallowtail. Last year I planted two bronze fennel, feeling that it should be sufficient. However, it turned out that they must have been the ONLY bronze fennel within 100 miles of my house and every Black Swallowtail in reach laid eggs on them. Within weeks they were down to nubs and my poor caterpillars were quickly running out of food. A quick trip to Pender Pines was in order for emergency supplies of Dill (they will eat Dill and Carrots as well). I pulled up carrots from my veggie beds and stuck them in pots of water next to the Fennel nubs for them to eat, the purpose was to make sure that the caterpillars survived. So this year, having learned my lesson from last year I planted six Fennel plants, which, since being planted have grown huge and are in the process of flowering. In a "if you build it they will come" moment, the Black Swallowtails have been visiting



Of course then trying to catch a shot of the resulting egg is a task to say the least these things are TINY, but I think I finally got it....



The eggs recently hatched, and the teeny tiny caterpillars are now beginning their eating marathon, whereby they will eat all day, doubling in size every day until they get big enough to pupate.



This transformation is truly a wonderful sight to behold, and when I say these babies double in size I mean it. When I came home this evening the babies that hatched yesterday were already double the size they were yesterday, and tomorrow they will be bigger, and the day after that, well you understand.

Ahhhh there is so much life going on in my garden right now it is pure joy to behold. Tiny, tiny lives are beginning, and in my tiny, tiny way I am allowing them to begin. In the meantime out in your lawn, absolutely nothing is happening. It is something to think about.