The Very Hungry Caterpillar

4/2/2018

I have been thinking about the Eric Carle's children's classic about caterpillars. Our custodian Katherine and I have been carefully monitoring the emerging stages of a Monarch butterfly family forming in the milkweed plant in back of our church kitchen. A few weeks ago, Katherine photographed a beautiful Monarch butterfly laying her eggs and then had camera in hand when the resulting caterpillars appeared - thirteen of them. But the caterpillars managed to chew up most of the milkweed vegetation and when we viewed them last week, they had a look that said, "Is this all you have?” We didn't want "very hungry caterpillars," so I rushed over to Farm and Garden Nursery and came back with three more milkweed plants. The caterpillars were pleased and started munching away. As I wait for the next stage, I have been re-reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and hoping that I will get to see the metamorphosis from "hungry caterpillar" to "beautiful butterfly."
Diane Happy

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From the Garden Gate

Dr. Dick the Garden Doc used to write a monthly column for our newsletter. He has recently returned to continue the tradition on this blog with occasional comments by himself and his wife, Diane.

Authors:
Diane and Richard Happy

Diane and Dick have been Sarasota Unitarian Universalists since 1997. Both have been active participants, holding a variety of church offices and serving on a number of church committees.
Currently Diane heads up the volunteer church gardening crew and Dick is secretary of the Church Endowment Board.